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Thousands take to streets to protest Fiji's government |
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April 29, 2000 SUVA, Fiji, APR 28 (UNB/AP) - Thousands of ethnic Fijians marched Friday through the capital Suva demanding the resignation of the Pacific nation's first Indian prime minister, Mahendra Chaudhry, who took office last May under a new constitution.
Among the crowd were members of the former government carrying a petition demanding the dissolution of the administration and protesting Chaudry's policies for the leasing of Fijian tribal land to non Fijians.
The officially sanctioned march was the first major anti-government demonstration since last year's election, won by Chaudhry in a landslide.
The petition, later delivered to a meeting of the Great Council of Fijian Chiefs currently in session in Suva, described Chaudhry's land leasing policies as "full of arrogance and confrontational."
It was not immediately clear how many people had signed the petition, which also said Fijians were concerned by Chaudhry's efforts to amend the constitution that came into force in 1999.
The new constitution replaced one imposed by a nationalist Fijian government after an army coup toppled the country's first Indian-dominated government, in which Chaudhry was finance minister, in 1987.
After starting with up to 2000 demonstrators, the procession swelled as spectators joined.
The protest was organized by supporters of the former ruling Soqosoqo ni Vakavulewa ni Tauei Party, or SVT, and included several former Cabinet ministers and two or three sitting opposition lawmakers.
Chaudhry has been meeting increasing hostility from Fijian nationalists since he became prime minister but his administration remains strong - his Labor Party holds 37 seats in the 71-seat House of Representatives and is supported by some 20 Fijian coalition allies.
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