Fiji military: Stolen guns breach amnesty

SUVA - Armed rebels who held the Fijian Government hostage for 56 days are not yet guaranteed immunity from prosecution because they have not handed back all their weapons, says the military.

An Army spokesman said a condition of the amnesty was the return of all arms, ammunition and stores stolen from the military before the May 19 coup.

Lieutenant-Colonel Filipo Tarakinkini said that at least 12 weapons were still unaccounted for and there could be no amnesty until all of them were returned.

Fiji's chief magistrate has already quoted the amnesty in throwing out charges against a man accused of attempted murder for shooting and wounding two soldiers and a cameraman outside the Suva parliamentary building.

Tarakinkini said the magistrate might have rushed into last Friday's judgment.

But rebel spokesman Joe Nata insisted the amnesty was in place, and said the Army had been invited last week to pick up the outstanding weapons.

Talks on forming a new Fiji Government resumed yesterday - ironically, a public holiday marking the 1997 multi-racial constitution that was abolished after the coup.

Rebel leader George Speight was demanding that the interim Prime Minister, former banker Laisenia Qarasa, be replaced by his choice, Adi Samanunu Cakobau. She has flown home from Malaysia where she was her country's High Commissioner.

Nata said the rebels would meet near Suva yesterday to work on a policy statement on indigenous Fijian rights as they awaited a decision on Cakobau, who is regarded as close to royalty. Her grandfather ceded Fiji to Britain in 1874.

Rebel supporters have occupied an important hydro-electric dam and have threatened to cut off the electricity supply to the capital if they are not happy with the make-up of the Government.

But Australia has threatened more sanctions if the rebels win more power and democracy is not restored.

Fiji's trade union movement has also warned it will step up its protests against the coup, telling local media it planned "smart sanctions and national protests" but giving no details.

Meanwhile, Mahendra Chaudhry's deposed Labour Party was meeting in Lautoka to consider how to set up a "government in exile" abroad.

"We have made the decision in principle, but it's a matter of timing and venue and logistics," said former Labour Senator Dalpat Rathod.

Chaudhry was Fiji's first ethnic Indian Prime Minister, but the rebels who seized him, his son and most of his cabinet won most of their demands for indigenous Fijian political domination.

- REUTERS