Fijians storm police-station in Speight's support as deadline nears

Fijians storm police-station in Speight's support as deadline nears
REUTERS

SUVA, JULY 8: Fijian villagers on Saturday stormed a police-station and seized hostages as protests spread across the Pacific island-nation in support of nationalist rebel leader George Speight.

The protests raised the pressure on Fiji's military leaders ahead of a midnight (1730 IST) deadline they had set for Speight's armed group to free 27 political hostages, including the deposed ethnic Indian prime minister Mahendra Chaudhry.

``We want people to understand that we are doing the utmost to fix the situation,'' military spokesman Major Howard Politini said. ``People should just stay calm.''

In what appeared to be the most serious pro-rebel action, villagers stormed a police-station and took upto 30 hostages, including some police-officers.

It was one of at least four protests around the country in support of Speight, who stormed Parliament in the capital, Suva, in May and took Chaudhry and members of his multi-ethnic cabinet hostage in the name of indigenous rights.

The deadline for Speight to free his hostages has already been extended from Friday. Politini said the military expected to hold further talks with the rebels today seeking a deal that could lead to the hostages' release on Tuesday.

The United States said on Saturday its Ambassador to Fiji, Osman Siddique, had been recalled for consultations on the political crisis and repeated it was considering steps that could have a ``serious impact'' on the island-nation.

Outside Suva, the military faced outbreaks of unrest in support of the rebels' demands -- notably the further entrenchment of land rights for indigenous Fijians at the expense of the Indian minority who tend the nation's sugarcane fields.

At Korovou, about 40 km east of Suva, about 150 villagers invaded the police-station and took upto 30 hostages, including some policemen.

The villagers had seized rifles from soldiers manning road-blocks near the village and set up road-blocks of their own to seal off the town, witnesses said.

``This is the gradual start of the overthrow of the whole country,'' protester Eferemi Tiko said in Korovou, brandishing an automatic weapon. He said he was Speight's cousin.

There were no reports of injuries and military spokesman Politini said the villagers had assured the military that the hostages would not be hurt.

``We don't expect them to come out overnight but we have been assured that it will remain peaceful,'' Politini said.

Political analysts question whether the military, dominated by indigenous Fijians, has the will to force an end to the crisis and it was not clear how far local police and soldiers in Korovou had resisted the takeover.

``We wanted to avoid bloodshed so we just asked (the soldiers) frankly to hand over their weapons,'' the youthful Tiko said.

In Lambasa on Fiji's second-largest island, Vanua Levu, some 100 land-owners have occupied a military base for several days.

Closer to Suva, four employees of the state-run power company are being detained by a small group who have cut power to many parts of the main island Viti Levu, forcing the reactivation of an old diesel-generated power station to supply the capital.

About 40 indigenous Fijians blocked a main road on the outskirts of Suva on Saturday.

The military was offering Speight a compromise that would involve a greater role in resolving the crisis for the tribal elders who make up the great council of chiefs.

The military announced a new indigenous government on Monday, but has said it would retain executive power until the hostages are freed. However, dissent appears to be growing among indigenous Fijians about who should govern the country.

Fijian land-owners complain that the military shows no will to strengthen their rights over land leased to ethnic Indians, whose ancestors were brought to Fiji in the 19th century by the British colonisers to work in the sugar-cane fields. Indians now make up about 44 per cent of Fiji's 800,000 population.

``The soldiers can't shoot their own people so they are really in a dilemma,'' military spokesman Lt Col Filipo Tarakinikini said on CNN Television. ``The situation can't be solved militarily. The solution has to be a political one.''