The biggest surprise about the seizure of Fijian tourist centres such as luxurious Turtle Island is that the local people should show any hostility to their visitors.

I have just returned from spending a trouble-free week on Yasawa Island resort just 10 miles north from the Blue Lagoon setting of Turtle Island.

Any visitor to Fiji is overwhelmed by the warmth of the welcome. Anyone you meet at resorts, villages or towns will address you with the traditional bula (hallo) greeting. On Yasawa even the staff sweeping the paths among the coconut palms that run down to a perfect shell-strewn, white beach approached us with a firm handshake, asking our names.

Any doubts that this might be as a result of a staff training scheme were dispelled when a small boat off-loaded an elderly village fisherman on to the beach. Before heading with his primitive sharpened bamboo poles for the rock pools laid open by the low tide, he came across saying bula . 'My name is Joe,' he said. 'Where do you come from?'

Courtesy to visitors is an important element in the traditional Fijian village culture, which remains almost feudal with a structure that reaches right up to the important Council of Chiefs.

The villages closest to Turtle Island and Yasawa are closely involved in the affairs of the resorts that provide income from jobs and from land rental.

We visited Bukama, the village closest to Yasawa Island Resort. This visit from the resort guests is a weekly event. Some of the village women laid out a shell market under the palms and we were formally welcomed by the chief in his house, the biggest in the village. He receives a share of all the fruit picked in the plantations and fish caught in the sea, which he distributes to widows and the elderly.

He will be responsible for assigning the 10 simple new homes being built along the beach. We spent an hour visiting each of the four classes in the village's junior school where lessons were mainly in English and run on traditional lines.The children sang us traditional songs as well as nursery rhymes such as 'Incy Wincy Spider'. It was a moving experience that reached well beyond normal folkloric events.

The problem on Turtle Island and the other seized centres is land ownership, which was at the core of the rebellion in the parliament building in Suva, the capital. Land has an almost spiritual value in the Fijian tribal system and any attempt to allow ethnic Indians to have land rights has led to fundamentalist protest.

Democracy sits uneasily beside this traditional culture. The moderate army is unwilling to risk further civil disturbance by clamping down on the rebels. This appears to have created an atmosphere of lawlessness which has allowed those with old scores to settle to take action.

Despite the troubles in Suva, most of the 16 bures on Yasawa were occupied, mainly by American visitors who are normally reputed to be nervous travellers. The warmth of the welcome was maintained to our departure when the staff gathered to sing the traditional farewell 'Isalei'. Several of the guests were in tears as they clapped and sang along. There will be even more sadness among those who know and love the Fijian islands and their people if the political unrest keeps the islands out of bounds indefinitely.