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Chiefs meet Speight in latest attempt to break coup deadlock |
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June 10, 2000
SUVA, Fiji (AP) - An influential delegation of tribal chiefs met Friday with Fijian coup leader George Speight in the latest attempt to break the deadlock at parliament where he is holding the deposed prime minister and 30 other hostages.
The chiefs, from Fiji's economically powerful western provinces, want Speight to bring an end to the three-week standoff by releasing his hostages.
Although the chiefs carry little political power, they believe their economic muscle could be decisive in persuading Speight.
"A lot of the basis on which our economy relies is based in the western division - sugar, tourism, mining, pine," said the delegation's leader, Ratu Osea Gavidi.
"Altogether, if you add that up it comes to about 1 billion dollars (U.S. dlrs 500 million) in foreign exchange" each year, he said.
The chiefs, all dressed in traditional skirts, gave no details of their presentation as they entered parliament but they were understood to support Speight's view that a civilian government and not the army should be installed as an interim administration to guide Fiji back to democracy.
The delegation was expected to visit Fiji's military rulers, who seized power only after Speight had thrown Fiji into crisis, after their meeting with the rebels.
The army on Friday denied snubbing a four-man team from the Commonwealth, a group made of Britain and former colonies, that had planned to visit Friday on a fact-finding mission.
Spokesman Lt. Col. Filipo Tarakinikini said the army's request for a week's delay was based on its need to "fully appraise the situation" so they could properly brief the Commonwealth team, which was to have included the Australian and New Zealand foreign ministers and two other senior officials.
The Commonwealth could expel Fiji if it does not return to democratic rule, meaning an end to millions of dollars in development aid.
"We needed more time to prepare ourselves and to set our case out clearly to them," Tarakinikini said. "It's been oversimplified from a distance. They can't compare us with any other country in the world because we are different."
Australian officials believe Fiji's army wants the hostages freed before the Commonwealth team arrives.
"The Fijians didn't really want the delegation until they had resolved the hostage crisis," a spokesman for Australian Foreign Affairs Minister Alexander Downer said on customary condition of anonymity.
Police on Friday rejected a claim by Speight that a policeman shot dead last week in a skirmish between police, the army and Speight supporters had been accidentally killed by ricocheting bullets.
The officer was hit four times in the back as he sat in a police vehicle and Speight's theory was considered highly implausible by witnesses to the shooting.
"We are treating it as a murder," police spokeswoman Inspector Sera Bernard said.
Speight and his rebels launched their coup to win more power for Fiji's indigenous majority.
Prime Minister Mahendra Chaudhry, who remains a captive, was the first person to hold that post from the 44 percent of the Fiji's population who are ethnic Indian. The rebels want Fijians of Indian descent barred from leadership of this nation 3,620 kilometers (2,250 miles) northeast of Sydney, Australia.
Talks between Speight and the army broke down Saturday after military leader Commodore Frank Bainimarama said he would entertain no more of Speight's demands. Bainimarama already agreed to scrap the 1997 constitution - blamed by Fijians for giving too much power to Indians - and to oust Fiji's president.
The army declared martial law about a week after Speight and six gunmen stormed parliament and grabbed their hostages.
The political crisis has already begun to take a devastating toll on Fiji's economy. Government economists believe 200 million dollars (U.S. dlrs 100 million) in government revenue will be lost as a result of the coup and unemployment could rise by up to 20 percent.
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