Intelligentsiya (blog)

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Intelligentsiya is an English language blog hosted on the Blogspot website and run by a group of democratic libertarians promoting peaceful, "intelligent resistance" to the ongoing situation in Fiji related to the 2006 coup. The blog focuses on highlighting instances of misinformation by government bodies, evidence of malpractice and possible human rights violations, and providing an outlet for Fijian people to express their feelings about the prevailing situation in the country.

[edit] Controversial exposure

The blog and bloggers behind it have attracted national and international attention, sparked by the fact that some of their stories have made controversial claims about the conduct of army officers. As such, the interim government of Fiji, through the army spokesperson Major Neumi Leweni has announced that it is hunting for the writers, saying to Fijian radio station Legend FM on March 8, 2007,

"Yes, we are closely monitoring that website and we have a fair idea of who are the people behind it, and we'd like to inform those people that we'll get to them eventually" [1]

The military's publicized search for the Intelligentsiya bloggers prompted at least one other anonymous blogger, Ms Vakaivosavosa, to shut down her blog on March 9. In her last post, Ms Vakaivosavosa wrote, "At this time in Fiji, the climate is not right to continue blogging and I want no one harmed on account of this blog." [2]

On March 23, 2007, Radio Australia's Pacific Beat program broadcast a documentary by Bruce Hill on how bloggers are challenging the military-installed regime in Fiji as a result of fear within the mainstream media of critical reporting. In the program's On the Mat section, Hill spoke to three of the so-called Freedom Bloggers - two from Intelligentsiya and another from a blog set up after its author claims he was inspired by Intelligentsiya. [3]

[edit] Claims and stories

Amongst the claims and information revealed on the website are:

a report [4] by Professor James Crawford SC, of the University of Cambridge claiming the removal of Chief Justice Daniel Fatiaki from his post was unjustified and carried out in contravention of the Constitution,
a leaked copy of the Eminent Person's Group report [5] on Fiji's political crisis, that said that the majority of those people the group consulted did not agree with the grounds on which Bainimarama seized power and his interpretation of the doctrine of necessity.
an article[6] highlighting the fact that interim Prime Minister Commodore Frank Bainimarama, after being promoted to the Fijian Navy post of sub-lieutenant, spent six months in 1979 on the Chilean naval training ship, the Buque Escuela Esmeralda, which, according to reports from Amnesty International, US Senate and the Chilean Truth and Reconciliation Commission was a kind of a floating jail-torture chamber for political prisoners of the Augusto Pinochet's military regime from 1973 to 1980. [7]