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Fiji rebel leader meets military to discuss latest demands |
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June 5, 2000 SUVA, JUNE 4 (AP) - Rebel leader George Speight spent Sunday airing his latest demands to Fiji's military government - and he said later a new trust was developing but gave no word on when he might free his hostages.
Speight said negotiators had held nine hours of "cordial talks," but he offered few details beyond noting that one significant remaining issue is disagreement over how Fiji will be governed once the standoff ends.
"We are well on the way now that the initial barriers of concern have been broken down," Speight told reporters, without elaboration. "We have come a long way."
It was unclear from Speight's remarks whether the two sides had drawn closer to ending the crisis - and the military appeared to be playing down any expectations of a quick resolution.
Speight wants the martial law regime of Commodore Frank Bainimarama to give up power on his terms.
But Bainimarama has said he wants to oversee an eventual transition back to democracy - which was shattered in Fiji after Speight took the government hostage last last month and demanded a new constitution that discriminates against the tiny nation's ethnic Indian minority.
Speight's earlier plan to release his more than 30 captives - including deposed Prime Minister Mahendra Chaudhry - over the weekend collapsed Saturday when he accused the military regime of bargaining in bad faith.
But after Speight came up with a new wish list late Saturday that in effect would let him choose Fiji's next government, any resolution seemed far off.
"We are trying our best to resolve the situation," army spokesman Lt. Col. Filipo Tarakinikini said Sunday. The military appeared Sunday to be playing down hopes of a quick ending, after predicting as recently as Saturday morning that a deal was near.
Tarakinikini, who is part of the military's negotiating team, would not disclose whether any progress was being made Sunday. But he said the negotiators were "back on track" in their search for "a politically and culturally acceptable solution."
After talks ended for the day, Speight left Bainimarama's barracks headquarters to return across town to the parliamentary complex where the hostages have been held since Speight and six other armed gunmen stormed the place on May 19.
The two sides planned to meet again on Monday, the military said. Speight has been emboldened by his confidence that the military won't try to rescue the hostages by attacking.
And although many of his early goals have been accomplished, including the scrapping of Fiji's constitution and the removal of the president, he came up with more demands Saturday in a nine-point proposal for ending the crisis that would effectively let him pick Fiji's next government.
"The army will never attack Fijians. Never," Speight said in an interview aired Sunday on Australia's Channel Nine television. Speight also said he had offered his four female hostages freedom on Saturday but they refused to leave, preferring to stay with their colleagues in a show of support.
"We asked the ladies today ... if they wished to go home today, or sometime this weekend," Speight said in the interview, recorded Saturday. "And they chose not to. They want to stay."
Although both sides had been reporting breakthroughs by the end of last week, Speight on Saturday accused the military of plotting to keep power in Fiji - which the military has denied.
"It really looks like the army's come in ... to take the cream, you know, off the top of the cake, you know, for their own personal motives," Speight told the "Sunday" program on Channel Nine.
Speaking on a local Fijian current affairs television show, Tarakinikini on Sunday thanked Fiji's Indian community for showing patience while the hostages are still being held.
Chaudhry was Fiji's first prime minister of Indian descent. "We are most grateful they are willing to stand by and allow the army to bring the country to normalcy - then we can begin a dialogue," Tarakinikini said.
Although Speight claims to represent all indigenous Fijians, many have rallied against him and expressed support for Chaudhry's government.
Fiji's ethnic Indians control many businesses and Speight wants to prevent them from running the country ever again. Rich trading partners including the United States, Australia and New Zealand have threatened to impose economic sanctions if Fiji, 3,620 kilometers (2,250 miles) northeast of Sydney, Australia, doesn't return to democratic rule.
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