Rebels succeed in overturning Fiji government

SUVA - The President of Fiji, Ratu Sir Kamisese Mara, says he has suspended parliament for at least six months in order to free the hostage MPs being held by the revolutionary George Speight.

Ratu Mara said that by removing Prime Minister Mahendra Chaudhry and other MPs from their positions, he will remove the reason they are being held.

The President is expected to name a caretaker Prime Minister and advisers on Monday. He said that Speight would not be appointed Prime Minister because he is not a member of parliament.

Ratu Mara also said he is considering giving immunity to Speight and his accomplices. He said he would not step down from the presidency - as demanded by Speight - because he has been given full support from the Bose Levu Vakaturaga (Fiji's Great Council of Chiefs), the military, the civil service and the police.

The Army Commander, Commodore Frank Bainimarama, says Major Josefa Savua and 14 other soldiers, who marched into Parliament yesterday to join the rebels, will be discharged from the military forces.

Two soldiers and a news cameraman were wounded today during shooting at a checkpoint in Vuya road outside the parliamentary complex.

Reporters at the hospital in Suva said the English cameraman from Associated Press Television was shot in the wrist, one soldier was shot in the arm and the other in his lower leg.

The clash occurred after a group of Speight supporters left parliament and marched to the checkpoint where they confronted the out-numbered soldiers. The crowd destroyed the checkpoint and forced the soldiers to retreat.

Bainimarama said civilians were being used by George Speight's group so his soldiers could do nothing but back off. It is understood that the military and Speight's men have promised each other there will be no further confrontation.

- FIJI VILLAGE NEWS

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Under seige: map of the Parliament complex