(o+) Is Convicted Con-man Peter Foster Telling the Truth? If so, the 2001 and 2006 Elections Were Rigged!

STOP PRESS. CAN ANY READER PROVIDE INFORMATION ON THE TAPES AND WHETHER ONE WAS IN FACT BROADCAST ON TVFIJI?

"I don't expect anybody for one minute to believe one word Peter Foster says. I'm just a silly bugger who wore the video camera and listening device. Listen to what they say."-- Peter Foster.

Australian convicted con-man Peter Foster (photo*) has been jailed in six countries, been charged with money laundering, selling slimming products without a licence, work permit violations and dubious political and land dealings in Fiji, and has only recently been released from jail in Australia. With this reputation he's difficult to believe, but he's also been an undercover agent for the Australian and British police; a backer of Tupeni Baba's NLUP party in the 2001 Fiji election; a confidant of SDL 2001 and 2006 election strategists Navitilai Nasori and Jale Baba, and, in early 2007, he was "wired" by Fiji's military to secretly tape a meeting with Nasori and Baba. They freely admitted the elections were rigged, and said Qarase and most of his ministers were deep in corrupt practices. The first of these tapes was shown on Fiji TV, before Foster was whisked out of the country to reappear in Vanuatu before extradition to Australia.

Here are his main claims:

• NLTB officers accepted backhanders to arrange land deals for overseas investors.
• The 2000 'Speight' coup was about mahogany deals, not indigenous rights.
• The coup was backed by about 20 businessmen and prominent Fijians. Speight was just a frontman.
• There was a plot to "take out" two key witnesses, Josaia Waqabaca and Macui Navakasuasua, who could identify the 2000 Coup backers.
• Red Cross worker John Scott and his partner Greg Scrivener were murdered for similar reasons.
• Police Commissioner Isikia Savua was involved in the 2000 Coup and in rigging the 2001 election by swapping ballot papers. Savua also helped cover up Scott's murder.
  
• Both the 2001 and 2006 Elections were rigged. Police were involved.
  
• Qarase and most of his ministers were very corrupt.
• Australia's Howard government turned a blind eye to what was happening and was behind Qarase's re-election.
• Some people in the SDLparty had plans to stop Bainimarama's return from NZ just before the 2006 coup/military intervention, and to "take him out" if this failed.
  

All or at some of this could, of course, be another con trick, but having read his interview by ABC journalist Monica Attard (click here for a transcript of the full interview) and his own account of his political involvements in Fiji from 2001 to early 2007 (click here), I think those he names have a case to answer. Too many of his accusations tally with the accusations of others and with well known events and actors to be merely figments of a con-man's mind.

For the record, he believes "Frank Bainimarama ... for all the right reasons has removed a very corrupt, very dangerous government. I understand everyone says you cannot remove a democratically elected government through a military coup. Of course I understand that. However, there isn't a thinking man, woman or child in the world today who wouldn't understand if the military regime in Zimbabwe had stood up and got rid of Mugabe. And I'm using the same analogy."

Extract from the Attard Interview

Monica Attard: Don't you think it's a real shame that while you have the ability to use your notoriety to bring attention to Fiji's problems like you are right now, that really at the end of the day, you can't be taken seriously because of your chequered past?

Peter Foster: This is why I said at the time. I worked for Fiji military intelligence and I wore listening devices and I had these tiny little video cameras on me and I videoed three top people who said that the elections were rigged. And when we came out with this, I said "I don't expect anybody for one minute to believe one word Peter Foster says. I'm just a silly bugger who wore the video camera and listening device. Listen to what they say."

* Peter Foster's mother, Louise Foster and her Fiji Trust. have been supporting humanitarian causes in Fiji for over 30 years.