A state funeral has been held for former Fiji Prime Minister Ratu Tevita Momoedonu who died last week aged 74.
Ratu Tevita Momoedonu. Photo: Supplied
Fijians paid their respects to their former leader as his casket was escorted through Lautoka to his home in Vuda on Friday.
The casket wrapped in the Fiji flag was escorted by military and police led by army commander Rear Admiral Viliame Naupoto.
Momoedonu lay in his traditional home of Sawaieke on Thursday before his burial on Friday.
He was prime minister twice - each time briefly. Both appointments were engineered to get around constitutional technicalities during political turmoil which followed Fiji's 2000 coup.
His first term of office - on 27 May 2000 lasted only a few minutes. His second term lasted two days - from 14 to 16 March 2001.
Momoedonu also served in various senior government positions and was an ambassador to Japan and South Korea.
Using his chiefly title of Taukei Sawaieke, he had pushed for the Yasana of Ba (province) to secede from the Burebasaga and Kubuna Confederacies.
He sought to form a fourth confederacy under the Tui Vuda, Ratu Josefa Iloilo, who died in 2011.
Momoedonu recently hosted the Ba Provincial Council meeting at the chiefly village of Viseisei in Vuda.
The Vuda chief was elected chair of the council, a position he held before his death on 26 November.
His son, Ratu Inoke Momoedonu, told the Fiji Times Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama had requested the state funeral.
Ratu Inoke said it was the government's hope of according its final funeral rites to "Ratu being a former PM".
Bainimarama led the government delegation to Viseisei.
