Deadline passes with no deal on Fiji hostages

11:00 AM

SUVA - Fiji's nationalist rebels were still holding 27 political hostages on Sunday after yet another deadline set by the country's military rulers passed with no firm agreement on when the captives would be released.

The military said it expected talks to resume later on Sunday on its bid to persuade rebel leader George Speight to free the hostages, including deposed ethnic Indian prime minister Mahendra Chaudhry, possibly on Tuesday.

"Both sides have to hold their own discussions but we will meet again on Sunday," military spokesman Major Howard Politini told Reuters.

But the military gave no indication they intended to increase pressure on Speight and his supporters to leave the parliamentary compound where they are holed up after a midnight deadline passed without incident.

Speight supporters were also holding some 30 hostages in a police station in Korovou village, about an hour's drive from Suva, after unrest in support of the rebels spread across the Pacific island nation.

The Korovou villagers seized rifles from soldiers manning roadblocks and set up barricades of their own to seal off the town, witnesses said. They were holding up to 30 hostages, some of them policemen, at the police station.

Asked if the military intended to intervene to release those hostages, Politini said: "No, it is very peaceful there."

On Sunday, police said that one of Speight's supporters, injured in a skirmish with the military on July 4, had died in hospital.

The death was the second in the crisis. A policeman was killed in a brief outburst of mob violence in May.

The military was offering Speight a compromise that would involve a greater role in resolving the crisis for the tribal elders who make up the Great Council of Chiefs. The hostages would be freed on the day the council convened, probably Tuesday, the military said.

Rebel spokesman Joe Nata told Reuters late on Saturday: "There is a lot of goodwill and positive attitudes and I am sure we could agree on an accord by tomorrow which perhaps would be ready for signing."

The United States said on Saturday its ambassador to Fiji, Osman Siddique, had been recalled for consultations and repeated it was weighing steps that could have a "serious impact" on Fiji.

Outside Suva, the military has faced outbreaks of unrest in support of the rebels' demands - notably the further entrenchment of land rights for indigenous Fijians at the expense of the Indian minority who tend the sugar cane fields.

There were at least four protests around the Pacific island nation on Saturday. However, there were no reports of injuries and Sunday was expected to be quieter as staunchly Christian Fijians observed what is traditionally a day of rest.

- REUTERS

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