Prominent Canberra academic Brij Lal was threatened, verbally abused and subjected to ''explosive anger'' in a three-hour interrogation before being ordered out of Fiji by the country's military regime.
The Australian National University professor and democracy advocate arrived back in Canberra yesterday afternoon after being told by the Fijian military to leave within 24 hours ''or else face the consequences''. Professor Lal's forced departure from Fiji followed the tit-for-tat expulsions of diplomatic representatives by Fiji, Australia and New Zealand, and his own comments on ABC Radio in which he suggested the actions of Fijian military strongman Commodore Frank Bainimarama had been ''counter-productive''.
The widely respected analyst and commentator on Fijian politics was seized at his Suva residence on Wednesday afternoon and subjected to a lengthy interrogation by a Fiji military colonel. ''There was no physical assault, but a lot of verbal violence, a lot of foul language, a lot of explosive anger and a clear threat,'' Professor Lal said at Canberra Airport yesterday.
''It's not something that I would wish upon my worst enemy.''
Professor Lal declined to repeat precisely what was said by his interrogators, saying he was worried about possible repercussions for his friends and family still in Fiji.
His wife, who spends several months of the year in Fiji, remains in Suva.
However, the ANU academic said his experience wouldn't deter him from continuing to criticise Fiji's military regime and to speak up in support of democratic freedoms and the rule of law in Fiji.
He said it was his deep conviction that military coups had never solved any problems.
''There's something terribly wrong with a gun being used to overturn the verdict of the ballot box,'' he said.
''In life, there are certain principles one stands by and I've never compromised.''
Professor Lal said he hoped to return to Fiji and eventually see an end to the military regime which has ruled Fiji since the December 2006 coup, although he was pessimistic about the immediate prospects for political change.
''There is no doubt that the military are fully in control and unwilling to relinquish power any time soon,'' he said. He said he had some doubt that the regime would live up to its commitment to hold democratic elections by 2014 as Commodore Bainimarama had ''a track record of dishonouring his promises''.
Professor Lal said the Australian Government's targeted sanctions against the Fiji military, including the travel bans that triggered the latest diplomatic tensions, were balanced and appropriate and he did not favour broad economic sanctions that would harm the Fijian people. He said many Fijians did not support the military but were intimidated and the Fijian media were subject to heavy censorship.
''The price of living in Fiji is silence,'' he said.
Meanwhile, the former head of Fiji's land forces, Colonel Jone Baledrokadroka, has applied for a protection visa to stay in Australia.
Colonel Baledrokadroka is a visiting fellow at the ANU.
He said he had a political falling out with Commodore Bainimarama in 2006 over his belief that Fiji's military should be apolitical.
''He wanted obviously to politicise the military as it is at the moment'' he said.
Colonel Baledrokadroka says the military regime regards him as an enemy and he considers himself to be a political refugee.
Fiji was expelled from the Commonwealth last September and has been suspended from the Pacific Islands Forum as a consequence of Commodore Bainimarama's refusal to commit to holding elections next year. Despite the row with Australia and New Zealand, Fiji was forging ahead yesterday, with the nation's acting president Ratu Epeli Nailatikau sworn in as head of state of the military-ruled Pacific nation.
President Nailatikau, a former army commander credited with guiding Commodore Bainimarama through his military career, was appointed as acting president after Ratu Josefa Iloilo retired at the end of July. President Nailatikau was appointed vice-president in April, a week after Commodore Bainimarama repealed the constitution, sacked the judiciary and introduced emergency regulations including press censorship. The largely ceremonial positions of president and vice-president were traditionally appointed by Fiji's Great Council of Chiefs, sidelined by Commodore Bainimarama soon after he ousted the elected government in a 2006 coup.
Mr Nailatikau was sworn in by Chief Justice Anthony Gates at Government House in the capital Suva in a ceremony attended by military officers, government officials and some diplomats.