Tribes occupying dam hold army at spear-point

The Fijian army is being held at spear-point by tribal landowners who have occupied the country's main hydro-electric power station…

The Fijian army is being held at spear-point by tribal landowners who have occupied the country's main hydro-electric power station in the mountainous interior. They are demanding £10 million sterling cash compensation from the government.

In the most awkward civil disturbance on Fiji's idyllic tropical islands since the military coup of 1987, villagers living around the Monasavu dam have sworn to fight to the death for "rent" of their lands to build the 15-year scheme which supplies 90 per cent of the country's electricity.

Some 200 soldiers and riot police are positioned behind roadblocks erected by tribesmen, allowed access only under the escort of barefoot warriors.

"We have the spirit, we have the clan, we have the power. We can beat the gun," said Chief Adrea Vasuitoga, spokesman for the area's seven yavusa (tribes), some 3,500 people. "We are going to fight with spears, axes and clubs."

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The landowners' three-week occupation of Fiji's most prestigious developmental project comes as the government is beset by sabotage of the country's crucial sugar cane harvest. Hundreds of tons of sugar cane have been burned by farmers demanding subsidies following drought, devaluation of the currency and the withdrawal of EU sugar concessions.

The government has been playing down the Monasavu dispute, insisting the compensation was invested for the landowners by the Native Land Trust Board and that chiefs agreed to this. However, a cabinet sub-committee is now reviewing the landowners' claims and is expected to come up with a cash offer tomorrow.

The president of the Fijian nationalist Vanua Tako Lavo opposition party said people were ready to "rise up" and overthrow their rulers. "The government has been robbing the people of everything since 1970 - of forest, gold and minerals," claimed Mr Iliesa Duvuloco, from his villa in Suva.

Comments attributed to the Prime Minister, Mr Sitiveni Rabuka, in which he called the landowners "unreasonable" appear to have inflamed matters. "They've waited for years. I do not see why they can't wait a little more," the Fiji Sunday Times reported him as saying.