After 8 weeks, Fiji's Chaudhry walks to freedom

After 8 weeks, Fiji's Chaudhry walks to freedom
AGENCIES

SUVA, JULY 13: After eight long weeks of captive uncertainty, Fiji's deposed Prime Minister Mahendra Chaudhry today breathed free. Sporting a grey beard and looking considerably older and thinner than before the crisis, he emerged from his ordeal battered but unbowed.

Chaudhry, the first Fiji leader to be drawn from the Pacific nation's large minority Indian community, insisted he would stay on in Fiji and said his top priority was to get the country back on its feet.

The two-month-old parliamentary hostage ended today as the hostage-takers held a traditional ceremony seeking forgiveness. Rebel leader George Speight shook hands and hugged Chaudhry before allowing him and the other freed hostages to be loaded onto two trucks.

About 150 Speight supporters cheered as the hostages Left. The hostages also arrived to applause at the Fiji Red Cross Society building, where they were to undergo quick medical checks.

The release followed a deal Sunday, when the military agreed to scrap the country's multiracial constitution, depose Chaudhry and grant Speight and his henchmen amnesty.

Chaudhry confirmed reports that he had been beaten up in the first week of his captivity. But he told reporters outside his Suva point home he had not been badly hurt, as had been widely feared. ``I am a tough guy. I can take it,'' he said with a smile.

Chaudhry said he bore no animosity towards George Speight who led a coup against him in the name of Fiji's indigenous population. He had in fact spent two hours talking to Speight just before his release, he said.

The political crisis sparked by Speight's coup has left Fiji facing economic ruin and international isolation and many members of its Indian population contemplating emigration. But Chaudhry made it clear he had no intention of quitting Fiji. ``My priority is that the nation must get back on his feet. There are a lot of people suffering. They are our priority,'' Chaudhry said.

Meanwhile, Fiji's Great Council of Chiefs today appointed Ratu Josefa Iloila, a supporter of Speight, as the island nation's new president. The appointment was made after Speight released the last of the hostages he had been holding in parliament since May 19.

The chiefs earlier warned Speight they would delay naming a president, prolonging the political crisis, if Chaudhry and 17 other political captives were not freed. Iloilo announced he will later this week name a government. Speight has said he would be ``honoured'' to be prime minister.