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Deadlock broken on talks to release Fiji's hostages |
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June 24, 2000
SUVA, Fiji (AP) - Fiji's military rulers and gunmen holding 31members of the former government hostage reached a deal Friday that would see the captives released within days, key players on both sides said.
A rebel spokesman and an official involved in the negotiations said the two sides had agreed to terms under which Fiji's next government would be formed - the final hurdle to the release of the hostages.
"We have now reached an agreement," said Jo Brown, a government official involved in the negotiations.
He said military commander Commodore Frank Bainimarama and rebel leader George Speight would sign an accord on Saturday which would finally bring an end to the 36-day hostages crisis.
Asked if an agreement had been reached, rebel spokesman Jo Nata told The Associated Press, "Yes."
The announcement breaks a deadlock in negotiations between the two sides which has lasted for almost a week.
George Speight, the businessman who led a group of armed men who raided parliament on May 19 and took Prime Minister Mahendra Chaudhry and the Indian-led government hostage, held talks with the military for the sixth straight day Friday.
The military had earlier assumed executive power and imposed martial law, 10 days after Speight and his armed gang stormed parliament.
The talks had been to sort out details of an interim civilian government that would presumably lead Fiji to new elections within two years.
It was not immediately clear when the hostages would be released, but it was expected to be soon after the accord was signed.
Going into Friday's talks, both sides said the sticking points revolve around the makeup of the civilian interim government and the scope of the amnesty to be given to Speight and his men.
Neither Brown nor Nata gave details of the agreement reached.
Most of Speight's demands - that the 1997 multiracial constitution be thrown out and that Chaudhry, Fiji's first prime minister of Indian descent, be fired - have already been met.
The standoff has pitted Fiji's poor indigenous majority against its relatively affluent Indian minority - and spurred accusations in the international community that the once-idyllic island nation has descended into racist strife and intolerance.
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