Conservative Alliance (Fiji) - Arrest of CAMV Members

Arrest of CAMV Members

In 2004, a number of high-profile members of the Conservative Alliance were arrested and charged with treason for their roles in the 2000 coup. On 6 August 2004, Vice-President Seniloli and Deputy Speaker Vakalalabure were convicted and sentenced to terms of four and six years' imprisonment respectively. Youth, Employment, and Sports Minister Leweniqila was acquitted; Justice Nazhat Shameem accepted his defence that he had been coerced into taking an illegal oath of office during the coup.

Anxious to retain the support of his coalition partner, and shore up his electoral base in the Bau-Tailevu region, in which Seniloli is an influential chief, Prime Minister Qarase said that he was "dismayed by the severity of the sentences" handed down. His government indicated, however, that it would not interfere with the due process of law. On 29 November 2004, however, Attorney General Qoriniasi Bale announced that the government had decided to parole Seniloli on health grounds, in return for his resignation.

A similar scenario unfolded in the trial of Ratu Lalabalavu, the party leader, and Senator Ratu Josefa Dimuri, also a party member. On 3 April 2005, Lalabalavu and Dimuri were convicted of unlawful assembly for their role aiding and abetting the 2000 coup by visiting rebels at the Sukanaivalu Barracks on 4 July that year, and were sentenced to eight months' imprisonment. They were released on parole after serving just eleven days of their sentences.

Opposition politicians charged that the release of Seniloli, Lalabalavu, and Dimuri was for political reasons, as the six votes of the Conservative Alliance are needed to maintain the government's parliamentary majority. The military also criticized their release. This led to a series of exchanged in April 2005, with the Conservative Alliance accusing the military of meddling in politics, and the military in turn charging that Alliance politicians included many who had "created havoc" in the 2000 coup. In a strongly worded statement on 25 April 2005, army spokesman Captain Neumi Leweni declared, "The RFMF would like to remind the CAMV that they were the very people who created the havoc from which the country is still trying to recover."

Trials of persons implicated in the 2000 coup, many of them Conservative Alliance members, are continuing.