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Change Your Life! |
Fiji rebels keep up campaign for political power |
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July 15, 2000
SUVA, (AP) - A day after releasing the last of their political hostages, Fijian rebels maintained pressure on the Pacific country's tribal chiefs Friday by issuing thinly veiled threats of more civil strife unless they are installed in government. "If we get into power, we will call off the dogs," rebel spokesman Jo Nata told Australian Broadcasting Corp. radio. Civil disturbances began sweeping Fiji a week ago in support of rebels led by George Speight who took dozens of lawmakers hostage in a May 19 raid on Parliament and demanded Fiji's large ethnic Indian minority be stripped of political power. After striking a deal with Fiji's military on Sunday, Speight on Thursday released his last captives - deposed Prime Minister Mahendra Chaudhry and 17 other legislators - as the Great Council of Chiefs held meetings to appoint a civilian interim government and a new head of state. The chiefs appointed Speight's nominee, Ratu Josefa Iloilo, as president. Meetings resumed Friday to consider Speight's list of Cabinet nominees and to decide who will serve on a commission to write a new constitution. Defying renewed warnings that Fiji will become an international pariah if rebels are included in the government, Speight said his campaign will not be complete until his men are in power. And he warned that any attempt to restore multiracial democracy in Fiji would result in another civil uprising. "Any attempt by anybody to return Fiji to the status quo before May 19 will be met with the same resistance we showed to the army of this country," Speight told Australia's Nine Network TV. In the wake of the denouement, Fiji is a vastly changed country. The elected government is gone, ethnic tensions remain inflamed, and the crucial tourist industry is ravaged. The United States, Australia and New Zealand and have urged their citizens to leave. International sanctions are likely. The rebels are indigenous Fijians who said the nation's large ethnic Indian minority had too much power. They demanded that the country's multiracial constitution be scrapped and that Chaudhry, Fiji's first ethnic Indian prime minister, be deposed. In the days after the seizure, Speight supporters looted and burned ethnic Indian homes and businesses, and many Indians made plans to flee the country. The unrest escalated last week, when Speight supporters occupied several police stations, a military base, a hydroelectric dam and a tuna cannery as well as surrounding the capital, Suva, with roadblocks and threatened to close down the international airport. Four tourist resorts were taken over, although those involved were apparently taking advantage of an amnesty for political crimes to pursue land disputes rather than showing direct support for Speight. No hostages were taken. Australia, New Zealand, the United States and the European Union say sanctions are inevitable unless Fiji returns to democracy. The Australian government said Friday it would "absolutely not" accept George Speight or anyone involved in taking hostages as members of Fiji's new government. "Mr. Chaudhry was illegally removed in a criminal act and I think the behavior of the great Council of Chiefs in bowing to Speight's demands has been to betray the democratic institutions of Fiji," Australian Prime Minister John Howard said.
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