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SUVA - Fiji's coup leader says his military regime can rule for "up to 50 years" if the nation's powerful tribal chiefs continue to block his push to reappoint an interim government.
Military commander Frank Bainimarama has been pressuring the Great Council of Chiefs to appoint a new President, who can then swear in his military-appointed Cabinet.
But the council has remained loyal to the government of ousted Prime Minister Laisenia Qarase, and has demanded his reinstatement and a return to democracy.
The council, which is responsible for appointing the President and Vice-President, will meet to discuss the crisis next week.
Commodore Bainimarama told local radio he had not yet been invited to the meeting, but he had a stark warning for the chiefs.
"If the Great Council decides to hold off appointing a President, this transitional regime can rule for up to 50 years," he said.
His remarks came as soldiers raided more offices looking for files the coup- makers say are evidence of the ousted government's corruption.
Troops entered the offices of the Native Land Trust Board and the Fijian Affairs Board and seized documents - the latest raids in what Commodore Bainimarama has called a campaign to clean up corruption rife within the ousted regime.
He grabbed power on December 5 after months of spatting with Mr Qarase over the alleged corruption and planned legislation that offered pardons to plotters in a 2000 coup and would have handed lucrative rights to coastal land to Fiji's indigenous majority.
Commodore Bainimarama says Mr Qarase's nationalist government disadvantaged the ethnic Indian minority.
Military checkpoints manned by armed troops remained in place in the key towns of Suva and Nadi yesterday, with some motorists stopping briefly to hand cool drinks, fruit and flowers to the soldiers.
The military chief also told the chiefs that if they were working to have Mr Qarase reinstated, they had better think again.
He strongly rejected Mr Qarase's claims that a raft of sackings in key government posts had denied Fiji of some of the most competent people in its civil service.
"There are hundreds of people who can do a much better job than the dismissed government," Commodore Bainimarama said.
The military regime has put the broom through top bureaucratic posts since the coup, sacking top police, finance and other officials in its promised "clean-up".
Council of Chiefs chairman Ratu Ovini Bokini refused to comment on the commodore's latest outburst.
Meanwhile, former Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka - who led two military coups in 1987 - blamed Mr Qarase and President Ratu Josefa Iloilo for failing to prevent the latest coup in the months of rising tensions before the takeover.
- AAP
