Ultra-Nationalists defy army, police

Ultra-Nationalists defy army, police

Thu, 1 Feb 2001 21:22:46 +1200 Issue No: 437 1 February 2001 PEOPLE'S COALITION GOVERNMENT, FIJI visit our website: http://www.pcgov.org.fj

A group of ultra-nationalists led by the SVT has openly defied the warnings given by the army and the police to stop making statements which can incite violence, or make threats of bloodshed.

The army has over the past week warned the citizens to not to make statements which threaten peace or which incite civil unrest. Yesterday the army repeated its warning saying that while in movies there always were happy endings, in real life this was not the case. It also warned, according to today's Fiji Sun, the politicians to exercise restraint in their utterances. The army also stated that if people continue to make such comments, "they could be remanded".

But so far no one has been remanded, let alone investigated or charged.

Moreover, defying the warnings, the New Nationalist Party again threatened bloodshed and violence. The Party, an amalgam of SVT and splinter political groups, told today's Fiji Sun that any "attempt to bring back the 1997 Constitution will result in more havoc and bloodshed".

On Sunday, another spokesman of the group, Esira Rabuno stated over national TV that he could not guarantee that the group will not resort to civil unrest if the Court of Appeal decision was against the regime.

The open defiance of the army and the police by the political grouping is now interpreted as a cry wolf phenomena - that the army has so far issued so many warnings without any concrete action that the warnings are now seen as jokes.

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