Not Another Coup

#1

I dont know if any of you know about whats been happening in fiji recently. A quick run down is that the government is attempting to pass legislations that will let the coup plotters of 2000 get a get out of jail free card. So what the millitary has done has actually issued a coup threat if certain demands are not met.

I find the current situation kinda funny as the commodore is actually postponing the coup for a weekend of rugby.

Fiji coup deadline extended as military play police at rugby

UPDATED 5.00pm Friday December 1, 2006

SUVA - The Fijian Army has extended its coup deadline until Monday as it takes on Police in the annual much-anticipated Sukuna Bowl rugby clash.

Hundreds of Fijians have gathered to watch the clash even as both the Government and military manoeuvre in the coup crisis.

Fiji's military chief maintained his threat today 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.

Just minutes ago, embattled Fijian Prime Minister Laisenia Qarase said he had been informed the military had extended its deadline to Monday for the government to meet its demands or be toppled.

"I have been informed that the new deadline is Monday middday," Qarase told Reuters in a telephone interview.

Qarase told Fiji's FM96 that he and his government are in control but in hiding in secret locations.

"I am accessible by phone though. We (Cabinet ministers) had plans not to be together in this very difficult time," Qarase was quoted on fijivillage.com as saying.

"But we are in total control of Government."

Military Commander Frank Bainimarama gave Prime Minister Laisenia Qarase a 24-hour ultimatum yesterday 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.

"When I will do something, I will let the people know."

Bainimarama is scheduled to attend the rugby game starting at 4pm (5pm NZT) and hundreds of Fijians have started arriving at the stadium for the game.

>> Are you in Fiji? Please tell us what is happening there by emailing nzherald.co.nz or sending your photos to [email protected].

Cdr Bainimarama has told fijivillage.com that now the deadline has passed he intends to begin a "clean up" campaign of Government and he will now decide what steps to take.

According to fijivillage.com: "He also added that the military will host the Police tonight at the Officers Mess and have a few bowls of grog in what he believes is the only way that will bring the two forces together."

The Sukuna Bowl is a high-profile sporting event in Fiji, which the police have won for the last three years.

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

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 yesterday 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 yesterday by securing parts of the capital in an early morning exercise.

Qarase said today 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 today 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. "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 UN Security Council has expressed concern.

Miss Clark said a coup would have very serious consequences for Fiji.

"For the military itself, there is a very real prospect that the United Nations will carry through on its threat not to have Fijian military forces in its peacekeeping forces," she said.

"And that is basically how Fiji finances its military."

Two Australian warships, HMAS Kanimbla and HMAS Success, continue to sit in waters near Fiji awaiting any full scale evacuation.

The frigate HMAS Newcastle, which had also been in the area, is now on its way to Noumea carrying the body of the Australian pilot who died Wednesday's Black Hawk helicopter crash aboard the Kanimbla.

Seven of the injured are also aboard. From Noumea, an RAAF C-130 Hercules will bring them back to Australia, arriving tomorrow night.

Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer says he's uncertain whether a threatened coup will go ahead in Fiji, as he prepares for crisis talks with his regional counterparts.

Mr Downer will is attending a meeting of Pacific Forum foreign ministers in Sydney amid a looming deadline set by Fiji's military for the government to meet a series of demands.

Mr Downer said he had no indication of whether the commander would go ahead with his latest threat.

"We don't know whether he will. He's obviously laid down a deadline and he's done that before," he told ABC radio.

"I simply don't know what he will do when the time comes.

"Every effort has been made to try to conciliate him and try to talk him out of mounting a coup, to explain to him that there will be consequences for Fiji in terms of its international relationships."

Mr Downer agreed that Commodore Bainimarama had shown scant interest in backing down.

"The prime minister of Fiji, democratically elected not once but twice ... he's making concessions to a military commander who's been elected by nobody who ... is making demands out of the barrel of a gun, so it is very disturbing," he said.

The minister also played down reports of a split in Fiji's military.

"It may be that not a majority of the military supports the idea of a coup," Mr Downer said.

"But whether that would amount to a big proportion of the military mutinying against the commodore, that I think is a completely separate question.

"It's my judgment that they probably wouldn't mutiny against the commodore, but you know, we'll have to wait and see."

Mr Downer admitted today's meeting of foreign ministers could not stop a coup.

"But ... it does illustrate that throughout the Pacific there is real concern about the impact of this behaviour on the reputation of the whole region," he said.

"It's not as though the region has been without difficulties, it's been wrestling with a lot of problems in recent times as we all know.

"This really is compounding the rather negative reputation the region's developed."

source: http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story ... D=10413232

#2

There goes my vacation plans.

#3

Fascinating...

1. As you suggested Deepak, putting a coup to the wayside for a rugby game..? Priceless...

2. The fact that we'll hear about GWB stepping in a pile of shit before this ever becomes front page news..? Priceless...

#4

haha. Im actually leaving for fiji on december the 7th for a month. It will be quite interesting to see what happens next though. This thing has been making headlines in NZ ever since it started.

So im just hoping nothing bad happens anytime soon.