Speight barred from Parliament

SUVA - A Fijian court rejected a bid yesterday by detained coup leader George Speight to be allowed to take up a seat in Parliament after he was voted in at last month's election.

Justice Peter Serman ruled that Speight would have to remain in jail on Nukulau island off Suva until his trial for treason, and would not be given leave to sit in Parliament until the court case had finished.

Speight, leader of a band of armed nationalists who stormed Parliament in May last year and took Fiji's first ethnic Indian prime minister hostage, was elected in general election in late August that saw a sharp polarisation in the racially divided country.

Indigenous Fijians backed the winner, Prime Minister Laisenia Qarase, while ethnic Indians voted for deposed prime minister Mahendra Chaudhry's Fijian Labour Party.

The new Parliament was sworn in yesterday in the building where Speight held Chaudhry and most of his multiracial cabinet hostage for 56 days.

Observers say this year's election was clean. But Qarase appears to have ignored the constitution when he failed to include any members of Chaudhry's Labour Party in his cabinet. As the largest opposition party, with 27 seats, Labour is entitled to some cabinet seats.

Chaudhry has lodged an application for the High Court to declare Qarase's Government invalid, and the New Zealand and Australian Governments have withheld their seals of approval.

Yesterday's swearing in of the 71 MPs and today's state opening of Parliament signify the start of the return to democracy for this nation of 800,000 people, 51 per cent of them Melanesian and Polynesian, 44 per cent ethnic Indian.

Briefly yesterday it might have been possible to forget the nightmare of the past 16 months, if not for the heavy security at the Parliament complex. Battery Hill, once tree-covered and tucked in beside the debating chamber, is now bare, and has a police post atop its Second World War gun emplacement. All roads to the complex are sealed, and police check cars and people.

It is a far cry from May 19 last year when Speight and a group of special forces soldiers were able to drive into the complex and walk, armed, into the debating chamber.

Speight took Chaudhry, who had held office for exactly a year, and his Government hostage. Chaudhry and others were beaten and abused while Speight went through a ceremony of swearing in his own government.

But most of Fiji did not yield to his demands. The military declared martial law but made no effort to rescue the captives. They stood by as Speight and hundreds of his supporters set up camp in the complex.

Offices were turned into doss houses, animals were slaughtered and cooked on the grounds, endless kava was drunk and Speight held numerous, ranting press conferences.

Beautiful tapa clothes were torn, cultural treasures stolen and glass scattered across the polished wooden floor of the Parliament building. Outside Government cars were set alight and democracy looked dead.

Then on July 13, having won immunity from prosecution, Speight released the hostages. On July 26, he was arrested on treason charges and now awaits trial.

- REUTERS

High Court upholds Iloilo's decision to appoint Qarase as Prime Minister, clears way for August election

Full text plus audio:

Court of Appeal upholds constitution

Full text:

High Court rules in favour of Chaudhry

Fiji President names new Government

Main players in the Fiji coup

Fiji facts and figures