|
News | Web Resources | Yellow Pages | Free Advertising | Chat
Bangladesh |
Immigration |
E-cards |
Horoscope |
Matrimonial |
|
Change Your Life! |
India calls for restoration of democratic government in Fiji |
|
News
|
|
|
January 7, 2001
NEW DELHI-- (AP) - Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee on Saturday called for the restoration of the first ethnic Indian prime minister's government in Fiji, which was toppled in a coup eight months ago. "The Indian Diaspora has an important role ... in seeking nothing less than a restoration of due constitutional process in Fiji as enshrined in the 1977 constitution," Prime Minister Vajpayee told 270 people of Indian origin from 25 countries attending a two-day conference in the Indian capital. The participants, from Fiji, Trinidad and Tobago, Australia, Canada, Mauritius, Indonesia and Malaysia, are discussing the problems faced by the people of Indian origin. Mahendra Chaudhry, Fiji's first ethnic Indian prime minister, and most of his ministers were held for 56 days by coup leader George Speight Speight and his men, beginning May 19, who said they wanted the country's constitution changed to reserve political power for indigenous Fijians. Ethnic Indians, most of them descended from indentured laborers brought to Fiji to work in sugar cane fields, make up about 44 percent of Fiji's 840,000 population. "India had watched with distress the overthrow of Chaudhry's democratically elected government," Prime Minister Vajpayee said, adding that a series of subsequent actions have hit at the people of Indian origin in that country and more particularly, the poorer among them. Speight, a failed businessman, has been detained on Nukulau, a small islet near the Fijian capital, Suva, since July when he and 17 supporters were charged with treason. A court is to decide whether Speight and other suspects should be tried for treason. If convicted, Speight and others will face the death penalty. |