Former journalist and publisher Josefa Nata says there was a man sipping a fruit cocktail at a hotel bar in Suva, waiting for a call, but he retreated to his hole when a new face appeared on the TV screen during the May 2000 coup.
Speaking before the Fiji Truth and Reconciliation Commission, Nata said the people who should really be appearing before the Commission are sitting comfortably out there, enjoying the fruits of their misadventures and have no intention of talking about their misdeeds unless they are compelled to do so.
He raised concerns about the Commission's lack of subpoena powers, saying it should either go the whole hog or not proceed at all.
Nata also highlighted the absence of an investigative mechanism to verify evidence, saying that without proper verification, he could simply be telling them a tall tale.
He claimed there were planned assassinations of key individuals during the 2000 coup, two actually in the process of being executed but, by through the grace of God it was aborted.
Nata added that the masterminds did not show up, leaving members of the Counter Revolutionary Warfare (CRW) Unit in the lurch to carry the burden.
The former journalist said that if it were not for the CRW Unit, worse things could have happened to the hostages in Parliament.
He said there were talks about a "last cannibal feast," as there was merrymaking, revelry, debauchery and all sorts of chicanery, which were unbefitting of the serious nature of what was supposedly a struggle to improve the lot of the iTaukei people.
Nata said that had it not been for them, Parliament House would have been torched after it was vacated.
He said another concern he had about the Commission was that its scope was too limited and portrayed one group of people (iTaukei) as aggressors and the other (Indo-Fijians) as victims.
He added that he feels the country should go back to the beginning and dig deep enough to find enduring solutions.
Nata said everyone had been aggressors at some point and everyone had also been victims.
The former journalist said that while he does not seek to diminish the painful impact of coups, the iTaukei Fijians have for years felt a sense of injustice, unfair perceptions and unkind treatment.
He claimed that, not so long ago, shops and supermarkets, almost all owned by Indo-Fijians, refused to employ iTaukei Fijians.
