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Fiji: security forces back government |
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May 21, 2000
SUVA, MAY 20 (AP) - The leader of armed rebels holding over a dozen hostages, including the prime minister, vowed Saturday not to give up even as the country's security institutions showed no signs of supporting their attempted coup.
The military, police and an influential Fijian leader lined up behind Prime Minister Mahendra Chaurdhry's democratically elected government and President Ratu Sir Kamisese Mara.
Coup leader George Speight said there would be no surrender and that his group, holed up in Fiji's Parliament, was determined to hold out.
"When you take up an action of this kind, you do it with conviction," Speight, barefooted and dressed in a traditional sulu skirt, told reporters through the iron gate of parliament house.
"It is an action myself and my group are willing to risk our lives for." Tupeni Baba, deputy prime minister in the elected government and a hostage along with Prime Minister Mahendra Chaudhry, earlier issued a statement pleading with the military not to storm the building.
"We understand the president has asked the army to intervene," Baba said. "This scenario would mean that if shooting takes place, we must expect the worst."
But late Saturday, President Ratu Sir Kamisese Mara said he would use "all the authority and resources at my command" to end the standoff.
"The government will go to great lengths to avoid a violent confrontation," Ratu Mara said. "But we will not bow down to threats and coercion. The perpetrators should not underestimate my unshakable determination to maintain the integrity and stability of the state."
For months, ethnic tensions have been building in Fiji between ethnic Fijians the descendants of Indian migrants who now dominate commerce in this Pacific state 3,620 kilometers (2,250 miles) northeast of Sydney, Australia. Of the 813,000 population, Indians are about 44 percent and Fijians 51 percent.
Radio Fiji reported the gunmen have threatened to shoot their hostages if attacked. Local news Website fijilive.com reported the situation at parliament house was becoming increasingly tense and that there were now more than the original seven gunmen inside.
Radio Fiji, which has a reporter inside parliament, later reported the rebels had held a gun to Chaudhry's head and threatened to execute him. Chaudhry also reportedly was badly beaten by his captors.
Speight denied the report, saying none of the hostages had been hurt.
"Such reports should be treated with contempt," he said. Baba said the rebels could be "expected to carry their actions to the very end, even if this means making personal sacrifices"
Earlier Saturday, businessman Speight was sworn in as interim prime minister by a president the rebels claimed to have installed.
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