Fiji crisis simmers as premier shuns rebel leader

Prime Minister Laisenia Qarase appears at Borron House in Suva; Coup Leader George Speight spoke to media at the swearing ceremony of the new Fiji President Ratu Josefa Iloilo

July 20, 2000
Web posted at: 9:08 a.m. HKT (0108 GMT)

SUVA, Fiji (Reuters) -- Fiji's political crisis showed no signs of easing on Thursday after new Prime Minister Laisenia Qarase was reported to have refused to meet rebel leader George Speight , who held the country's leaders hostage for two months.

The Fiji Times said a meeting between the two planned for Wednesday did not go ahead, quoting Qarase as saying he refused in principle to sit down with the man who toppled the government of ethnic Indian prime minister Mahendra Chaudhry.

But Speight is expected to press his candidates for government to the rebel-backed new president, Ratu Josefa Iloilo.

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"It's funny that it is against (Qarase's) principles to meet me in person but it's all right that his Cabinet and himself be involved in a government which is a result of a coup I carried out," Speight told the newspaper.

A swearing-in ceremony for the proposed 32-member government was cancelled suddenly on Wednesday, with Qarase saying Iloilo was not well enough to attend.

But the rebels, who opposed Qarase's appointment and wanted a larger role in government, said they had forced the delay.

Speight's rebels stormed parliament on May 19 and held hostage Chaudhry, Fiji's first ethnic Indian premier, along with most of his cabinet for 56 days in the name of indigenous Fijian rights.

The rebels wanted ethnic Indians who make up 44 percent of the population stripped of all political power.

Chaudhry has demanded that his government be reinstated, and was due to meet later on Thursday with most of his coalition members in the western village of Sorokoba to discuss their strategy.

With the possiblity of the swearing in of a new Cabinet, security around Borron House was tight

Officials confirmed reports that one option being discussed was to set up a government-in-exile in the west of the main island of Viti Levu, the center of the ethnic-Indian dominated sugar cane industry.

Up to 300 of Speight's supporters finally left the parliament in a convoy of eight buses on Wednesday, leaving torched vehicles and debris in their wake, after hearing that the government swearing-in ceremony had been scrapped.

Armed soldiers then moved into the compound for the first time since May 19 and swept it for booby traps or explosives.

The military took control of the country in the wake of the coup, and have extended emergency rule until the end of July in response to rebel warnings of new unrest if they are not happy with the makeup of the new government.

Copyright 2000 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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