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July 27, 2000
Suba, Fiji (AP) Fiji coup leader George Speight, who stormed Parliament in May and took most of the cabinet hostage, was arrested Wednesday after an apparent shootout with the military.
Speight and at least two of his associates were accused of violating curfew. He was also expected to be charged with weapons offenses and threatening the president. He was stopped on a bridge after he left a school in Kalabu, 12 miles east of Suva, where he has been holed up since releasing his hostages on July 13, the military said.
"There's a number of allegations that were being brought to us about the carriage of arms in and around Suva by George Speight and his bodyguards and about threats to the head of state," military spokesman Lt. Col. Filipo Tarakinikini told Reuters.
There were no details about the threats to Fiji's head of state, ailing 79-year-old President Ratu Josefa Iloilo. Speight and all his supporters were granted an amnesty as part of a recent deal to release the last of his hostages.
The military said Speight and his followers had failed to turn in all their weapons, which was a condition for the amnesty. Speight and a gang of gunmen stormed Parliament on May 19, claiming it was on behalf of indigenous Fijians in the country. They held Fiji's first ethnic Indian prime minister, Mahendra Chaudhry, and most of his multiracial cabinet hostage for 56 days.
Shots fired during the arrest Tarakinikini said five shots were fired before Speight, his legal adviser Tevita Bukaru, his spokesman Joe Nata and a bodyguard were arrested. There were no immediate reports of injuries.
Initial reports were that Speight, Bukaru and Nata were being held at a police station in Nausori on the outskirts of Suva. Another military spokesman, Lt. Semi Koroi, told CNN that the arrest involved weapons, which were confiscated.
Earlier Wednesday, the army said it would hold Speight responsible for crimes allegedly still being committed by his supporters. The military bolstered its presence across the Pacific island nation Wednesday in preparation for any rebel violence that might follow the announcement of a new government.
President Iloilo kept up efforts to form the new government Wednesday amid threats of reprisals from the rebels who forced the ouster of the previous administration. A presidential aide, Suliasi Turagabeci, said the lineup had been settled and would be announced Thursday, Radio FM96 reported.
Speight had warned of new violence Speight has threatened new unrest if his nationalist candidate for prime minister, 60-year-old diplomat Adi Samanunu Cakobau, is not accepted in place of military-backed caretaker Premier Laisenia Qarase.
"The people could react," Speight earlier told Reuters at the school where about 100 of his supporters have gathered. Speight's takeover of Parliament prompted widespread civil unrest and attacks against ethnic Indians, economic paralysis and international censure.
Indians, who first came to Fiji in the late 1870s as indentured labor, make up 44 percent of Fiji's 814,000 population and now dominate commerce and industry.
In exchange for the hostages' release, the military -- which imposed martial law during the crisis -- agreed to replace Chaudhry's government as well as scrap the multiracial constitution. EU to impose sanctions Demanding that Fiji return to democracy, the European Union has become the latest group to move toward sanctions.
The United States, Australia and New Zealand have already imposed them, and a contingent of 36 Fijian soldiers was sent home from New Zealand on Wednesday. The EU warned it could suspend Fiji's trade privileges and development aid granted under the Lome Agreement between the EU and 71 African, Caribbean and Pacific nations. Under the agreement, the EU pays Fiji around 25 million euros (about $23 million) yearly in development aid. Favorable trade terms in the agreement allow Fiji to export some 140 million euros (about $130 million) a year to the EU, mostly sugar products. |
