“And any responsible Government or Party needs to say that any destabilisation is not good for the country. Everything is under control but the fact is that destabilisation is not good for the country. Any political party which is interested in the progress of this country needs to condemn such activities. These people are of course innocent unless proven guilty but it does not mean that a Party cannot comment that any form of destabilisation is bad for the country.” - Aiyaz Sayed Khaiyum attacking other political parties
From Fijileaks Archive:
AIYAZ SAYED KHAIYUM has come full circle. He first came to our attention in 1987, and later in 1988, notably as a member of The Democracy 18, a group of 18 (not all Indo-Fijians) who publicly defied coupster Sitiveni Rabuka's decrees and protested in Suva's Sukuna Party on 14 May 1988. He, along with the other protesters, was arrested and locked up at the Suva police station. The protesters were bailed the next day, Sunday, and on Monday fronted court. They were all subjected to degrading treatment when an old police truck was parked outside their cells and the engine revered so that smoke pumped into their police cells.
The Bomb-Maker of 10 Bakshi Street
On 14 May 1987 Rabuka and his racist henchmen (including two present Bainimarama/Khaiyum regime Cabinet Ministers Ratu Inoke Kubuaobla and Filipe Bole) had turned the lives of Indo-Fijians upside down; to be precise, the coup happened 108 years to the day when their Indian indentured labourer ancestors had arrived in Fiji on 14 May 1879. The young Khaiyum was then a trainee television producer at the Kerry Packer Channel Nine-owned Television Fiji office on Gordon Street.
Unlike native Fijians who melted away after the 2006 coup, the Indo-Fijians and their sympathizers were a well-organized and determined group after the 1987 coups. It was agreed to take the fight to Rabuka and his regime, even if it meant bloodshed and violence on a large scale. We are well aware of the tons of weapons - The Guns of Lautoka - that was shipped to Fiji to overthrow the Rabuka government. Hardly anything is known about Khaiyum and his bombers.
During the early stages of the coup, the Indo-Fijian opponents of the coup needed a 'coalition of the willing', to borrow a political phrase used to describe collective participants who came together to topple dictator Saddam Hussein. Khaiyum came forward and took charge of making homemade bombs, from his garden shed at Bakshi Street in Suva.
TO BE CONTINUED
The Bomb-Maker of 10 Bakshi Street
On 14 May 1987 Rabuka and his racist henchmen (including two present Bainimarama/Khaiyum regime Cabinet Ministers Ratu Inoke Kubuaobla and Filipe Bole) had turned the lives of Indo-Fijians upside down; to be precise, the coup happened 108 years to the day when their Indian indentured labourer ancestors had arrived in Fiji on 14 May 1879. The young Khaiyum was then a trainee television producer at the Kerry Packer Channel Nine-owned Television Fiji office on Gordon Street.
Unlike native Fijians who melted away after the 2006 coup, the Indo-Fijians and their sympathizers were a well-organized and determined group after the 1987 coups. It was agreed to take the fight to Rabuka and his regime, even if it meant bloodshed and violence on a large scale. We are well aware of the tons of weapons - The Guns of Lautoka - that was shipped to Fiji to overthrow the Rabuka government. Hardly anything is known about Khaiyum and his bombers.
During the early stages of the coup, the Indo-Fijian opponents of the coup needed a 'coalition of the willing', to borrow a political phrase used to describe collective participants who came together to topple dictator Saddam Hussein. Khaiyum came forward and took charge of making homemade bombs, from his garden shed at Bakshi Street in Suva.
TO BE CONTINUED
