Viliame Seruvakula

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Viliame Seruvakula is a former Fijian Military officer, who played an instrumental role in the aftermath of the Fiji coup of 2000.

Seruvakula joined the Army in the early 1980s. He opposed the 2000 coup, and when rebels from the Counter Revolutionary Warfare Unit mutinied at Suva's Queen Elizabeth Barracks on 2 November 2000, he led the third infantry battalion in a counter-offensive to retake the barracks from the rebels.

Following the mutiny, Seruvakula made some controversial statements in the media. He alleged that he had been offered F$260,000 to support George Speight's attempted coup in May, and that former Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka (who led two coups in 1987) had incited the mutiny and attempted to overthrow the Military Commander, Commodore Frank Bainimarama. His police statement is now the subject of several investigations.

Seruvakula, now a Lieutenant Colonel, resigned from the Military in early 2006 to take up a post with the Peace and Security division of the United Nations.