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Fiji: A state in a state of limbo |
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July 26, 2000
SUVA (AP) - Talks Tuesday between Fiji coup leader George Speight and President Ratu Josefa Iloilo failed to break a deadlock in the Pacific nation's political crisis, leaving it without a formal government. Iloilo attended meetings with Speight, military commander Commodore Frank Bainimarama and a handful of Fiji's tribal chiefs to try to agree on a new Cabinet, spokesmen for the rebels and the military said. But Speight walked out of the meeting after just a few minutes, apparently angered at Iloilo's refusal to name the rebels' choice as prime minister, Radio Fiji reported. Claiming to be acting on behalf of indigenous Fijians, Speight led an armed gang in a May 19 raid on Parliament, took dozens of lawmakers hostage and demanded the large ethnic Indian community be stripped of political power. In exchange for the hostages' release, the military, which imposed martial law during the crisis, agreed to replace the government of Mahendra Chaudhry - Fiji's first ethnic Indian leader, scrap the multiracial constitution and grant the rebels immunity from prosecution. Bainimarama than handed executive authority to Iloilo. The crisis threw Fiji into turmoil, prompting widespread civil unrest and attacks against members of the large ethnic Indian minority, economic paralysis and international censure. Indians make up 44 percent of Fiji's 814,000-member population. Many first came to Fiji in the late 1870s as indentured labor and who have come to dominate commerce and industry. Speight has warned the he will engineer another wave of unrest unless the new government is stacked with his candidates. Hundreds of Speight supporters who have a handful of stolen guns are camped at a school in Suva, the capital. Outside the city, Speight supporters have control of a military barracks and Fiji's main hydroelectric plant. The European Union is the latest economic group to move toward sanctions. Australia, New Zealand, the United States have already imposed them. In Brussels, the European Commission issued a statement recommending that the council of EU ministers consider procedures which may lead to the expulsion of Fiji from a preferential trade agreement because of "the armed insurrection ... and the subsequent events which have destroyed the process of democratization." Under the Lome Convention between some European nations and their former colonies in Africa and the Pacific, the EU is the largest single customer for Fiji sugar exports, which it buys at up to three times the world price. Despite Speight's walkout Tuesday, rebel spokesman Jo Nata said talks may resume Wednesday and a Cabinet lineup could be agreed within days. The rebels have demanded Adi Samanunu Cakobau, Fiji's top diplomat to Malaysia and whose grandfather was one of the nation's most powerful chiefs, be made prime minister. Iloilo and the military are backing Laisenia Qarase, who is acting as caretaker prime minister. "Who will be prime minister is the major point of discussion," Nata said.
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