Background information on Women and Peace initiatives in Fiji
Compiled by Sharon Bhagwan Rolls,
Coordinator/Producer-Director femLINKpacific: Media Initiatives for Women

“On May 19 2000, I walked into the city, as I usually did, to the office of the National Council of Women, (then) located on the ground floor of the Fiji Young Women’s Christian Association Resource Center. I was well aware that another protest march against the People’s Coalition Government was taking place that morning. I even watched it go by.

I can’t remember what time I found out that the Government has been overthrown. But it was because my parents phoned me and told me. I insisted my dad not drive into the city area. We immediately began to monitor the radio reports from Parliament. …Reports of riots, looting and general chaos emerged and as the YWCA kept its doors open to provide safety and shelter for anyone needing it, friends and family kept in touch with us, urging us to leave the city area, to get home safely…a YWCA friend, Tupou, phoned and insisted that someone walk me home – despite my protests she also insisted that she would “baby-sit or was it coup-sit” me that night! As I walked home a few hours with a young man keeping me company, for my own safety, I have to admit that I felt fear, like I had never felt – it was not exactly fear for myself, it was fear of what had happened and for what would follow ……... That night, Tupou and I watched the television news and special reports together. Neither of us said too much. I felt a weird numbness. It was on the TV screen, it was on the BBC World News, there were the live mobile-phone reports on both radio networks - it was happening, here at home, again.

Ironically, in 1987 Tupou and I were also together on May 14th, in Suva, bizarre coincidence? Possibly, but it strengthened me to think that whilst the coup perpetrators were espousing racist political rhetoric, a trusted friend and I, sharing another curfew, worked on the first press statement that the National Council of Women Fiji would issue the next day, May 20th. We walked back into a very different city the next day.”
Communicating a Culture of Peace.

fem’LINKpacific was founded in September 2000, shortly after the country was again lurched into another crisis -- the illegal overthrow of an elected government. The coup d’état took place only 13 years after a similar takeover, twice in 1987. The coups of 1987, however, were led by a military man, Lieutenant Colonel Sitiveni Rabuka, while that of May 2000 was by a civilian – a failed businessman, George Speight, who held Prime Minister Mahendra Chaudhry and 17 other hostages in the parliament complex for 56 days. Among the demands of Speight and his followers was that Fiji’s constitution be replaced so that Indo-Fijians (descendants of indentured labourers taken to Fiji from India in the colonial period) would be excluded from the government. The takeover triggered rioting and looting in the streets of the capital, Suva, which distracted the police and highlighted that all was not well. As the hostage crisis progressed, the violence spread to rural settlements outside Suva, and we became aware of the fear being injected into our communities, especially in light of the persecution and subsequent displacement of farmers from Dawasamu and Muaniweni.

Women were instrumental in maintaining a degree of calm and infusing hope to the people during those tense weeks. The National Council of Women-Fiji issued our first media statement denouncing the coup the next day, Saturday May 20th and then mobilised the network of women’s groups in Suva to gather for a Peace and Prayer Vigil the following day. From Sunday May 21st, a multiethnic group of women held a daily vigil throughout the 56-day hostage crisis. True, we were not without our own tensions and fears, though this was insignificant compared with the strength generated by the women’s coming together daily. The “Mothers in White” who gathered to pray for the hostages and the women who wrote letters of support multiplied hope upon hope.

Through the Women’s Action for Democracy and Peace initiative (WAD’aP) we undertook a range of activities – ongoing media statements – the Women In Black and Blue Ribbon campaigns – attempts to stage Peace Walks (after all protest marches were banned) – the Women’s Letter – the WAD’aP Kids Creative Expressions campaign - and we wrapped up our daily Peace Vigil initiative on July 24th (what was supposed to be the Constitution Day Holiday) with the Blue Ribbon Peace Weekend, which included a Peace Jam on the Saturday July 22nd.

The Women’s Letter was a series of strategies designed to assist the Military Council (which had the executive authority at the time) to address the long-term impact and consequences of the crisis. It also was a reminder to maintain a gender perspective in the future developments of the period of reconciliation and reconstruction: On Saturday June 17, 2000, a delegation of nine women from the NCWFiji, led by the NCWF Vice President Nisha Buksh and leaders of other women’s groups including Taufa Vakatale (President of the Adi Cakobau School Old Girls’ Association) and Susana Evening (President of the Catholic Women’s League), met with the Military Council at the Republic of Fiji Military Forces Headquarters at Delainabua. We presented the Women’s Letter and outlined its content to Commander Voreqe Bainimarama and his officers.

Women from the Peace Vigil share their stories with femLINKpacific’s Associate Producer Peter Sipeli during the production of femTALK Keeping Watch:

Rachel Bhagwan: Prayer and action go together and women are strong people and it was timely and it was there were we had real good cross section of women in our assembly and it was really good that, especially people supporting Sharon as the secretary for the national council of women and Tupou as the immediate past present of the NCW and our affiliates and who have some real dynamic strong, forceful strong women as presidents as leaders so I was really happy to hear that the idea of starting WAD'aP and we all wanted to give it full support so it was good it was timely, it was important that some action should be taken and what they did as, you know we were kept up to date during the vigils on what the NCW was doing, all the messages, we were happy to sign the petitions that were being sent to Parliament to Speight to RFMF and to the president's wife so, I was happy that all the right actions were being taken. Our women leaders were moving forward, there was no, it was all these action was needed.

Tupou Vere: On Saturday (May 20, 2000) we gathered quite early at the NCW office, Sharon, Nina and I and we talked about preparing statements on behalf of the NCW and the Nina was the Vice President of the YWCA she also was consulting with her president Amelia Rokotuivuna as to what would be the statement on behalf of the Fiji YWCA because of the coup that was why we gathered that morning and the idea of a vigil was bought up that Nina felt it was good timing because of this fear and just not aware of what is taking place that we need to fellowship and spend time you know prayerfully to god in what sort of situation we are confronted with and that was the idea on Saturday and did it on the Saturday. And we considered the venue, where it could be held, what time but we did not have any firmer plans. Then on the 21st on Sun morning I was woken up before 7 with a call from

Claire Slatter actually NCW help in a vigil organize a lunch hour vigil. I shared with her our discussions the day before with Sharon and Nina and we said we were thinking along the same lines but we were not sure in terms of security whether we could have this and we talked about possible venue somewhere central, then I did say to her that I would speak to Sharon and get back to her on how we were able, managing with the church. So after a few phone calls around we were finally able to get a church before 9.00am Sunday morning and we were very grateful that Fr Cama the head of the parish in Suva at Holy Trinity Anglican Church readily agreed when we approached him and that was the beginning of the peace vigil organized on the 21st on Sunday; : It gave me personally a chance to be with friends and colleagues and people from all walks of life to come and share prayerfully our hurt and also trying to find a way out of this crisis and you know I look forward to those lunch hour vigils because provided for me, it bought calm and peace to me personally because I was with people who I felt was very concerned with the fate of our country and we gathered a lot of solidarity and support from each other and the vigil was a place where also anyone could share their thoughts, poems, personal experience of how their being effected also a time where we could share with what further actions we could do so there was a lot of bonding at that time and with people you would be meeting for the first time that for me was the vigil was very helpful on a personal front and in terms of the kind of work women’s organizations are trying to do as their position and reaction to the situation.

Susana Evening and Tulia Naisara of the Catholic Women’s League were instrumental in the staging of the “Blue Ribbon Peace Vigil”: As a Christian woman organization one of our main objectives is the spiritual development of each human being and to get people from different background different cultural ethnic group to come together in solidarity to pray for one main objective is to pray for peace. I think it was a great initiative o the national council of women, to pray on our own I don’t find it, you find it lonely and to get other women’s groups to come together we feel good at peace because we are sharing with one another what we are concerned about and this is something we are really happy when we participate in when we pray with other ethnic groups especially our Indian groups we feel that are the ones we really suffer so much not so much us the Fijian woman. But we feel to pray with other ethnic groups, different groups we feel we are sharing our concern with one another.

Women and Community media initiatives for Peace: the femLINKpacific Story

Daily, we consume stories of conflict from all over the world. But more and more, it seems media is selling us nothing else but conflict. International media treat us to their own perspectives on the tides of internal and external conflicts, and the social and economic impact of such conflicts, without their historical context or the benefit of local analysis. Local media, meantime, focuses on the antics of “honourable” members of parliament, echoing not only their political rhetoric but also highly racist remarks that amplify their countries’ social instability. Whatever happened to the stories of conflict resolution, peace-building initiatives and the promotion of racial tolerance, goodwill and understanding?
Where are the stories of peace? Peace is not just about the absence of war. Peace is about our lives at home and in our communities.

How can we make sure that the stories of peace, which take into account the post-conflict development needs of the country, find their way into our homes, communities and society? One can not help ask what happened to the tremendous investments of government agencies and other development groups promoting media training and supporting media freedom in providing a balanced perspective, whether on the issue of health, environment, gender, etc. Such investments should also clarify the link between women’s peace initiatives and the country’s development. But maybe Conflict sells and Peace does not.

Coordinating the peace vigil put me in touch with media organisations, local and international. I was not surprised that while the local dailies carried our media releases, it was the international media that was drawn to look behind the scenes of the peace vigil. In doing so, they found a window to women-in-community perspective of the crisis. On the other hand, many of the local media practitioners saw in the vigil access to the hostages who, as they were released, joined the women in solidarity. It became clear that there was a need for women’s own community-media initiatives that would tell our stories, and that is what we have been doing since 2000.

fem’LINKpacific came to be out of a desire to provide not just an alternative viewpoint, but an additional viewpoint, to the coverage of issues by the mainstream media. It should be added that fem’LINKpacific is concerned not only with news coverage but also with radio and television programme productions and broadcasts, promotional campaigns and advertising/marketing. Since it was established, fem’LINKpacific has documented and produced a range of community-based productions to share its perspective and that of partner non-government organisations (NGOs) and civil society organisations (CSOs).

The idea of a fem’LINKpacific was inspired by the call to action to NGOs of the strategic objectives found in Section J of the Beijing Platform for Action: (1) to increase the participation and access of women to expression and decision making in and through the media and new technologies; and (2) to promote a balanced and non-stereotyped portrayal of women in the media. It was also inspired by UN Security Council Resolution 1325, where global leaders acknowledged the urgency of bringing women into peace building, and conflict prevention and resolution. The resolution advocates that women be assigned places at the peace-negotiating table and as key negotiators in all levels of conflict resolution.

While lobbying the media industry to develop people-centred and gender-mainstream policies for increased accountability to their audience, we at fem’LINKpacific believe we should continue to pursue our own initiatives, which enables us to be engaged with community women’s groups, in particular, to ‘get their take’ on the issues and have their stories heard, rather than relying on mainstream media for the projection of our position on the various issues.

The realisation that the time has come for us to rely not only on mainstream media to tell our stories is the reason for fem’LINKpacific (Media Initiatives for Women) in Fiji, as shared by founding members of femLINKpacific in our community video “Keeping Watch”.

Barbara Malimali: I heard about the vigil from one of my friends Asenaca, so we could all come here and pray. For me the vigil was like a support group because for a lot of us we were bewildered, for us it was like what’s wrong, why all this there’s no need for all this, so for people like me it was like finding answer because you get women talking and the families were here and people are going up and talking and you get a measure of comfort from other people being in the same situation, so for me we were all a support group…It started at the vigil we came here, came together as a support group, then we formed WAD'aP (the women’s action for democracy and peace initiative); You know we are a really small group and people that gathered here was as a small group the problem was, well for me was the lack of documentation. You know during the crisis we only heard what they wanted us to hear, see and read. There was no investigative journalism so to speak…like I heard about Muaniweni through a copy of the NZ Herald that Vuki sent me, didn’t come to us through our media outlets. So I was very disappointed with our media people, and during the vigils it was mostly the overseas media that was here, you know the local media was here only when something was going to happen…

Vuki Qionibaravi: The vigil for me was a source of great comfort, it was such a confusing time people were angry and questioning why what was happening, happening. Coming to the vigil was a time to be around other people who felt the same way, you know you weren’t the only person what was happening. We found comfort in each other, like Marlene said people going up and talking and the messages of support from overseas, from former Fiji Islanders and other churches and civil society organizations. I think we were happy to get involved in (formation of femLINKpacific) because it was something concrete, it was something we could do and maybe I think some of us thought we hadn’t done enough, before May 19th and some positive messages needed to go out besides what people had been hearing, maybe they heard too much of the negative and they believed. And the vision for femLINK was to put out positive messages, to counter the negative, the false statements that were coming out.

Marlene Dutta: “After the coup I felt the need for spiritual guidance at the time and I remember going to church a lot more as well, but the vigil was something I could do everyday. And the vigil for me was quite personal because I think when you come down to it, I was there in support of one of my many good friends whose mother was held hostage and I think needed our support, we just wanted to be there for her and also great support for her as well. That’s what brought me to the vigils, once I did start coming I found that it did help in terms of finding a sense of peace and that kept me coming back; I have a lot of memories of the forming of femLink and WAD'aP, most of it revolved around the ROC Coffee Shop, sort of a gathering place for us before and after the vigil a lot o us young people, we’d discuss all the rumors that was going on, we’d discuss everything was going on, try to make some sense of everything nothings seemed to be filtering or making sense; out I remember Sharon actually sitting down and saying you I think the time is right, I have this idea that I’ve been working on …I can’t remember exactly what the original description of it was but I remember thinking that was something I could get involved in that seemed like a workable idea. It seemed like a good idea at the time to stand up especially as a young person, as a young woman, as a young woman in doing what’s right or at least in getting our messages across, messages of peace of sisterhood of womanhood of anything and how we can turn around and make something good of this really bad situation and I think that’s how it formulated. I think we were all searching for, I was searching for something good to come out of this and that’s what happened. There was all these projects going on, there was the blue ribbon campaign and we were all out there giving out blue ribbons and everything”

Anna Padarath is the daughter of the ousted Minister for Women and she shared her experiences from the height of the hostage crisis in 2000 in Keeping Watch:

“Oh it was very difficult, first of all everyone said don’t come, stay there, stay where its safe, take your final exams. And I thought how could I do that I couldn’t eat, I couldn’t sleep, I couldn’t do anything. I just hopped on a plane and came home and the plane coming back was empty, but off loading in Australia was full so everyone was going in the opposite direction, but it was something I had to do I had to come home…..The peace vigil was excellent for me because it was such a source of solace, it also became part of the routine. I would spend the morning at the Red Cross and then go the vigil and go back to the Red Cross, just the support from the women was amazing, that was the only place really that I felt sane. And then Sharon got me going on the Blue Ribbon Campaign once that started, that was something to keep the hands busy, to keep doing something, so I wouldn’t run down the street screaming.”

About The Fiji Women Peace and Security Coordinating Committee

At a regional level, discussions of the Women, Peace and Security Programme in Melanesia go back to a regional meeting held on this issue in1998 in Fiji. In October 2001, UNIFEM Pacific staged a follow up regional consultation with members of government and key NGOs represented from PNG, Fiji, Solomon Islands and Vanuatu. At this meeting women really assisted UNIFEM in the actual design of this programme. Each country was represented, and able to bring in key issues and concepts, and what they wanted this programme to address in general terms.

femLINKpacific spoke to several of the participants in 2001:

Theresa, Bougainville: Way back when the crisis started and I was all the time talking for peace and that was in the 80s when the first militants started the crisis so I was already talking with my other 3 cousins that we were meeting with our relatives and the landowners especially and we were talking all the time not to take up arms but just looking for round table discussions and also to deal with it on traditional ways and that is bougainvillea ways and I was involved. I am sort of a person I always like people like to always have peace, like you enjoy talking to other people and looking after other people and caring and all this kind of things and I just don’t like to see things going out of hand, there’s no respect for people and all this. I like to see in the villages everybody enjoying themselves, like there’s no hatred and mothers can go out and do their own things like going to garden, fishing and also caring for the children so they go to school, the enjoy services all these kind of thing.

Afu Billy, Solomon Islands: Well there are lot of theories how the conflict came about, the major one that everybody uses that seeped into the terminology is the ethnic aspect of it and people assumed or say the conflict came about by Guadalcanal people or Malaitians basically this goes back to another root cause that people are saying is that during the Colonial days land was taken from landowners in the land that the British there, their basis, their headquarters and the seizing of those lands weren’t done according to the people, not done in the proper custom way and people weren’t compensated properly for taking of the land by the British and so because of that a lot of development was focused in certain areas of the Solomon Is only especially in the areas that the British had decided to set up there headquarters. At that time a lot of people from the other islanders came over to those areas because of the cash economy, people wanted to have jobs and money, those places saturated other people from other provinces but Malaitians said to be laborious people did a lot of the work and so a lot of the labor was produced by the Malaitians, a lot of them came over to Guadalcanal where most of the development centered and they just stayed on and eventually a acquired land on Guadalcanal and eventually stayed on, they went through the systems that the Guadalcanal people expected but because a lot of Guadalcanal people they say that, there’s a lot of truth in it as well Malaitians people were not so appreciative in the sense that they would bully or get things through means that were not peaceful and Guadalcanal people weren’t happy about that. They were saying we’ve given you this hospitality and we’ve looked after you and all the thanks we get is this kind of treatment from you and so it went on and I think the concerns was raised to the Guadalcanal Politicians and to the National government but what the Guadalcanal people is that they were not really addressed and so it boiled up to the point where the conflict arose so that another explanation for the and also I think one that is not really talked about, is talked about but does not come out really clear with the normal people, is the politics that’s involved also of people thinking that the previous govt was becoming too powerful, was doing things to the advantage of the country and maybe theopposition weren’t so happy because it was unusual for one govt to be ruling for one whole term, and so the assumption is that the opposition had to do something to intervene to so something to intervene because they tried putting votes of no confidence didn’t work and that’s the other theory.

Fiji now has her own Women, Peace and Security Coordinating Committee:

On May 14, 2003 the WPS Fiji coordinating committee was established following a consultation with the Ministry of Women and a range of women’s groups and non government organizations, who have been consistently addressing “women and peace” issues, especially since the events of May 2000.

WPS Fiji, like other coordinating committees established in the project countries of the UNIFEM Pacific Women, Peace and Security project for Melanesia, brings together women’s NGOs and the Ministry of Women to collectively work on the four objective areas of the programme

These include:
Objective 1: To improve availability of data and analysis on the root causes of conflicts, the impact on women and their role in conflict prevention, resolution and post conflict peace building in the four project countries.
Objective 2: To strengthen the capacity of women and women’s groups in the four programme countries to play a role in conflict prevention, resolution and post conflict peace building at the national and regional level.
Objective 3: To promote a gender perspective in conflict resolution and peace building initiatives of governments, regional organisations and mainstream agencies.
Objective 4: To promote peace, tolerance and reconciliation linking with economic security issues through advocacy in the community and with the general public.

Members of the WPS Fiji committee include: the Ministry of Women (Chair), Soqosoqo Vakamarama I Taukei, National Council of Women Fiji, the Ecumenical Centre for Research, Education and Advocacy (ECREA), Fiji Women's Crisis Centre, Fiji Women's Rights Movement, Young Women's Christian Association, Pan Pacific South East Asia Women's Association - Fiji Chapter (PPSEAWA Fiji), Fiji Association of Women Graduates, Catholic Women's League, Stri Sewa Sabha, National Council for Disabled Persons

femLINKpacific interviewed several of the women present about the significance of the establishment of the WPS initiative:

Adi Mei Kainona Gauna is the General Secretary of the Soqosoqo Vakamarama I Taukei:

I think its very important and I remember a couple of years back, I attended a regional workshop, especially for the Melanesian group of Women, Peace andSecurity which was organized by UNIFEM and run at Nadi. So we had a good meeting there so basing on that, but for Fiji since this is the first time that we are sitting together as a group, formally recognizing this very important aspect. I think its an aspect of life that women are already doing daily in their own family and its not something that needs to be highlighted because its an important issue, but these are some of things that we as women do daily. Trying to keep the peace, security within the home. But it is good that Fiji is now being able to recognize that women play a very role in this aspect to keep the peace. We’ve tried reconciliation in all sorts of forms but this is a daily chore for women and I am happy that we are taking it on as a group collective because then it gives its strength and we are able to draw on resources that is already available within the government.

femLINKpacific: So what this meeting is doing is enhancing already existing work done by women?

Adi Mei: Its just enhancing and formalizing what is already happening, it may not be recognized by some but its already happening, but I feel if we go and get in touch women are already doing this everyday at whatever level they live and work.

Parul Deoki is the President of the Stri Sewa Sabha and was also actively involved in the “Blue Ribbon Peace Vigil:
“I feel great, just to see that so many women are interested in peace and UNIFEM is interested in peace and trying to do something about resolution 1325 makes me feel peaceful within and I’m excited I’d like to do something for the country with all my sisters present here and with the government and I am glad that women are being recognized as important as equal partners in development and on the road to peace”

femLINKpacific: How important is this initiative, in UNIFEM brining women together here today?

Parul Deoki: “Well I think its very important because they are dealing with the whole of Melanesia, so they are trying to deal with things at regional level. Coming from International level, down to regional level and from that regional level we come down to national level and then down to community and to respective organizations. So I think its very important for the organizations to be aware of what’s happening at an international level, at UN level and what’s happening at regional level and how we can be achieved our objectives, the objectives written down on peace and there are indicators and assumptions made, I think all these things will lead to some kind of order and peace”Sharon Bhagwan Rolls is a founding member and presently the Coordinator (Producer/Director) of fem’LINKpacific: Media Initiatives for Women. She began her work in the media industry in 1986, the same year that she became involved in women’s issues, as a YWCA volunteer. She has worked in radio, television and video production in the Fiji Islands. Her work in the media has always taken a hands-on approach, and has included writing and production, broadcasting and management. In January 2000, she decided to take a break from the media industry to recommit herself to her own personal goal to assist women’s groups to better communicate and advocate their issues, through the media. In April 2000 she was elected Secretary of the National Council of Women and subsequently coordinated the NCWFiji’s Peace Vigil initiative during the May 2000 crisis. Spurred on by the coverage of the crisis, and the under-reporting of the gender perspective, she and a group of concerned young women and men, formed fem’LINKpacific in September 2000. Sharon is also a mum, of Albert (14 years) and Siân (11 years), and was re-elected to the position of Secretary of the NCWFiji in April 2002.