Well, there’s some twisted logic in kb's1st quote: the airline is sending them broke so you sack the pilots, bring in more and then fly around without charging fares – helps go even more broke, I guess, and faster.
The pilots who didn’t get the sack had ingratiated themselves to the right people – like the one who allegedly flew a 737 single pilot to get the aeroplane back to base when another crew member was sick. That “hero” nonetheless had to wait some 10 years after he retired to get his super from them.
FWIW the father of a school friend of mine was one of the pilots who got shafted. My friend’s father had his Nauruan bank account frozen and lost his savings. He also had personal possessions confiscated (motor bike, room contents etc) - it was by all accounts a vindictive move by the president back then, nothing more.