Fiji soldier, policeman killed

SUVA - Suspected nationalist rebels in Fiji shot and killed a soldier and a policeman yesterday in the worst act of violence in the country's nearly three-month political crisis.

Two soldiers were wounded, one of them seriously, by the gunmen, who were believed to be supporters of jailed coup leader George Speight, military spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel Filipo Tarakinikini said.

An Army officer and a police corporal, an ethnic Indian, were hit in the first volley of shots from the rebels. The soldier died of a second gunshot received some time later, Tarakinikini said.

Though he doubted the incident was a deliberate ambush, he said the rebels were shooting to kill. "Oh yes, it's cold-blooded murder.

"We believe it is George Speight supporters with weapons [who] are moving around in that area."

The security men were investigating reports of shots being fired at an Indian family from a van in a rural area when the attack took place.

One of the wounded soldiers was in a serious condition with a chest wound. Another was shot in the hand.

Speight triggered Fiji's festering crisis when he stormed Parliament on May 19 in the name of indigenous Fijian rights, taking ethnic Indian Prime Minister Mahendra Chaudhry and most of his cabinet hostage for 56 days.

Tarakinikini said the patrol found an empty van in a wooded area where shooting had been reported.

Shots rang out as they drove up to it and surprised the gang of five men. The military returned fire but it was not known if any rebels were hit.

Military roadblocks around Suva increased shortly after the attack and the capital was tense but quiet.

"Fiji is no longer a safe place," one Suva businessman said.

A grim-faced military commander Commodore Frank Bainimarama inspected the scene of the shooting but would not comment.

The shooting occurred in the tiny farming community of Sawani, about 10km north of Suva, in Speight's home district of Naitasiri.

Troops were still searching for 27 weapons stolen by rebels and used in the May takeover of Parliament.

Speight and 12 key aides are being held on the prison island of Nukulau after being remanded on minor charges during a lengthy court appearance on Saturday.

The case against them on five charges of firearms offences, illegal assembly and the illegal burial of a body inside the Parliament grounds will begin on September 1.

More than 450 of his supporters have also been arrested.

Speight is also being investigated for treason. The offence carries the death penalty, but it has not been carried out since Fiji's independence from Britain in 1970.

- REUTERS