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Fiji rebel leader charged with minor crimes |
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August 2, 2000
SUVA (AP) - Rebel leader George Speight has been charged with crimes related to a wave of civil unrest in Fiji which followed his coup in May, police said Tuesday.
The charges - against Speight and a small group of key advisers - did not include treason, although an investigation into that charge was still underway, assistant Police Commissioner Moses Driver said. "Speight has been charged with minor charges only but we are of course investigating the major crime of treason," Driver told The Associated Press. The charges also fell outside an amnesty period granted between the time rebel gunmen stormed Parliament on May 19 and the date that the last of their dozens of hostages were released on July 13, Driver said. Speight and his group were charged late Monday with unlawful assembly, a minor crime which carries a maximum penalty of one year in prison. Speight also was charged with assisting in the illegal burial of a body in Parliament - Speight was among mourners when a rebel killed in a gunbattle was buried July 18 - and with consorting with people who were illegally armed. The maximum sentences for those crimes were not immediately clear. Also Monday, interim Prime Minister Laisenia Qarase toured parliament to witness first hand the damage caused during the 8-week hostage standoff, and the military moved to crackdown further on pockets of violence in areas loyal to Speight. "We have seen the extent of the desecration and destruction of the facilities of the finest institution in the country," Qarase told parliamentary staff who were cleaning the complex. "It is a national disgrace. It is difficult to believe that so few people can inflict so much damage and bring so much pain to the rest of the country." Rebels ransacked parliamentary offices and the main chamber, and left burnt-out cars and garbage strewn throughout the grounds. Local media reported that gangs of young men continued to terrorize ethnic Indians on Fiji's second largest island and a town north of Suva, burning houses, threatening people and stealing cattle. Military spokesman Maj. Howard Politini said extra troops had been sent to the two areas as part of a "mop-up" operation targetting rebel strongholds. Politini said seven other of Speight inner circle were arrested Tuesday, the day after scores of rebel supporters, many with black eyes and bandaged wounds, were hauled into court as prosecutors pressed the first charges stemming from the coup. The suspects' injuries were believed to have been incurred during arrest. Almost all were charged with unlawful assembly, pleaded innocent and released on bail. All face a maximum year in prison if convicted. They were among more than 350 coup supporters who were arrested in a tear gas raid on a rebel stronghold last week in a military crackdown that also netted Speight and his key advisers. Members of Speight's group, being held on a prison island off Suva, the capital, were not expected to appear in court immediately. Speight's lawyer said Monday he wanted the rebel leader brought before the court as soon as possible. He also claimed Speight and others in his group had been injured during their detention. He did not give details. Speight had earlier threatened a new campaign of civil unrest unless the new Cabinet was stacked with his supporters. The military said it was also investigating allegations that he threatened President Ratu Josefa Iloilo, a treasonable offense which carries a maximum penalty of death. Speight, a failed businessman, led the armed gang that stormed Parliament and held dozens of officials for two months until the military met rebel demands for an amnesty, discarding the multiracial constitution and ousting the government. Australia and New Zealand led international condemnation of Fiji for abandoning democracy after the coup, staged by nationalists who demanded political supremacy for indigenous Fijians over the large ethnic Indian minority. The installation of an interim government and the military crackdown signaled an apparent end to widespread civil unrest, although isolated attacks continue on Indo-Fijians. Speight claimed that ethnic Indians have too much power and are threatening Fijian culture. Ethnic Indians - whose ancestors were brought to Fiji in the 1870s by British colonialists as indentured laborers - make up 44 percent of Fiji's 814,000 population and dominate business and commerce. The new government is strongly pro-indigenous Fijian, though it includes no close Speight supporters. Qarase has promised to pursue a nationalist agenda, appointing a commission to rewrite the constitution to strengthen indigenous Fijians' hold on power before elections are held, possibly in three years. More Related Stories Mahendra Chaudhry arrives in Australia - Dated on July 31, 2000 President swears in new Fijian government - Dated on July 29, 2000 Hard Luck George Speight - Dated on July 28, 2000
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