Fiji military chief to watch rugby before coup

SUVA (Reuters) - Fiji's military chief maintained his threat on Friday to stage a coup if the government failed to meet his demands, but added he would not act until after the annual military versus police rugby game in Suva later in the day.

Military Commander Frank Bainimarama gave Prime Minister Laisenia Qarase a 24-hour ultimatum on Thursday to clean up his government or face a coup, despite winning a series of concessions from the prime minister.

"I maintain my demands and the deadline still stands and I will make a commitment to my stand after the rugby match," Bainimarama told Fijian media.

Bainimarama is scheduled to attend the rugby game starting at 4.00 pm local time (0400 GMT) and hundreds of Fijians have started arriving at the stadium for the game.

The Fijian capital Suva was tense, but quiet on Friday as residents waited anxiously to see if the defiant military chief would stage Fiji's fourth coup in 20 years. ADVERTISEMENT

Bainimarama has repeatedly threatened to remove Qarase's government unless it drops three pieces of legislation, including a bill that would grant amnesty to those involved in a 2000 coup.

Qarase suspended the bills on Thursday pending a review, after which he could withdraw them completely.

But his concessions were not enough for Bainimarama, who still wants Qarase to remove senior government and public service figures he says were connected to the 2000 coup.

Troops staged a three-hour show of force on Thursday by securing parts of the capital in an early morning exercise.

Qarase said on Friday that he was considering asking for foreign intervention to end the long-running political crisis, adding he believed his military chief was mentally unstable.

"We are dealing with somebody who is completely deranged and unstable so that's part of the problem," he told Fijian radio.

"Nobody knows what he wants...we're just keeping our fingers crossed that he won't go ahead. He's got all the firepower and the rest of the population has got nothing," he said.

"Yesterday in the statement I issued publicly I did say there was no consideration of outside intervention, but things are developing and I will have to weigh the options."

Australia has sent three naval ships towards Fiji to evacuate its citizens in the event of a coup.

An Australian army helicopter on one of the ships crashed into the sea south of Fiji late on Wednesday, killing one Australian soldier and fanning the Fiji military's fears of foreign intervention.

Pacific Island Forum foreign ministers are meeting in Sydney on Friday to discuss the crisis under the same regional pact that enabled Australia to lead a mission into the Solomon Islands.

New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark, who brokered crisis talks between Qarase and Bainimarama in Wellington on Wednesday, warned Fiji's military chief not to carry out a coup.

"We really don't know what the commander wants, unless we assume he himself wants total power over Fiji," she said on New Zealand radio. "That is something the international community is not going to accept."

Australia, Britain and New Zealand have advised their nationals against travelling to Fiji and the U.N. Security Council has expressed concern.

And he followed through(You cannot get away with "public" coup in N. Korea. It is the fastest way to assume room temperature.):

By Paul Tait

1 hour, 57 minutes ago

SUVA (Reuters) - Fiji's military took over running the country in a bloodless overthrow on Tuesday after confining the elected prime minister to his home in the South Pacific island nation's fourth coup in 20 years.

Military Commander Frank Bainimarama said he had temporarily stepped into President Ratu Josefa Iloilo's role as head of state and dismissed the government of Laisenia Qarase after a power struggle that had simmered all year.

Promising the takeover would not be permanent, Bainimarama said he had appointed little-known Jona Senilagakali Baravilala, a former military doctor and political novice, as interim prime minister before fresh elections are called.

"The stalemate has forced me to step forward and the military has taken over government," Bainimarama said, adding that the chief executives of government ministries would run their departments until Baravilala appoints an interim government.

Bainimarama had threatened to topple Qarase's government, which won a second five-year term in May, calling it corrupt and too soft on those behind Fiji's last coup in 2000.

"We trust that the new government will lead us into peace and prosperity and mend the ever-widening racial divide which currently besets our multicultural nation," he said.

Washington said it had temporarily suspended about $2.5 million in aid to Fiji and would review whether the upheaval would require a longer cut-off, and Britain suspended military assistance.

Australia and New Zealand said they would impose sanctions on Fiji's military, and U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan condemned the takeover.

The coup is expected to severely damage Fiji's fragile sugar and tourism industries, as it did in previous upheavals.

LAUGHING STOCK

Fiji's three earlier coups, the first in 1987, were racially motivated with indigenous Fijians who make up 51 percent of the 900,000 population fearing they would lose political control of their nation to minority ethnic Indian Fijians who already dominate the economy.

Qarase told Reuters he was still prime minister.

"I have been removed illegally," he said by telephone from inside his home as soldiers blocked off the street outside.

"Fiji has now become a laughing stock in the international arena," he said as several hundred supporters gathered behind army barricades, singing hymns and praying.

Police Commissioner Andrew Hughes, an Australian, thought Bainimarama's coup would spark a popular uprising that he hoped would be non-violent.

"He doesn't have the support of the government, of the president, of the police, of the churches, or the chiefs of the people of Fiji," Hughes told Australian television.

Troops manned roadblocks around Suva for the second night in a row on Tuesday although the capital was largely calm.

The military warned local media not to publish material critical of the military or run stories about Qarase. At last two newspapers have suspended publication, while TV news programs did not air late on Tuesday.

Bainimarama said Baravilala would dissolve parliament and that he would surrender presidential powers back to Iloilo next week. He gave no timetable for new elections.

Fiji's political crisis has alarmed its neighbors.

Australia sent three warships in case it needed to evacuate holidaying nationals.

Australian Prime Minister John Howard said Qarase telephoned him on Tuesday morning to seek help, but he declined saying: "The possibility of Australian and Fijian troops firing on each other in the streets of Suva was not a prospect that I, for a moment, thought desirable."

COMMONWEALTH SUSPENSION

Bainimarama has warned that his soldiers will oppose any foreign intervention.

Commonwealth Secretary General Don McKinnon said on Tuesday that Fiji was likely to be suspended from the Commonwealth.

Washington said aid could resume depending on its review of the takeover.

Chief U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said the coup could affect Fiji's future participation in peacekeeping operations.

There was no discussion at this time, however, of removing Fijian forces working in peacekeeping assignments, Dujarric added. Fiji has 223 soldiers protecting U.N. staff in Iraq.

Bainimarama wanted Qarase to remove members of his government he said were involved in the 2000 coup. He had also told Qarase to drop a number of bills, including one that would have granted amnesties to members of the 2000 coup.

Bainimarama said he was forced to act because Qarase refused to step down and the president would not sack him. Iloilo said in a rare statement he did not support the military's action.

(Additional reporting by Malakai Veisamasama in Suva)

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