Fiji talks on pre-holiday hold

SUVA - Talks to resolve Fiji's political crisis were on hold yesterday as the nation prepared for a day off to mark a multiracial constitution scrapped at the insistence of rebels now demanding a major role in government.

"You're joking," said presidential senior aide Joe Browne when asked if any ceremonies were planned to mark Fiji's Constitution Day holiday today.

"What is there to celebrate under the prevailing circumstances?" he said.

The rebels, who plunged the country into crisis nine weeks ago, have warned of fresh unrest unless the Government sacks the military-backed Prime Minister and replace him with their own choice of a woman chief, Adi Samanuna Cakobau.

The rebels also want more of their supporters named to other key positions.

President Ratu Josefa Iloilo is trying to install the new Prime Minister and Government to fill the political vacuum created when the rebels took Fiji's first ethnic Indian Prime Minister Mahendra Chaudhry hostage on May 19, bringing down his Government.

The coup and weeks of political instability have prompted international sanctions and crippled Fiji's economy. Australia yesterday threatened new sanctions against Fiji if the rebels gained more control in the new Government.

"If Mr Speight became a member of the new cabinet, I think frankly Australia, New Zealand, Britain, the United States, Japan and others would have to review the measures we've already taken towards Fiji," Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said.

The rebels held Chaudhry and most of his cabinet hostage in Parliament for 56 days before the military bowed to their demands to consolidate indigenous Fijian political domination and strip ethnic Indians of political power. Among demands was the scrapping of Fiji's acclaimed 1997 constitution, which led to Chaudhry's sweeping election win last year.

Browne said talks between the President's office, the caretaker Government, headed by Prime Minister Lausenia Qarase, and the rebels could resume today.

- REUTERS

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