Fiji chiefs tell Iloilo to keep up good work

SUVA - Fiji's Great Council of Chiefs has reappointed Ratu Josefa Iloilo as President to steer the racially split South Pacific nation out of its post-coup political crisis.

"The Great Council of Chiefs has endorsed Ratu Josefa Iloilo as President," council chairman Ratu Epeli Ganilau said yesterday.

He said Iloilo and his deputy Ratu Jope Seniloli had been reappointed unopposed.

Fiji was left in political limbo when a court ruled on March 1 that the post-coup, military-backed interim Administration of Prime Minister Laisenia Qarase was illegal.

Qarase's Government was put in place after a May 2000 coup by nationalist rebels that toppled Fiji's first ethnic Indian Premier, Mahendra Chaudhry.

Iloilo, who had only two days of his term to run, will now consult chiefs before announcing if Parliament will be recalled, a Government of national unity appointed or a caretaker Government named, leading to fresh elections.

Qarase tendered his Government's resignation last week, but Iloilo rejected it, saying he wanted Qarase to remain in a caretaker role while he consulted the chiefs, an enclave of clan rulers.

Fiji media have speculated widely over recent days that Tupeni Baba, the former deputy to ousted Prime Minister Chaudhry, would be named to lead a Government of national unity in the island nation of some 800,000 people.

Qarase was put in place by Fiji's military after failed businessman George Speight launched a coup in the name of indigenous Fijian rights.

The coup by Speight and his nationalist rebels sparked widespread violence against the economically powerful Indian minority and toppled Chaudhry's elected Government.

Chaudhry was held hostage for 56 days before the military brokered a deal with the rebels for his release.

Following the court ruling against Fiji's interim Administration, Chaudhry has returned to Fiji and demanded to be reinstated as the head of the country's legitimate Government.

But political commentators have warned that a return of Chaudhry's Government could spark a repeat of the post-coup violence against Fiji's minority Indo-Fijian population.

- REUTERS

Herald Online feature: the Fiji coup

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