The Telegraph: Mystery over spate of tourist deaths on military-controlled Fiji

A spate of mysterious deaths on the military-controlled Pacific island of Fiji has led to accusations that authorities are censoring media coverage to protect the multi-million dollar tourism industry.
By Paul Chapman in Wellington
7:00AM BST 13 Sep 2011

A Japanese woman, an American businessman and two New Zealanders have died on Fiji in the past three months.

The latest death was Mami Nakamura, 27, a Japanese student at an English-language school, whose decomposing body was found among mangroves on September 5.

Ms Nakamura was last seen heading to a beach party in Nadi, the main resort town, six days earlier but news media on Fiji gave the incident no coverage until a few days ago.

Government censors control every newsroom in Fiji and sources say authorities allowed media reports to be published only after the news leaked out through anti-government blogsites.

Coup Four and a Half, a leading dissident blogsite, claimed local media had been warned not to report the foreigners' deaths by a regime fearing negative publicity would keep tourists away.

It said of Ms Nakamura's suspected murder: "Attempts to get the full story out in the local media were impeded yet again by censors, with the unelected government running scared because of the implications with the Japanese government."

But Sharon Smith-Jones, a spokesman for the Fiji government, attacked the blogsite's credibility, dismissing its claims as "completely untrue".

She insisted all of the incidents had been well covered by the Pacific island nation's media.

Brigadier Ioane Naivalurua, the police commissioner, told the Fiji Times: "We don't give up or rest until we discover the truth of what happened to Ms Nakamura."

Meanwhile, family members continue to fund a private search for Don Nicholas, chief executive of a medical institute in Charlotte, North Carolina, who disappeared on July 15 while surfing off Natadola beach, near Nadi.

They have set up a website called helpfinddon.com to seek information and have posted a reward of US$100,000 (£63,000) for information.

In New Zealand, relatives and friends are puzzled by the fate of Greymouth man Tony Groom, who died days after being badly beaten up in Nadi on July 8.

Fijian police ruled that he had died of natural causes and no investigation into his death was carried out.

The first death was that of Chelsia Mary Lo, a 33-year-old Auckland woman who is understood to have fallen off the luxury superyacht Alani II in the Blue Lagoon resort on June 13.

No post mortem is known to have been conducted, and her family say her body was cremated before they were officially informed of her death.

Ms Lo's sister told the Sunday Star Times newspaper: "I thought it was strange for someone to be cremated on the same day their body was found."

Fiji has been under the control of military leader Voreqe Bainimarama since he seized power in a coup in 2006.

He has promised elections in 2014.