Beaten with gun butts and forced to run, doctor recalls soldiers’ brutality

A Suva doctor told the Fiji Truth and Reconciliation Commission (FTRC) he was beaten with gun butts and forced to run from the University of the South Pacific to the Chinese Embassy area after soldiers interrupted a student gathering in 1987.

Dr Rajeshwar Maharaj testified at the Suva Civic Centre today, recounting how soldiers arrived in a truck and attacked members of the University of the South Pacific (USP) Indian Student Association without warning.

“All of a sudden, a group of soldiers, they came in a big truck, and they just started beating us with their gun butts, and just started making us run on the road,” Dr Maharaj said.

“From the University of South Pacific, they made us run right through there, to the place where the Chinese Embassy is, just near that place.”

Dr Maharaj, who now runs a medical practice at Laucala Beach, was a first-year medical student when the May 1987 coup happened.

He said students had gathered to discuss the difficult situation following the coup when soldiers received word of their meeting and responded with violence.

“They were beating us up with their gun butts. And after that, they didn’t say much, and all they said was, do not say anything,” Dr Maharaj said.

He also witnessed violence at Albert Park in Suva after a gathering at Sukuna Park, where about 20 men attacked a small group of elderly Indo-Fijians, women and youth.

“They just started dashing old people, and a lot of women, and they just started punching, and these people were just falling to the ground,” he said.

An army truck arrived just in time to prevent further violence.

Dr Maharaj said the political upheavals had set Fiji back many years and created deep social problems including domestic violence and drug abuse.

He recommended the commission focus on building relationships between iTaukei and Indo-Fijians and promoting equal opportunities for all qualified citizens.

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