31
T
hat David Lange moved in mysterious ways was known
to everyone who worked with him. Strangely, though,
the oddest and most dangerous mystery of his time
as Prime Minister is little known. In 1987, he ordered
armed troops to fly to Fiji and risk a possible confronta-
tion with the Fiji army. Why has never been satisfactorily
explained.
In May that year, the newly elected Government of
Fiji was overthrown by the army, to everyone’s surprise including
New Zealand’s. The assessment of our Intelligence Committee, which
I chaired, had just concluded, cautiously, that the new Government
was unlikely to last its term. Cabinet minister Richard Prebble, who
had better Fijian sources than we did, sent me a note to say that it
would go within a month. A few days later, we got a flash to say that
armed soldiers were entering Parliament, and Lange announced the
coup to the world.While we were still reflecting on how best to respond to this, an Air
New Zealand 747 flying home from Tokyo was hijacked during a refuel-
ling stop in Nadi. I was told at 8am and went straight to the Beehive
to tell the Prime Minister and arrange for the Terrorism Emergency
Group to be convened in the basement. We had practised for managing
a hijacking as for other emergencies. Meeting in the basement where
there were good communications was the best way of co-ordinating
the work of key ministers and officials from the police, Defence and
Foreign Affairs.
So I reported cheerfully to the PM that the lights were up and the
kettle was on downstairs ready for the Terrorism Emergency Group toAfter a military coup and
a hijacking in Fiji, why did
the Prime Minister order
armed troops be sent there?
by GERALD HENSLEY
Prime Minister David
Lange took the country
to the brink of what
could have been
the rashest military
venture in our history.
The hijacker appeared in the cockpit
at the end of refuelling, with four
sticks of dynamite around his waistwhile smoking a cigarette.
G
ET
TY(^) IM
AG
ES