Fiji coup leader warns against uprisings

Fiji’s new military ruler has warned that he will use force to put down any uprising against his new regime.

Commodore Frank Bainimarama, who ousted Fiji’s democratically elected Government on Tuesday, said there was evidence that some in Fiji were planning to cause trouble and anyone who did so could expect swift action from the military.

He also announced he had dissolved Fiji’s Parliament, telling journalists, “Should we be pushed to use force let me state we will do so very quickly.”  “The military will suppress very quickly any uprising against us”. “The military is staying the course that we have set and we will never give up the fight.”

Bainimarama said he had replaced the country’s acting police chief Moses Driver with a military officer, with Driver detained by soldiers on Wednesday after vowing that police would never cooperate with the military’s illegal overthrow of the government. He was later released.

Bainimarama added that some civil servants were not cooperating with the new regime, either by a lack of action or by “being absent” and for that reason, he was appointing military officers as acting commissioners of police and prisons.

The coup leader said Fiji’s people should give up on the idea that ousted Prime Minister Laisenia Qarase would return to power, saying, “Qarase and his cronies are not coming back”.

He urged people to respect the new order, and warned the military reserved the right to impose curfews and other measures that would have an impact people’s lives.

He again appealed for calm, telling Fijians: “Do not allow yourselves to be used by people with malicious intent to create any disturbance or other activities that will put you in jeopardy”, adding that intelligence reports showed “there are a number of individuals planning to cause disruption to peace and harmony”.  “We have reasonable grounds to believe that the life of the state is threatened.”

Report by The Mole