Mother recalls fear during 2000 coup and calls for unity to avoid repeat of Fiji’s dark past

As we remember the events of May 19th, 2000 this week, a call is being made for people to live in unity and people from all races to live in harmony as we do not want a repeat of what happened in 1987 and 2000.

While talking to fijivillage News, a mother of 2 says she remembers the day clearly when she had to pick up her children from school after finding out about the coup over the radio.

She says her husband was a police officer, so he was not at home as he was taking foreign members of the diplomatic corp to the Nadi International Airport.

She says he was away from home for about an entire week and would only come home for a couple of hours to rest and change his clothes.

The mother of two says she was so scared and had to seek assistance from her iTaukei neighbours who were retired military and police officers.

She says their family came to take care of them for about 2 or 3 weeks.

She says sometimes the power would go off and they had to stay quiet at home in the dark and speaking loudly or turning on the radio would result in their house being pelted with rocks.

The mother says she was scared for her children and her husband.

She says she is grateful most of her neighbours were there to protect them.

She says the events of that day gave her flashbacks of what happened in 1987 when she was in high school in Labasa.

The mother now hopes that people from all backgrounds can live together in peace and Fiji is too small a place to hate anyone.