Editorial: Echoes of Uganda in Fijian horrors

There is a chilling familiarity about the plight of ethnic Indians in the Fijian village of Vunikasi. The looting and torching of homes and robbery at knifepoint evoke horrific images seen all too recently in Bosnia and Kosovo. If the terror and racial hatred unleashed by George Speight's storming of Parliament has stopped short of ethnic cleansing, that may say more about the inaccessibility of firearms than the depth of resentment harboured by many indigenous Fijians. So powerful is their hatred in villages such as Vunikasi that it is not unreasonable to question the very future for ethnic Indians in Fiji.

The Indians' plight would be salved by a genuine will to restore the country's democratically elected Government and its first ethnic Indian Prime Minister. Moral authority for that exercise resides squarely with the Great Council of Chiefs. The lack of resolve of that group has sent out a frightening message to Fiji's Indians. The council has prevaricated, rather than throwing its weight behind the country's multi-racial constitution and issuing an outright condemnation of Speight and his wish to restore the political supremacy of indigenous Fijians.

The council's contempt for democratic principles is clear to see. A limp request to Speight to release Prime Minister Mahendra Chaudhry, and lukewarm support for President Ratu Sir Kamisese Mara, was the sum of one day of talks. Worse still, it has been prepared to consider granting the rebels immunity from prosecution, dissolve Parliament and appoint a new interim government. Its support for Ratu Mara is effectively conditional on the ousting of Mr Chaudhry, a move that would prepare the ground for restoring power to the indigenous Fijians.

Thirteen years ago, a coup started Fiji along exactly the same path. It was a dead end. Along the way, Fiji became an outcast and its economy was seriously damaged. The Great Council of Chiefs is far from helpless to prevent a repeat, even if it may chose to portray itself as such. The bulk of the military has remained loyal, and Speight's position is hardly strong. His appeal to the international media for indigenous Fijians to be left to their own devices has attracted deserved derision. An invitation to supporters to join him might be nothing more than a desperate and cynical ploy to make the rescue of his hostages more difficult.

A strong stand against Speight by the Great Council of Chiefs would have received the full backing of the international community, including Commonwealth and United Nations representatives who are already in Suva. The council's only fair response is to orchestrate a return to the situation which prevailed before the attempted putsch. A democratically elected Government should be allowed to run its course, the best efforts of gun-toting hoodlums notwithstanding. The dissolving of Parliament and the holding of new elections would potentially penalise the Labour-led coalition Government. Any changes to the country's multiracial constitution would be a giant and untenable step backwards.

If Fiji's terror rekindles images of Kosovo, a potentially closer parallel may lie with Idi Amin's expulsion of Asians from Uganda in 1972. These Asians, many of them Indians, were likewise accused of not having the country's welfare at heart, although they were Uganda's commercial heartbeat. Amin's madness was plain. A similar lunacy threatens to engulf Fiji. If, on demand or by desire, Fiji's Indians flee the country, blame for the chaos that ensues will rest squarely with those who chose to condone racial hatred.



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Main players in the Fiji coup

Under seige: map of the Parliament complex