BBC World News:

Tribe contests Gibson island sale
Gibson reportedly bought the island for £7.8m

Villagers in a remote part of Fiji are planning a legal challenge against the Hollywood star Mel Gibson over the sale of a South Pacific island.

Gibson is believed to have purchased the 5,411-acre Mago island in Fiji's Northern Lau group for £7.8 million.

But the Yavusa Vuaniivi tribe on the neighbouring island of Namalata have told the Fiji Times they are Mago's rightful owners.

The director visited Mago - pronounced Mungo - with his family in December.

The 49-year-old thought to have bought the island from a Japanese hotel chain, the Tokyu Corporation, through the property agent Colliers International.

But the Yavusa Vuaniivi claim the sale has no validity because their ancestors were violently evicted from Mago in the 19th Century.

"Our island was sold for 2,000 coconut plants," Timoci Waqalevu, chairman of the Namalata Development Committee, told the Fiji Times.

"Stories told by our forefathers are that they were forced to leave at gunpoint.

"There is still evidence of those who refused to leave and were killed. There is a dugout hole where their skeletons still remain."

The original Magoans were assured that the island was being leased to a cotton planter and not sold outright.

"But no one was educated then or bothered to check the records," said Mr Waqalevu.

Dispossessed islanders

The island is currently home to 35 sugar plantation workers and their families.

The descendants of Mago's original inhabitants hope to hire a lawyer to fight Gibson for ownership.

They also hope the Fijian government will assist them as part of their ongoing scheme to help dispossessed islanders buy back ancestral lands.

So far, however, the authorities have refused to get involved.

"The government cannot do anything because it is a freehold property," said Prime Minister Laisenia Qarase.

"The sale was between the owner who has found a willing buyer."

Not sure where I stand on this one philosophically.

It doesn't help that I don't know much about Fijian history and law, either.

Yet another example of Mel Gibson being an asshat.

So the issue isn't that Mel bought an island, the issue seems to be that the person who sold it perhaps was not entitled to do so?

I don't understand why the government couldn't easily identify the property owner - don't they collect taxes from the owner the way they do in the US?

c-

Maybe if they give Mel 2,000 coconut plants with interest compounded over 175 years...

--PunkDavid

Yes,

but no one would probably care if the buyer was NOT Mel Gibson.

Sure, of course.


Anyone know how many islands Keith Richards owns these days?

c-

I'm sure Keith has no idea how many.

I really think Mel will give the island back to its righful owner. After all, how many movies has he been in that portray Mr. Gibson as a person whose is getting picked on by the more powerful person or group?

Braveheart
The Patriot
Passion of the Christ

WWJD?

How many movies has Mel made where his character is fighting for property he believes is rightfully his?

Road Warrior
Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome
Braveheart
Ransom
Payback
The Patriot
etc...

--PunkDavid (take the coconuts, Mel)

He should trade in those islands for a team of surgeons that can begin his face transplant.

Indigenous land title is a sticky area across all nations. Fiji is no exception.

so his son isnt rightfully his?

Wasn't the stuff rightfully his in ALL of those movies? What's your fucking point?

--PunkDavid

How is he an asshat?

Why do you need to drag Jesus or Christianity into this?

Sounds like it indeed.

Off topic but relative to photos of Keith:
Great example of why one should not do heroin.

Mel's the one who wants to be the good Christian that makes the Passion of the Christ. Why isn't he being a good Christian man in this situation?