Claim business rivalry behind Tongan riots. 21/11/2006. ABC News Online

Members of the Tongan business community say devastating riots that left eight dead and the capital in flames are the result of business rivalry and not pro-democracy activists.

"There's a group of people who engineered this and we know who they are," journalist Mary Fonua said, whose publishing company was destroyed.

"It's business rivalry, involving people who are likely to be rival candidates in the next election and also between Tongan and Chinese businessmen."

The immediate blame for last Thursday's rampage was levelled at Tonga's pro-democracy movement, as the destruction started at the end of a political rally demanding reforms to the kingdom's semi-feudal system.

But the business community spoke out on Tuesday saying the protests were engineered by business people trying to wipe out their competition.

"The whole organisation was too well orchestrated to be a riot," New Zealander Mike Jones, who employs 250 staff in Tonga, told National Radio.

"It wasn't a riot as such. It was an organised attempt to cut out all of the Chinese, whatever businesses were in opposition to what they had."

The Tongan business community is to meet to plan a path forward after the riots destroyed 80 per cent of the commercial area.

Lopeti Senituli, an adviser to Tongan Prime Minister Feteli Sevele, says every avenue into the cause of the riot is being investigated.

"The police are certainly conducting an intensive and widespread investigation into the riots and its causes," he said.

He says two weeks before the riots the Tongan Business Group had presented a petition to the King's office calling for the sacking of the Prime Minister.

"They are part of the list of people that are being investigated," he said.

Mr Senituli says it will take the country at least five years to rebuild the city centre.

Australian and New Zealand troops, called in by the Tongan Government to help restore calm, have secured the airport to allow international flights to resume.

The foreign forces stepped up their presence Monday as Mr Sevele declared he would not step down over the deadly rampage.

- AFP

Claim business rivalry behind Tongan riots

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