TV station attacked in Fiji capital

By P. S. Suryanarayana

SINGAPORE, MAY 28. A new wave of political unrest swept across the Fijian capital of Suva tonight, hours after the ``coup'' leader, Mr. George Speight, had maintained that he could not be blamed for (the previous) law and order problems in the city as ``the Army is deployed all around us'' (the ``coup'' leadership).

The sounds of gunfire were heard late in the night in the vicinity of the residence of the President, Ratu Kamisese Mara, and a television network was disabled, according to foreign diplomats and observers in Suva. There was no conclusive information about who was responsible and what might have been the immediate provocation for the firing near the President's mansion, but the incident occurred in the overall context of what was seen as a new campaign of intimidation by the Speight brigade.

Groups of Mr. Speight's supporters had earlier in the night moved out of the parliament complex, where he was holding in captivity the democratically elected Prime Minister, Mr. Mahendra Chaudhry, for the tenth consecutive day, and invaded the local television station. Sources said a blackout which occurred at the television facility seemed to have been the handiwork of Mr. Speight's supporters. The television complex itself was said to have been badly damaged. The free movement of the armed supporters of Mr. Speight was made possible by the ``withdrawal'' of the Army from the vicinity of their ``base'' - the parliament building - following the President's announcement yesterday stripping Mr. Chaudhry of the post of Prime Minister. Although Parliament itself was not dissolved in conjunction with the dismissal of the elected Prime Minister, it remained suspended.

Today's violence cast a deep shadow over the efforts of the President to solve the crisis on the basis of the continuing parleys between a sub-committee of the Great Council of Chiefs and Mr. Speight's designated interlocutors. The talks were largely aimed at finding a solution based on the norm that top executive positions and real political power should be vested in the majority indigenous population even if that be at the expense of the rights of the substantive minority of ethnic Indians. This formula was said to be a native-Fijian backlash to the suspected efforts of Mr. Chaudhry at perpetuating and expanding the dominance of the ethnic Indians at the cost of the interests of the indigenous population.

However, even in the midst of the dialogue between the representatives of the indigenous chiefs and Mr. Speight's team, the ``coup'' leader remained unrelenting in his demand that Mr. Mara first quit as President. Mr. Mara's action of dissolving the duly elected government headed by Mr. Chaudhry, widely condemned by the international community as a capitulation to those seeking to ``usurp'' power, did not go far enough in pleasing Mr. Speight. The charge of ``usurpation'' of power was countered by Mr. Speight on the ground that at least the now-deposed Prime Minister and others of his line of thinking were seeking to subject Fiji to an ``Indian colonisation''.

Mr. Speight dismissed Mr. Mara's move against Mr. Chaudhry as ``an act of a desperate man'' and asserted that he was ``not too concerned'' about either the threatened sporting boycott of Fiji by other countries or the ``$ 22 millions worth of aid (to Suva) from Australia'' which might be in jeopardy now. Australia, while criticising Mr. Mara's attempted appeasement of Mr. Speight, ruled out either a East Timor-style military intervention or a show of ``gunboat diplomacy'' in regard to Fiji

AP reports: Mr. Speight, who received a delegation from the Great Council of Chiefs, said he expected a new offer within two days that could lead to the freeing of the hostages. Any deal would have to be ratified by the full Council, he said.

Several countries have threatened to impose economic and diplomatic sanctions on Fiji. The Fiji Hoteliers' Associated president, Mr. Hafiz Khan, said cancellations had skyrocketed since the crisis began.

IPU chief warns Fiji

In the Egyptian capital of Cairo, the president of the Inter- Parliamentary Union (IPU), Ms. Najma Heptullah, threatened to expel Fiji from the Union if the democratic process was not restored in the country by October.

``If by October, when the IPU meets in Jakarta for its meeting, the situation does not change in Fiji, then the IPU could kick out the country from the grouping,'' she said.

Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Section  : Front Page
Next     : Only the odd apple is rotten: Gavaskar