Mutiny finger points to council of chiefs

Three members of Fiji's Great Council of Chiefs and a senior Army officer were allegedly behind the attempted mutiny which left eight soldiers dead last week.

Four were identified by a rebel soldier under questioning at the Colonial War Memorial Hospital, according to the fijilive website.

The soldier said the four wanted to neutralise Army Commodore Frank Bainimarama to ensure investigations against them would be weakened with another person in charge.

Army spokesman Howard Politini has refused to comment on the matter, but the website quoted reliable Government sources as saying the Army had identified the four and Bainimarama was aware of the events that led to the Thursday shootout.

The official said two of the council members were known supporters of George Speight and the other played an instrumental role during the May 19 takeover.

Speight was arrested and imprisoned after the coup and awaits trial on treason charges.

Politini said the military would conduct an investigation into the mutiny and decide whether to conduct a board of inquiry or a commission of inquiry.

There have been claims that five of the mutineers were beaten to death in retaliation for the cold-blooded killing of three regular soldiers.

Politini said yesterday that it was too early to know the truth about how the rebels died.

"First of all, there have to be post-mortems done and those details need to be all completed before we can piece the puzzle back together and come out with some conclusion."

Politini also confirmed that former Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka was banned from defence force facilities after being accused of involvement in the mutiny.

"He appeared on the scene in the midst of an attempted takeover and we are not sure of his role in this so he is going to be investigated."

Rabuka, leader of a coup in 1987 and former head of the armed forces, had acted as a negotiator with the rebel special forces soldiers. He has denied any involvement in the planning of the attempted takeover

Highly placed legal sources say a High Court ruling due today threatens both the military and the interim Government. Justice Tony Gates, an Australian, is due to issue a declaratory judgment on whether the constitution still exists. He is expected to rule that the military abrogation of the 1997 constitution was illegal and that the Chaudhry Administration is still the legal Government.

- NZPA