Nukulau
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Nukulau Island is a small islet belonging to Fiji. It has sea and air links with Suva, Fiji's capital, which lies about fifteen kilometers to the west. It is an island rich in history, which has played a pivotal role in Fiji's demographic and political development over the past 160 years.
[edit] History
Nukulau played a role in the ceding of Fiji to the British Crown in 1874. In 1846, John Brown Williams, the American consul, had purchased the island for a mere thirty dollars. He subsequently lived there, in the wooden two-story house he built, until 1849. On July 4 of that year, during American Independence Day celebrations, a store belonging to Brown was destroyed in a fire which started from a canon burst, and his belongings that he had salvaged from the fire were subsequently looted by natives. A second fire in 1855 destroyed Williams's house. Williams held Cakobau, the Vunivalu (Paramount Chief) of Bau and self-proclaimed Tui Viti (King of Fiji) responsible for the looting, and, supported by the United States Navy, demanded US$43,531 in compensation, to cover Brown's losses, valued at US$5000, and claims by other settlers. Cakobau's inability to pay the debt led to a series of negotiations with the United Kingdom which, after a failed attempt to establish a stable constitutional monarchy under the effective tutelage of the Australian Polynesia Company, culminated in a decision to cede the islands to the United Kingdom in 1874, ushering in almost a century of British rule.
Historians now believe that the debt was greatly exaggerated and largely fabricated.
The colourful history of Nukulau Island did not end with the advent of British rule. From 1879 to 1916, the island served as a quarantine centre for thousands of Indian indentured labourers brought in by the British colonial rulers. After health checks, they were subsequently employed on Fiji's sugar plantations, or else repatriated to the Indian subcontinent.
[edit] Nukulau prison
In 2000, a prison was opened on Nukulau, to house George Speight and other perpetrators of the 2000 coup that deposed Prime Minister Mahendra Chaudhry's government. On 18 December 2006, Fiji's military ruler, Commodore Frank Bainimarama, announced his decision to close the prison and convert the island into a public park, as it was before 2000.[1] The prison was costing too much money, Bainimarama claimed. Prisoners, including Speight - who is now serving a life-sentence for treason - would be transferred to other prisons, Bainimarama said. The prison was closed on 20 December and its occupants moved to jails on the Viti Levu mainland. [2]
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