Landowners sabotage Suva power

By NAOMI LARKIN and REUTERS

SUVA - The Fijian capital was plunged into darkness for about five hours last night after landowners sabotaged the power plant that supplies electricity to Suva and took hostages.

Tensions rose markedly in the capital, where nationalist rebels are holding 27 political hostages, after the landowners, from Monasavu, took over the supply station in the centre of the main island, Viti Levu.

Fiji's military rulers refused to comment on the blackout, which has affected most of Viti Levu, but the Fiji Electricity Authority general manager, Kasa Saubulinayau, confirmed that the landowners had taken charge.

Mr Saubulinayau said his workers were being held prisoner inside the building but it was unclear what the hostage-takers' intentions were.

The lights came back on in Suva streets at 9.30 pm.

About 300 landowners yesterday gathered outside Fiji's main military barracks, calling for the protection of indigenous rights and protesting against a new interim civilian Government sworn in by the military on Tuesday.

Fiji's military appears to be playing a two-handed game to solve the hostage crisis by enforcing tonight's exclusion zone deadline while reopening talks with the rebel leaders.

The Army yesterday sent trucks to help transport residents living around Suva's strife-torn parliamentary complex to their villages or to friends' homes. Under the military exclusion zone, which came into effect at midnight on Wednesday, residents within a specified area around Parliament, and coup supporters inside the complex, have until midnight tonight to get out.

Under the decree, ordered by the Head of State, Commodore Frank Bainimarama, the Army will view all those remaining within the zone as hostile and arrest them.

However, the enforcement of the exclusion zone comes amid signs that the military may not have abandoned all hope of negotiating an end to the seven-week-old crisis and the release of the country's former Prime Minister Mahendra Chaudhry and his ministers.

Yesterday, the former head of the Fiji Military Forces, Ratu Epeli Ganilau, held five hours of talks in a building inside Parliament Grounds with the coup mastermind and former trainer of the Army's counter-revolutionary unit, Major Ilisoni Ligairi.

Both men come from the Cakaudrove province, where Ratu Epeli is a chief. He is also Ligairi's former commander. As a member of the Security Council, Ratu Epeli is a key adviser to Commodore Bainimarama.

Although neither man was commenting yesterday they have agreed to meet again today and have indicated that their discussion focused on resuming talks between the military and the rebels.

But for Suliana and Josese Rogoyawa who, with their son John, yesterday left their home inside the exclusion zone, the talking has gone on for too long.

Bans on cargo in and out of Fiji - enforced by New Zealand and Australian trade unions until last week - meant that Mr Rogoyawa, a waterside worker, has been jobless.

His wife, a housemaid with the British Embassy, has also not been required to work for a month. Now they have had to move to a cousin's home outside the zone.

"They [the Army] have told me that everything will be okay and they will guard the place," said Mrs Rogoyawa, "but I don't know if my things will be safe."

More Fiji coup coverage

Main players in the Fiji coup

The hostages

Under seige: map of the Parliament complex

Fiji facts and figures

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