Fiji’s Truth Commission Seeks Healing After Decades of Turmoil

Fiji is a Pacific Island nation renowned for its tourism industry, but it has also endured four armed coups and 38 years of political instability. Credit: Julie Lyn

Fiji, a nation located west of Tonga in the central Pacific, is renowned for its natural beauty and beach resorts. But for 38 years, it has endured a political rollercoaster of instability, with four armed coups that overturned democratically elected governments and eroded human rights.

Now, following a peaceful transition of power at the 2022 election, Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka and his coalition government want to address the past through a Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) to pave the way for a more peaceful and resilient future.

The commission will “facilitate open and free engagement in truth-telling regarding the political upheavals during the coup periods and promote closure and healing for the survivors,” Rabuka, who led the first coup, told parliament before supporting legislation that was passed in December last year. Now he has pledged to oversee the country’s reconciliation and return to democratic norms.

The TRC is tasked with investigating what happened during the coups d’état of 1987, 2000, and 2006, related human rights abuses, and the grievances that have driven the relentless struggle for power between Fiji’s indigenous and Indo-Fijian communities. Its focus is on truth-telling and preventing a repetition of conflict; it will not prosecute perpetrators of abuses or provide reparations to victims.

“This commission aims to serve the people of Fiji to come to terms with your own history… the purpose is not to put blame and to deepen the trauma and the difficulties, but to help the people of Fiji to move on for a better future for everyone,” Dr Marcus Brand, the TRC chairman, who has extensive experience with transitional justice initiatives and held senior roles in the United Nations and European Union, said in January.

He is joined by four Fijian commissioners: former High Court Judge Sekove Naqiolevu, former TV journalist Rachna Nath, former Fiji Airways Captain Rajendra Dass, and leadership expert Ana Laqeretabua.

Florence Swamy, Executive Director of the Pacific Centre for Peacebuilding, a non-governmental organization based in the capital, Suva, told IPS that the TRC is important for building trust in the country, where many people still experience fear and anxiety about the violence they witnessed.

“As a first step, it is creating a safe space for people to talk about what happened to them,” she emphasized.

Fiji’s political turmoil has roots in the past. British colonization in the nineteenth century was accompanied by policies intended to strengthen indigenous land rights and prevent dispossession—rights that were reinforced in Fiji’s first constitution at Independence in 1970.

At the same time, Fijian society was irrevocably changed by the organized immigration of Indians to work on sugar plantations and boost the development of the colony. By the mid-twentieth century, the Indo-Fijian population was larger than the indigenous community, and their demands for equal rights increased.

“Fijian Indians were brought to the country, in many cases, under false pretenses of better work and wage opportunities, to develop the economy of Fiji… while indigenous Fijians were hardly consulted about such a momentous decision,” Dr Shailendra Singh, Head of Journalism at the University of the South Pacific in Fiji, told IPS.

Soon, the country’s politics were mired in a fierce contest for power. In 1987, Rabuka, then an officer in the Fiji military, led the overthrow of the first elected Indo-Fijian-led government under Prime Minister Timoci Bavadra.

Rabuka then became Prime Minister from 1992 to 1999 before another Indo-Fijian-led government, headed by Mahendra Chaudhry, was voted in. This triggered a second coup instigated by nationalist George Speight in 2000, during which the government was held hostage in the nation’s parliament for weeks. Then, in 2006, Frank Bainimarama, head of the armed forces, orchestrated the third coup, which he claimed was necessary to eliminate corruption and divisive policies in the government of the day, presided over by Prime Minister Laisenia Qarase. For the next eight years, he oversaw an authoritarian military government until democratic elections were held again in 2014.

The coups inflicted a significant human cost. Lawlessness, inter-community violence, military and police brutality, and arrests and torture of people critical of the regime increased after 2006.

Three years later, Amnesty International called for “an immediate halt to all human rights violations by members of the security forces and government officials, including the arbitrary arrests, intimidation and threats, and assaults and detentions of journalists, government critics, and others.” It also called for the repeal of the Public Emergency Regulations imposed by the government in 2009 that led to impunity for state officials involved in abuses.

Today, the demographic balance has shifted again in the wake of an outward exodus of Indo-Fijians, who now comprise about 33 percent of Fiji’s population of about 900,000, while Melanesians constitute about 56 percent. But societal divisions remain entrenched, and the past has not been forgotten.

The commission is now preparing to hold hearings over the next 18 months. Rabuka has promised to be one of the first to testify about his involvement in the political upheavals.

“I will swear to tell everything—the truth… I want to continue to live with a clear conscience. I want people to know that at least they understand my reasons for doing it,” he told the media in January. But the TRC also promises to place victims and survivors at the center of its mission, claiming that “their lived experiences are vital to fostering accountability, encouraging healing, and building a more united and compassionate society.”

However, there are voices of caution, too, warning of the risks of reviving memories of conflict and pain, and the need to prevent this from inflaming divisions.

While experts in the country speak of the need to go beyond the TRC and tackle structural issues of inequality and disenfranchisement—which have driven community grievances—“to make everyone feel a sense of belonging and loyalty to the country of their birth,” Singh said.

In particular, “indigenous fears concerning political dominance in Fiji” and “Indo-Fijians’ feelings of being marginalized by the state and not treated as equal citizens” need to be addressed, she continued.

The Fijian armed forces, which played a decisive role in executing the coups—often justifying their actions as protecting Fiji’s internal order—are also critical to the success of the country’s return to democratic governance.

In 2023, an internal reconciliation process began, aimed at ending military intervention in the country’s politics and elections. In April, during an official meeting with the TRC, the military leadership pledged “to ensure that past mistakes are not repeated, and that its role as a guardian of Fiji’s constitutional order remains anchored in service to all citizens, regardless of ethnicity, background, or political belief.”

After the commission concludes its estimated two years of work, it will make recommendations in its final report for public measures and policy reforms to support the country’s social cohesion. Here, Swamy emphasizes that it is crucial the recommendations do not remain on paper but are acted upon.

“In terms of the recommendations, who will be responsible for them? Will they ensure that the recommendations are implemented? And what mechanisms will be put in place to make sure that institutions are held accountable?” she declared.

Looking into the future, Swamy said she would like to see her country become one “where everyone feels safe, where there is equal opportunity… a country where everyone can realize their potential.”