Defiant Speight scoffs as military gets tough

By EUGENE BINGHAM in Suva

Fiji's political crisis deteriorated to the point of a showdown last night, with hostage-taker George Speight digging in despite an Army ultimatum and the collapse of talks.

The military ruler, Commodore Frank Bainimarama, told Speight to forget any deals or aspirations of power and pulled the plug on further negotiations.

Commodore Bainimarama turned directly to the people of Fiji to signal his new hardline attitude, addressing the nation to make his stand clear.

"We will not entertain any more demands by George Speight and his men," he said in a speech on radio and television.

It ended a charade of conciliation with the rebel group and showed the military had heard international threats of isolation loud and clear.

But behind the gates of Suva's parliamentary complex where the deposed Government of Mahendra Chaudhry remains at gunpoint, Speight lashed out at the Army and said he would remain firm in his resolve to install a racially biased government of his choosing.

"I can wait here for as long as I have to and if the Army doesn't come on side, we're not too concerned about that," Speight said.

"I'm not in any corner - [Commodore Bainimarama] is the one in the corner."

Speight said his group would shoot hostages if the Army forced its way into the compound, though he was confident that would not happen. "I do not believe that the hostages' lives are in danger. That is not the issue."

The Army confirmed it did not want any bloodshed either. "We are not here to battle anyone - we have not even considered the military option as a means of freeing the hostages," the commodore said.

Quite how the standoff would end was unclear last night.

Since the military imposed martial law last week, negotiators have talked to Speight and tried to nail him down to a deal under which the captive MPs could be freed.

Last Thursday night, the Army was confident it had reached an agreement, but this broke down over the weekend, with Speight returning to a demand for the retention of executive authority.

Yesterday, the military stopped talking. Members of the counter-revolutionary squad who joined Speight in storming Parliament on May 19 were stripped of their ranks as Commodore Bainimarama made his speech.

He demanded the immediate release of the hostages and the laying down of firearms in exchange for an amnesty to those responsible for the raid on Parliament.

"We have offered them an easy way out through the amnesty and we would like them to leave, let the hostages leave and return the arms so we can bring back some normalcy to our lives."

One of Speight's main demands was for inclusion of his people in positions of power.

"We have stated that this is impossible for one simple reason. There has been a lot of talk of backlash - not only from the local community but from the overseas community - if any member of George Speight's team is included in the interim government."

The European Union had already said it would stop buying sugar from Fiji if that happened.

"These are some of the concerns that we have to take into account to bring some credibility to the government that we intend to bring Fiji back to normalcy."

The military wants to continue to rule Fiji for three months after the release of the hostages before handing power over to an interim civilian government which will pave the way for elections.

Speight, however, claimed last night that the military could not be trusted to run the country and that it was the Army that was endangering the country, not him.

George Speight talks to IRN's Barry Soper

(10 min).