|
|
Change Your Life! |
Rebels free 9 hostages and 40 tourists |
|
News
|
|
|
July 13, 2000
SUVA (AP) - Fijian rebels freed nine of the 27 hostages they have been holding in Parliament for nearly two months on Wednesday, raising hopes that the Pacific island nation's government crisis was nearing an end. But despite the release, there were ominous signs of civil order unraveling elsewhere in the country. Another rebel group - apparently seeking talks about a land dispute - seized the exclusive Turtle Island beach resort where the movie "The Blue Lagoon" was filmed, briefly holding 40 tourists. And about 70 people, also wanting to discuss land rights, gathered outside Suva's airport. Airlines said they were operating normally, but advised travelers to check their flight before leaving for the airport. The nine released lawmakers were all the ethnic Indian members of parliament held except for deposed Prime Minister Mahendra Chaudhry and his son. The other remaining hostages are ethnic Fijian legislators. "Put anyone in captivity for eight weeks with armed people and you feel it ... the stress and worry, confinement and fear, constant fear of anything bad happening," freed hostage Deo Narain said. Three more former hostages, Leo Smith, Anand Singh and Anup Kumar, attended an emotional prayer vigil at Suva's Anglican cathedral with about 150 relatives of hostages. Singh, Fiji's deposed attorney general, told the congregation he was delighted to be free and thanked supporters for packages they sent to hostages during their captivity. "A bar of chocolate was like gold to us," he said. The release came three days after rebels leader George Speight signed an agreement with Fiji's military government to end the hostage crisis. Under the deal, Speight was supposed to release all his hostages Thursday. Fiji's crisis began May 19 when rebels stormed Parliament and took several dozen hostages, including Chaudhry - the nation's first leader from the large ethnic Indian minority. Speight's spokesman, Jo Nata, said nine hostages were released early Wednesday as a good will gesture and to prevent a "stampede" if all hostages were released together. Also, the hostages themselves had asked to be released at night "to avoid the humiliation of being liberated in front of our supporters," Nata said. Speight's rebels are ethnic Fijians who say the Indian minority has too much power. They demanded that the country's multiracial constitution be scrapped and that Chaudhry be deposed. The military seized control May 29 following violence and looting in the wake of the coup. On Sunday, after weeks of negotiations, military leaders caved in to all Speight's demands and he agreed to free the hostages. Unrest has persisted despite the deal. Speight supporters have occupied police stations and blocked roads across the nation in an apparent effort to wring more concessions from the military, including Speight's possible appointment as prime minister. On Turtle Island, the 40 resort guests were detained overnight and released Wednesday morning, when they boarded a cruise ship to Fiji's main island, Viti Levu, from where they planned to fly home. The tourists were 19 Australians, 15 Americans, four New Zealanders two Britons. Eleven were children. The military briefly detained Associated Press photographer Rob Griffith and a New Zealand television cameraman as they took pictures of the tourists arriving in the northern port of Lautoka. Both men were released without charge. The resort's owner, American Richard Evanson, was still being held in a hotel room and rebels said they wanted to talk to him about ownership of the island, resort manager Robert Bestford said. Members of the resort rebel group, some of whom were armed with knives, said they support Speight. But they could be claiming rebel affiliation to take advantage of an amnesty being offered for political crimes related to the hostage crisis. They were believed to be from a tribe in the Yawawa islets off Viti Levu's northwest coast who for years have been involved in a dispute over who owns Turtle Island. In other unrest, Speight supporters occupied the police station at Labasa, on the island of Vanua Levu. Five people were reported injured, one of them seriously, by gunfire. Indo-Fijians, whose ancestors were brought to the islands by British colonialists over a century ago to work in the rich sugar cane fields, make up 44 percent of Fiji's 812,000 people. Many indigenous Fijians, who make up 51 percent of the population, resent the Indo-Fijians' economic and political clout. Fiji's tourist industry has been devastated by the government crisis, with some of the hundreds of resort hotels scattered across dozens of islands reporting occupancy rates as low as 10 percent.
|