Subject: 'austraLasia' # 344

FIJI: SALESIAN COMMUNITY OFFERS SHELTER

Julian Fox

SUVA: 29th May -- The Salesian Community today has opened its doors to a number of Indo-Fijian Catholic teacher trainees from the local college which was evacuated thisafternoon. Today is Ratu Sir Lalu Sukuna Day, a day normally reserved for the celebration of Fiji's greatest modern-day chief and statesman. Instead it has became a day of shame and spiralling violence around the capital, Suva. The Corpus Christi Teachers College, at which I teach English, has decided to celerbate the day anyway, with cultural dancing and events. All was going well until the midafternoon when the Ministry of Education announced that all schools in the nation were to close and not to resume until further notice - next week maybe, if things have settled down. Then came a series of threatening phone calls to the College indicating that the College would be attacked today and treated in the same way as Fiji One (Fiji's only television station was attacked and all its equipment destroyed, last night in a spate of violence which saw one policeman dead).

The Director of Catholic Education came up to ask the College to close and for all students to leave the premises before nightfall. The several Indian students at the College, who live in outlying areas and on other islands, were seeking shelter. Our community has provided this for them for as long as they need. Tonight a curfew has been imposed to last for 48 hours, so there will be no movement outside the grounds of our house, and classes also at the seminary will not be able to take place.

In the meantime, with curfew imposed and the army out on the streets to ensure that it is kept, we expect the city to be quiet tonight. In the absence of TV, we need to rely on radio for information as to events as they occur.

We are safe here. The difficult action is taking place in the square kilometre or so around parliament house which happens to house most of the theological and other Catholic institutions. Our own community is well away from all that action, so we don't want people concerned about us. There is unavoidable concern about the overall situation in the country at the moment. We all feel the tension, and concentration on other things that matter is just that bit more difficult. Your prayers and moral support have been most gratefully received. I was in Lautoka and Ba in the West of the island of Viti Levu yesterday, and life is virtually normal there. It is just Suva experiencing these immediate problems.

We do hear (on the 'coconut radio' aka the rumour mill which runs hot in the absence of truthful reporting)that the Bose Levu Vaka Turaga - the Chiefs - and the Coup leaders have reached some agreement. The imposition of the 48 hour curfew suggests that some of the people may be less than happy with whatever that agreement is.

I shall be in touch, assuming the Internet Services are left unscathed.