|
|
Change Your Life! |
With no end to hostage crisis in sight, Fiji rebels go on rampage |
|
News |
|
|
June 11, 2000
SUVA, JUNE 10 (AP) - A mob armed with sugarcane-cutting knives torched a seaside restaurant late Saturday - the latest in a string of violent incidents close to Fiji's parliament where armed rebels are holding 31 hostages.
There were no injuries and the violent crowd, made up of supporters of coup leader George Speight, did not confront the army, which was manning roadblocks nearby, military spokesman Lt. Col. Filipo Tarakinikini said.
Reinforcements were rushed to the scene, but were not needed. The mob came out of a parliamentary complex where Speight and his men are holding the captives, but it was not immediately clear how many people were involved or where they had gone after the incident ended.
Already this week, rebels have exchanged warning shots with the army and beaten up a policeman.
Earlier Saturday, the latest attempt to have the hostages freed failed when tribal chiefs from Fiji's wealthy western provinces failed to persuade Speight to free his hostages.
After meeting with the chiefs, Speight said he had decided to back their nomination for a president in an interim government to guide Fiji back to democracy.
The chiefs want former Vice President Ratu Josefa Iloilo to become president, replacing Ratu Sir Kamisese Mara, who was deposed in the standoff that now has entered its fourth week. Although Speight's backing of Iloilo was a concession, it was a minor one as the office of president is largely ceremonial. There was no apparent progress in securing the release of the hostages, including deposed Prime Minister Mahendra Chaudhry, still being held by Speight.
At a news conference, Speight also accused the military of spreading rumors to discredit his supporters. He was commenting on a front-page article in the Fiji Daily Post newspaper that claimed a woman had been gang-raped in parliament by Speight's men.
Police did not immediately return phone calls seeking comment on the allegation, but Speight dismissed it. "I am here to tell the army that they had best stop that sort of rumor-mongering," Speight said. "It will only serve to incite potential retaliation from certain members of the Fijian community."
Speight said Saturday he would leave parliament next Tuesday for a meeting of chiefs in his home region, one hour's drive from the parliamentary complex. It would be the farthest Speight has ventured from parliament since his May 19 coup.
Talks between Speight and the martial law regime of Commodore Frank Bainimarama broke down a week ago. Bainimarama said then he would entertain no new demands from Speight and urged Speight and his rebels to free the hostages and lay down their arms in exchange for amnesty.
Speight and his rebels launched their coup to win more power for Fiji's indigenous majority, with a new constitution that discriminates against ethnic Indians by barring them from running the country.
Chaudhry was the first person to hold that post from the 44 percent of Fiji's population who are ethnic Indian. Fijian nationalists have been angered by Chaudhry's attempts to persuade Fijian landowners to renew expiring leases on farmland held by thousands of ethnic Indian tenants.
|