Fiji coup threat rising again
Reuters reports that Fiji’s defiant military chief, Commander Frank Bainimarama, who threatened last month to remove Prime Minister Laisenia Qarase if he did not drop two contentious pieces of legislation has said that he refuses to rule out overthrowing the South Pacific island nation’s Government after delivering a series of demands yesterday amid rising fears once again of a fourth coup in 20 years.
He said that while he would prefer to negotiate a settlement to a crisis which has dragged in regional neighbours Australia and New Zealand, if the government failed to meet his demands, “We’ll go back at them”, adding that he did not hold much hope for a meeting of the Great Council of Chiefs, the representatives of Fiji’s 14 chiefly provinces who are the nation’s ultimate powerbrokers, called for Thursday to resolve the crisis.
He told Reuters that the council only ever meets “to suit the government’s agenda”, adding that the continuing speculation of more political upheaval was bad for the island nation’s fragile tourism and sugar based economy, which suffered after a May 2000 coup by armed indigenous nationalists.
Bainimarama said Qarase’s government, re-elected for a second five-year term in May, needed to change course but repeatedly refused to answer when asked if he ruled out removing it if Qarase did not redress what he said were its lies and corruption.
He said, “What we’ve done is we’ve asked the Prime Minister to have a look at our requests and we will pray and fast and do everything and hope that he will act on them.”
The crisis appeared to ease last Saturday when Qarase said he had dropped a provision from one of the two bills that would have given amnesties to those involved in the 2000 coup, but Bainimarama said he would have to see the amended bill before could react.
Bainimarama has backed senior officers who accused Australia of breaching Fiji’s sovereignty by sending in eight men they described as mercenaries into the country without clearing proper channels last Friday, with Canberra rejecting the claim and saying that the men were sent to boost security at the Australian High Commission.
Report by The Mole
John Alwyn-Jones
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