The Fiji Museum believes further assessment needs to be carried out to substantiate the claims made by the Suvavou Villagers.

This comes as the villagers claim that the lot allocated for the construction of proposed Indian Embassy is an ancient burial ground.

The Museum Director, Sipriano Nemani says over a decade ago their staff discovered archaeological remnants in the form of a pottery shed however no further investigation was carried out at the site.

Earlier this week, Suvavou villagers submitted their petition claiming that the land was part of their ancient burial ground and they don’t want any development to take place.

Nemani says the specified lot at the Botanical Garden has archaeological, historical and natural heritage attributes.

“We would really like perhaps the opportunity through consent given by Ministry of Lands, Director Lands and of course the Suva it’s council, the Town and Country Planning and the Tui Suvavou to allow us do an archaeological impact assessment on the site like any other development that happens around the like. This is in line with the environment impact assessment so with that archaeological impact assessment we can conduct unearthing, digging and investigation of the site itself.”

 However the Lands Minister Ashneel Sudhakar has stressed again that the proposed embassy will not be built on the Suva Botanical Garden.

Meanwhile Ministry of Local Government Permanent Secretary Joshua Wycliffe says the Department of Town and Country planning is now waiting for the submissions from the Suva City Council.