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Leadership
crisis in Fiji
(June 2, 2000) Two
weeks ago, a failed businessman threw the tiny South Pacific nation
of Fiji into turmoil by seizing control of the parliament building
and taking the prime minister and seven cabinet ministers hostage.
The attempted coup
on May 19 highlighted tensions between indigenous Fijians (known
as Taukei) and ethnic Indians, who descend from plantation laborers
brought from India by British colonial leaders in the late nineteenth
and early twentieth centuries. Ethnic Indians currently make up
about 44 percent of Fiji's population.
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Coup
leader George Speight (the bald dark-skinned man third from
left) speaks to journalists after taking several government
officials hostage.
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Coup leader George
Speight, who declared himself prime minister after taking control
of the parliament building, said he was acting on behalf of Taukei
against the government of Prime Minister Mahendra Chaudry, the
first ethnic Indian prime minister in the country's history. Although
some Taukei showed their support for him by demonstrating on his
behalf, other Taukei
criticized Speight for misrepresenting them.
On June 1, Speight
announced he was prepared to release Chaudry and other hostages
in two or three days. He was scheduled to release them before
the country's Great Council of Chiefs, a group of indigenous leaders
that holds great weight in Fiji, meets on June 5 to try to resolve
the crisis.
Army takes control
On May 29, army commander
Frank Bainimarama declared martial law as President Ratu Sir Kamisese
Mara ceded power to the army. (Officials for Ratu Mara said he
had agreed to step aside until the crisis is over.) Bainimarama
said that he would honor Ratu Mara's pledge that Speight not be
prosecuted for staging the coup.
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Fiji's
80-year-old President Ratu Sir Kamisese Mara resigned on
May 29 to allow the military to take over.
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Bainimarama also revoked
the country's 1997 constitution, which had allowed an ethnic Indian
to be elected president. Instead, the army reinstated the 1990
constitution, which guaranteed that many government senior offices,
including the president and prime minister, would be held by Taukei.
Bainimarama said that
Speight had the three things he wanted: the ousting of the president,
an amnesty, and the removal of the constitution. Speight may want
more. An army spokesman said that Speight or some of his supporters
may be invited to play a role in a new civilian government, although
he said it was unlikely Speight would become prime minister. The
army is still insisting that Speight and his supporters disarm.
Media relatively
free
Throughout most of
the crisis, journalists have been relatively free to speak out
on the crisis, providing coverage that has been balanced overall.
According to the Fiji-based media organization Pacific Islands
News Association, radio and television stations carried hourly
reports and often broke news stories around the clock.
However, some journalists
were attacked. On May 27, Associated Press Television News cameraman
Jerry Harmer was shot in the arm as he filmed a confrontation
between Fiji Military Forces soldiers and armed supporters of
Speight.
The following day,
the Fiji TV station was ransacked and put off the air by men believed
to support Speight. Radio Fiji reported that a member of Speight's
self-declared government said people were "upset" at
Fiji TV for airing a news conference by President Ratu Mara and
comments by political
analyst Jone Dakuvula on the "Close Up" current
affairs program.
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