Saturday, January 12, 2008

Urinating soldier blamed for falling Fiji tourism

A Fijian soldier who urinated on a Japanese woman during a flight - sparking outraged headlines in Tokyo - is to blame for a fall in tourism between the two countries, one of Fiji's leading newspapers has claimed.

The Fiji Times accused the soldier of doing "untold damage" to the country's image, generating "widespread, negative publicity at a time when we need it the least".

"Urinating on a tourist on an international flight is a high-profile incident which gains global notoriety," it wrote.

"It is a brief moment which brings unwanted exposure and deprives the economy of millions of dollars in revenue."

"The soldier involved was a young chap showing signs of post traumatic stress after a year's tour of duty," Lieutenant Colonel Sitiveni Qiliho said.

The soldier - who exposed himself to the young Japanese tourist before urinating on her - had been given counselling and then disciplined, he added.

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