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Change Your Life! |
Fiji’s new president with Parkinson’s disease |
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July 19, 2000
SUVA (AP) - Fiji's new president, a frail and elderly tribal chief, committed himself Tuesday to forging reconciliation in his ethnically divided South Pacific nation. Ratu Josefa Iloilo, his left hand shaking with Parkinson's disease was sworn in at an all-Fijian ceremony in the stately official residence overlooking the capital city's harbor. "We are one, as one nation and one people," Iloilo told an audience that included nationalist coup leader George Speight, the country's former military head of state Commodore Frank Bainimarama, and 1987 coup leader and former Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka. Iloilo - Speight's hand-picked choice for president, said he would be "dedicated to promoting national unity and encouraging moderation, inclusiveness, consideration and compassion of all in our country." "We are pleased, it's a good day for the Fijian people," Speight said. Iloilo is expected to name a new Cabinet within days and the world is waiting to see if it will include Speight supporters. If it does, Fiji is likely to be slapped with international sanctions.
New Zealand did not wait even for the Cabinet lineup to be announced, imposing sanctions Monday. Australia was expected to announce limited sanctions later Tuesday. New Zealand tailored its penalties to do as little harm as possible to Fiji's ethnic Indian minority, the victims of Speight's coup. Australia was expected to do the same. Asked if he would find ethnic Indians acceptable in the Cabinet, Speight replied, "Not at the moment, not if I can help it." He described deposed Prime Minister Mahendra Chaudhry's declared intention to return to office as "misguided." Asked about Chaudhry being beaten up while held by Speight and his gang of gunmen for two months in Fiji's Parliament, Speight said, "He's OK, he was roughed up once and beaten once, he's lucky he's alive." The nature of the new Cabinet remains unclear. Speight has released a list of supporters he wants in it, including Ratu Epeli Kanaimawi as prime minister. But the present prime minister, Laisenia Qarase, may stay in the post he was appointed to just last week. Although Speight initially rejected him, Qarase's prospects rose last Friday when he released a blueprint for Fiji's future guaranteeing political superiority and affirmative action for indigenous Fijians and promising redistribution of resources to benefit them. Those were the stated goals of the May 19 coup that Speight led. The last 18 of dozens of legislators taken hostage in Parliament were freed last Thursday as part of a deal that Speight said would disenfranchise ethnic Indians, who make up 44 percent of the population. Local media reported that Qarase was trying to put together a Cabinet that would include two ethnic Indians and four women. Speight has threatened a renewal of civil disturbances that derailed Fiji for 11 days before the hostage release if he finds the Cabinet unacceptable and if his backers do not dominate a commission that will write a new constitution. Rabuka, who heads the influential Great Council of Chiefs, said Tuesday he could not rule out a second coup in Fiji if Speight does not get what he wants and predicted the situation will get worse before it gets better. "We will have to heal the wounds of the last two months," he said. Later Tuesday, Speight supporters were planning to bury their only fatality from the two-month crisis - an elite soldier shot in a gun battle outside Parliament two weeks ago. The man was to be buried beneath the parliamentary flagpole.
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