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Rotuma Independentist Flag 1987-1988 (Fiji)

Republic of Rotuma

~3:5
by Dirk Schönberger

Rotuma Independentist Flag 1987-1988

See also:

Fiji

Rotuma Independentist Flag 1987-1988

In the South Pacific Handbook Moon Publications Inc, California, 1989, a text about Rotuma says:

(...) Rotuma is run like a colony of Fiji, with the administration in the hands of a district officer responsible to the district commisioner at Levuka. Decisions of the appointed Rotuma island council are subject to veto by the national government. The island wasn't directly represented in the old house of representatives, being lumped into the Lau Group constituencies, although it did have an appointed senator. In early 1988 Rotuma attempted to secede from Fiji, citing human rights violations by the military-backed republican regime. The Fijian district officer on the island promptly demonstrated his disgust by blasting the flag of the New Republic of Rotuma with a shotgun. Soon after, a "peace keeping force" of 13 Rotuman soldiers arrived, and the protesters were taken to Suva and charged with sedition (...)

Jaume Ollé, 7 April 1997
Jarig Bakker, 26 November 1998

Sorry, but there is no Rotuman flag apart from the Fiji flag.

Alan Howard

A kind of apartheid ("pro-Fijian and anti-Indian") had been established in Fiji the previous year, by Col. Rabuka, if I remember correctly. Maybe this was incentive for Rotumans to leave the Fijian nation, however. And "independentist" flags certainly were not tolerated in those years, while I do not know how they would be welcomed now.

Thanh-Tâm Lê, 28 November 1998

From the Pacific Islands Report:

Suva, Fiji Islands, January 28, 2000
The 2,500 residents of Rotuma are divided over a proposal by a secessionist group to sever all ties with Fiji and declare the island a republic. Fiji's Daily Post reported that David Koran, an American tourist in Fiji on a visitor's permit, has encouraged Rotuma's chiefs and residents to sign documents to break away from Fiji. Koran is believed to have developed a constitution for the proposed Republic of Rotuma. Daily Post reporter Josephine Prasad, who first broke the story, said reaction from residents in Rotuma has been mixed. (...) "Generally there's a rift between Rotumans in Fiji and Rotumans in Rotuma", Prasad said. However, she said, a majority of Rotumans are not for a change. (...) This is not the first time a republic has been suggested for Rotuma. The issue was mooted in the early 1970s by members of the Malmahau clan of Rotuma, headed by Gagaj Sau Langfakmaro, and after the 1987 military