Fiji court security tight amid violence fears

SUVA - The Fijian capital Suva was under heavy security yesterday as a court of appeal hearing began on the legitimacy of the interim Government, imposed after an ethnically inspired coup last year.

Military checkpoints dotted roads around the city, while armed police and undercover Army officers patrolled the shopping district, market place and around the court house.

All police leave has been cancelled and the public has been refused entry to the court house in the former Parliament building in downtown Suva. Legal teams, politicians and journalists were searched before they were allowed in.

Many people fear that a ruling against the interim Government could spark racial and political violence.

The appeal court is made up of five judges - two from Australia and one each from New Zealand, Samoa and Tonga. They were appointed by the Fiji judiciary.

A ruling is expected early next week.

"Rumours cannot be taken lightly and our joint operation with the police is in full force monitoring every situation," said a military spokesman.

The country's first ethnic-Indian Prime Minister, Mahendra Chaudhry, was toppled last May by indigenous Fijian nationalist rebels led by failed businessman George Speight.

- REUTERS