Military defies Speight to name new PM

Military defies Speight to name new PM
REUTERS

SUVA, MAY 31: Fiji's military rulers defied rebel George Speight on Wednesday and named a new interim Prime minister, sparking skirmishes around the country's parliament complex where Speight was holding hostages.

Radio stations broadcast urgent warnings for people to stayaway from the parliament area after Speight's supporters began throwing stones and seizing taxis driven by ethnic Indians.

Speight claimed power in the name of indigenous Fijians on May 19, taking hostage Fiji's first ethnic Indian Prime Minister Mahendra Chaudhry and members of his government.

Military ruler Frank Bainimarama, who declared martial law on Monday after growing violence, told a news conference he intended to proceed with the appointment of former soldier and diplomat Ratu Epeli Nailatikau as interim Prime Minister, despite resistance from Speight.

Speight told independent radio station FM 96 that his self-styled government "considers this decision to be a breach of the good faith with which (the military) approached us."

It was the first time Bainimarama had acted in open opposition to Speight since declaring military rule.

On Tuesday he bowed to one of Speight's main demands by revoking a 1997 Constitution that opened the post of prime minister to ethnic Indians, who make up about 44 per cent of Fiji's population and dominate its economy.

However, Bainimarama contradicted officials who said on Tuesday that he had effectively reinstated a race-based Constitution, introduced after two coups in 1987 overthrew a previous Indian-dominated government.

"It's a blank page," Bainimarama said of Fiji's current constitutional status.

He said it could take 12 months to two years to draft a new Constitution and up to three years before an interim government could be replaced by an elected government.

Bainimarama also made plain he was not prepared to make one of Speight's group the interim prime minister.

"I don't know if any of them has the courage to go up and stand and talk on behalf of Fijians after holding guns to hostages," he said. "I don't see any of them as being the prime minister of the interim government."

Speight's gunmen are holding about 30 people in the parliamentary complex and one of the military government's main goals is to get the hostages released.

One hostage, assistant minister from Chaudhry's government Adi Ema Tagicakibau, was allowed to attend a funeral on Wednesday, but only on condition she would return, local media reported.

Bainimarama said negotiations were still under way.

He said Speight and others would be granted an amnesty for taking the hostages if they released all of their captives and returned their guns.

He added the amnesty would not cover last Sunday's killing of a policeman by a roving mob in Suva, saying that would be subject to a normal criminal investigation.

Interim Prime Minister Nailatikau is the son-in-law of President Ratu Sir Kamisese Mara, whose daughter is among Speight's hostages.

Nailatikau was Fiji's Army commander until he was overthrown in the 1987 coups. He later became Fiji's high commissioner to Britain.

Mara was sidelined when the military declared martial law. He was believed to be safe on a boat off the coast after "stepping aside".