Voices from that fateful May day: interviews collected by USP students

Questions remain unanswered about the 1987 coup, with the who's and why's continuing to dog discussion.

In the following audio, USP journalism students takes us back to that fateful day of May 14, with some familiar voices including those of Dr Tupeni Baba, who was of course Education Minister in the deposed Timoci Bavadra government.

In 1997 Patrick Craddock, a former radio New Zealand producer was on staff  of  the USP in Suva and worked with François Turmel, a former BBC journalist  who established the USP journalism training  program with French support.  As part of an exercise in documentary making,  the students collected audio interviews with people who had experienced the 1987 coup in Suva. Pat helped to produce the program at the Media
Centre.

Interviewees included Sam Thompson, a radio journalist at Radio Fiji, Dr Baba, the police chief appointed by Rabuka, students, staff of the USP and people attending an NGO workshop.

At the time, none of the participants wanted to be identified  by name with this documentary and no names were included in the production details.  The documentary was seen  as an exercise for students and was never broadcast. Most audio interviews were done on location. The program  is now a small  part of the history of the time. 

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