Fiji's PM returns to capital as coup looms
By Malenie Judy,WNS Pacific Bureau Chief
SYDNEY - Fiji's military commander Voreqe Bainimarama has declared he is in charge of the country as Prime Minister Laisenia Qarase returned to the capital Suva to avert a looming coup. The political situation remained in limbo Saturday afternoon, a day after a deadline expired for the government to accept a series of demands or be forced from office by Bainimarama. The military had taken no overt action to take control while Qarase insisted the cabinet remained at the country's helm, although he and other key ministers went into hiding Friday as the deadline passed. Local reports said Qarase returned to the capital Saturday and was to hold a meeting with Vice-President Ratu Joni Madraiwiwi, who undertakes many of the functions of head of state for ailing President Ratu Josefa Iloilo. Despite the lack of military action to take over the reins of power, Bainimarama insisted in an interview with the Fiji Sun published Saturday that he was now "in control". "Qarase should come out into the open and I assure him that he will not be kidnapped or put under any form of house arrest," he said. "It will be a peaceful transition so I'm calling Qarase to come back to his home in Suva." Bainimarama denied claims by Qarase that the military was split over overthrowing the government, saying it was united in its intention to uproot the "lies that have brainwashed the Fijian people since 2000." The military chief accuses Qarase's nationalist United Fiji Party government on going soft on plotters of the racially-fueled coup of 2000 and of favouring the indigenous majority in the country over the ethnic Indian minority.
Qarase said in a radio interview Saturday it was "no secret that a lot of the military personnel are not happy with what the commander is trying to do". The latest tensions came to a head after Bainimarama labelled talks with Qarase earlier in the week as a failure, rejected wide-ranging concessions from the prime minister and set a Friday deadline for the government to accept his demands. The military had demanded the dropping of legislation which would have offered amnesties to coup plotters, along with two other bills Bainimarama said unfairly discriminated against ethnic Indians. Among other demands Bainimarama wanted moves to charge him with sedition dropped. Qarase said it would be illegal for the government to accept the demands and said "divine intervention" was needed to resolve the issue. Bainimarama has said little about his plans to take control or when he would carry them out, other than to say the military would appoint an interim government.
Foreign governments and international organisations have urged Bainimarama to step back from what would be the fourth coup in the South Pacific nation of 850,000 people in nearly two decades. Commonwealth Secretary General Don McKinnon said Friday the republic's Great Council of Chiefs -- an influential advisory body of traditional chiefs -- should take the lead in resolving the situation "once and for all". "The Commonwealth unreservedly condemns military action against democratically elected governments," said McKinnon, after speaking with Qarase and other regional leaders. "Any such action would be a serious violation of the Commonwealth's fundamental political values and would be a threat to democracy everywhere. Pacific foreign ministers on Friday threw their support behind Fiji's embattled government but ruled out armed intervention if the coup goes ahead.
posted by wnsworld @ 5:06 PM
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