Army dares Speight, says Indians will join new Fiji govt

Army dares Speight, says Indians will join new Fiji govt
ASSOCIATED PRESS

SUVA, JULY 2: Defying Fiji's hostage takers who are demanding that ethnic Indians be stripped of political power, the army said today it would appoint a temporary government this week that would include Indians.

"There will be ethnic Indo-Fijians in the interim government lineup, although percentages I cannot say at this point in time," Lt. Col. Filipo Tarakinikini said.

Further, Fiji's army will within 24 hours declare an "exclusive military zone" sealing off the country's parliament where the coup leaders are holding 27 hostages, military sources said today.

A decree was being readied giving the army the right to temporarily acquire any land or building, restrict essential services such as supplies of food, electricity and water, and control entry and exit to the area.

The zone, designed to "force them to come to their senses," will be under the command of Colonel Viliame Seruvakula.

People will be given 48 hours to move out and the military said the safety of anyone remaining in the exclusion area cannot be guaranteed. The official residencies of the French and American ambassadors are within the zone.

However the military says the "necessities of life" will be made available to those inside parliament.

Responding to the military's latest statement, rebel spokesman Jo Nata said that "we hope they are prepared for the implications of their actions."

He did not elaborate, but rebel leader George Speight has said in recent days that any military action perceived as anti-indigenous could result in violence by his supporters. Speight and a group of gunmen stormed parliament on May 19 and took the government hostage in what they said was a battle for the trampled rights of indigenous Fijians.

The military said last week that it would appoint an interim government without input from the hostage takers, who had been demanding a role in naming such a government.

Last Thursday, Tarakinikini said that the temporary government would take office only once the hostages were released. But today he said the army would not wait.

"They will take office before the hostages are released," he said.

Talks to free the hostages broke down last week over what the army said was an 11th hour demand by Speight's group that they be allowed to name a new president.

Tarakinikini also said the army - which assumed power in the South Pacific nation 10 days after the parliament raid - was "determined to resolve the crisis in a peaceful manner."

"We continue to maintain that the door for negotiations is still open," he said.

Most of the rebels' demands to disenfranchise Fiji's Indians have already been met, including the firing of Prime Minister Mahendra Chaudhry, who is a hostage, and the elimination of the country's 1997 multiracial constitution.

Chaudhry was the first ethnic Indian to lead Fiji. He angered many indigenous Fijians by refusing to allow them to raise rents charged to ethnic Indians on land owned communally by indigenous people.

Tarakinikini appeared to leave open the possibility that the interim government, which he said would be named by Thursday, resurrect the 1997 constitution.

"The review of the constitution will be left to the interim government," he said.