Dispute between squatters and Fiji Catholic Church may go to court
Updated
A dispute between a Fiji Squatter Settlements and its landlord the Catholic Church looks like heading to court. It's estimated Fiji's struggling economy has led at least 10 percent of its population into the growing number of squatter settlements and shanty towns to survive. Many of those settlements are well established as part of towns and cities. But many are situated on land which has significantly risen in value and that's led to confrontation between squatters and landlords.
Presenter: Campbell Cooney
Speaker: Jitu Estate Squatter Community in Suva Kelepi Koroi, Villa Maria Community Chairman Joesph Filitoga, Head of Catholic Church in Fiji Archbishop Petereo Mataca
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COONEY: Since the start of last century Villa Maria squatter settlement has been home to the descendants of workers from the islands of Wallis and Futuna, brought to Fiji by the Catholic Church. Joseph Filitoga is community chairman.
FILITOGA: We've been working on the Cathedral down in town in Suva and at the St Anne's school and the Saint Agnes School. They have been doing all this work without being paid, so the church has thought of bringing them together into this community.
COONEY: But the church wants the land back, and has done so for quite a while. The head of the Catholic Church in Fiji Archbishop Petereo Mataca says since 1943, he and his predecessors have tried a number of times to convince Villa Maria's residents to move.
MATACA: The Catholic Church wanted to develop the land to build a school. I acknowledge they have been there for so long, the church also has some rights and not ignore that, because it owns the land, it kept on paying the city rate.
COONEY: But in the 100 or so years Villa Maria's been in existence, Suva has changed around it. It may have been unused Church land then. It's now surrounded by homes which are part of one of the city's more sought after suburbs.
FILITOGA: This is one of the highest spots in the area. Here it is close to about two million dollars of this land.
COONEY: While Archbishop Mataca says the church wants the land for a school, he has admitted it's already missed a development opportunity because of the squatter settlement.
MATACA: When they built all around there, they wanted our land, but because we ask them to move, they didn't.
COONEY; The Archbishop says he's offered Villa Maria's residents alternative land, around 16 kilometres outside Suva. He says some have taken up that offer. But there's still around 150 people living in the settlement, and they're doing so without power or running water. Archbishop Mataca says he still wants to talk to the residents to settle the issue. But at the same time, he says he has doubts about the links the current residents claim they have to the settlement's first settlers, and the work it's claimed those settlers did for the church in the 1900's
FILITOGA: And I tried to ask them, can you each family to trace their family back to the original, and I did not get that. They claim their grandfather or great grandfather built, but according to our record, St Anne's School was built by Malo's company, who was paid the church. So we explain that is not quite right.
COONEY: So you question the claim that they are making?
FILITOGA; Yes.
COONEY: Joseph Fillitoga has no intention of moving and says his people are now looking at court action.
FILITOGA: According to the Government laws, then it says that if you have been in the land for over 30 years, you entitled to for the land eh. We have been here for over 100 years. We were not squatters. They brought us here to settle here.
COONEY: Meanwhile, on the other side of Suva the groundwork for a redevelopment of the Jitu Estate squatter settlement has begun. Jitu's home to around seven thousand people. Last week 300 families there were told they would have to relocate to allow the building of new homes. It's been reported this has caused some tension. But in December last year when I visited Jitu, one of its community leaders Kelepi Koroi says the proposal was a welcome one.
KOROI: It's going to look like part of the city of Suva, with better houses, so that's what we are looking forward to, to stay in this land and make better place.
