email: karere@maorinews.com

Fiji Coup Supplement

 

30th June 2000
Australian Council of Trade Unions Resolution
passed at Wollongong, NSW on 29th June 2000

The ACTU Congress, representing all Australian Unions, condemns the attempted overthrow of the democratically elected government of Fiji by terrorists wielding guns.

The upsurge of violence and terrorism in a number of countries in the South Pacific region highlights the need for Australian government to pay greater attention to this area and to encourage closer links between Australia and regional communities.

The ACTU Congress expresses its abhorrence of the actions of the terrorist thugs led by George Speight which included:

• seizing the Fijian Cabinet at gunpoint and threatening to kill his hostages unless his demands were met

• a violent assault on Prime Minister Mahendra Chaudhry and his son by a gang of thugs resulting in serious injuries to both men

• calling for Fijians of Indian descent to be stripped of their political rights and commercial opportunities

• being involved in the physical assaults and destruction of property which have taken place in and around Suva and elsewhere in Fiji

The ACTU resolves to continue to support the efforts of the Fijian labour movement to oppose those associated with George Speight and it joins with all those opposed to racism and supporting democracy in Fiji.

We undertake to work together with FTUC, ICFTU-APRO and other union councils in the region to campaign for the restoration of the 1997 Constitution and the Chaudhry Labor (sic) Government.

Fiji Coup Supplement