Hostages' safety comes first, says Fiji military

SUVA, JUNE 30. Fiji's military, which is preparing a no-go zone around the rebels who are holding 27 political hostages, said today it would prefer to let the crisis drag on rather than endanger the lives of hostages.

``It is a crisis situation. If things go terribly wrong, people would expect the military to respond accordingly,'' the military spokesman, Lieutenant-Colonel Filipo Tarakinikini, said. ``I would prefer to let the crisis drag on rather than endanger the lives of hostages,'' he said.

Rebels led by former businessman, Mr. George Speight, have held the deposed Prime Minister, Mr. Mahendra Chaudhry, and 26 others hostage since storming Suva's parliamentary complex in the name of indigenous Fijian rights on May 19.

Mr. Speight has said his supporters might harm the hostages if the military launched an assault.

Meanwhile, an Air New Zealand Boeing 767 aircraft from Fiji carrying Maori activists, who had sought to offer support to Mr. Speight's rebels, was forced to return to Nadi in New Zealand today after a bomb threat, airline officials said.

Chaudhry's photo published

The rebels have kept Mr. Chaudhry isolated from view during the six-week siege, but today allowed a photograph of the Prime Minister to be published in a local newspaper.

The photo, believed to have been taken on Thursday, showed a bearded Mr. Chaudhry looking frail but smiling as he hugged another hostage, a Fijian Minister in his multi-racial coalition.

But the State-owned television station TV One, which was allowed to film him on Friday, showed a thin, bearded Mr. Chaudhry walking with his son, Rajendra, a fellow hostage.

The deposed Prime Minister looked angry and dejected and did not look anyone in the eye. ``He looked weak and he still looks angry at everything that has happened,'' said the cameraman who filmed Mr. Chaudhry. ``His movements are really slow.''

While residents began moving out from homes near Suva's parliament compound, there was no immediate sign of the military enforcing its planned exclusion zone around the area. The military announced its plans for an exclusion zone yesterday after rebels failed to release hostages on Wednesday.

Down the road workers boarded up a large house, while nearby diplomatic residences were on stand-by to evacuate.

The military is considering cutting electricity and other services to the compound where some 200 rebels and supporters are camped.

- Reuters

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