Spurned Speight threatens unrest

SUVA - Fiji coup leader George Speight is threatening further civil unrest after the man he backed for President named a civilian Government that excludes rebel supporters from key positions.

New President Josefa Iloilo also defied Speight by appointing military-backed Laiseni Qarase to head the new Government.

"We consider it to be highly inappropriate and not in keeping with the vanua [people]," said Speight, who with his gunmen held Fiji's first ethnic-Indian Prime Minister Mahendra Chaudhry hostage for two months in the name of Fijian ethnic rights.

"They are treading on some dangerous ground. It will result in a backlash ... I think some of the people are trying to do me in and they are going to meet with some very strong resistance."

Asked if it meant more civil unrest in Fiji, Speight told reporters: "I can predict it, absolutely."

Qarase was named interim Prime Minister after the military imposed martial law in late May.

Rebels accuse Qarase, an indigenous Fijian, of being too accommodating towards Fiji's ethnic Indian minority.

The rebels had made the dismissal of his interim Government a condition for last week's release of hostages.

Speight's group came out badly in the lineup for the 20-member cabinet and 12 assistant ministers, with only four closely aligned to the rebels.

The lineup includes just one ethnic Indian, George Shuit Raj, as an assistant minister, while former President Ratu Kamisese Mara's son-in-law, Epeli Nailatikau, was named deputy leader.

Nailatikau's wife was one of Speight's hostages. Another, Marieta Rigamoto, was named an assistant minister.

Suva remained quiet under a loose curfew last night, with Speight's men still holed up inside Parliament as an estimated 3000 people yesterday took part in protracted funeral rites for a coup rebel.

Kolinio Tabua, aged 24, was wounded in a shootout with the military on July 4 and died a week later. Speight insisted Tabua be buried in the grounds of Parliament.

Roadblocks were still manned around the capital last night as the military extended its emergency rule until the end of July in response to the rebel warnings.

Speight and his gunmen stormed Parliament on May 19, overthrowing the Chaudhry Government, taking about 30 hostages and triggering widespread civil unrest.

Speight released Chaudhry and the last of the hostages last Thursday only after his demands for an end to Indian political power were met. At his swearing-in ceremony, Iloilo committed himself to forging reconciliation in his ethnically divided nation.

"We are one, as one nation and one people," Iloilo told an audience that included Speight, the country's former military head of state Commodore Frank Bainimarama, and 1987 coup leader and former Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka.

"As head of state and as the symbol of national unity in Fiji, I cannot appoint a cabinet that is expressly committed to excluding a particular community that represents 43 per cent of Fiji's total population and which contributes the bulk of the revenue the Government needs to provide and to maintain essential services to all its citizens," he said.

"At the same time, it would be quite unrealistic to reinstate the Government that was in office prior to May 19 in view of the widespread disaffection which some of the policies of its leadership had created among the Fijian community."

Iloilo - Speight's hand-picked choice for President - said he would be "dedicated to promoting national unity and encouraging moderation, inclusiveness, consideration and compassion of all in our country."

He said he believed the new Government would be committed to giving indigenous Fijians many political and economic advantages over ethnic-Indians

"But Mr Qarase and his cabinet [are] also committed to governing in the interest of all citizens and communities in Fiji." However, he later said ethnic-Indians approached by Qarase to serve in the new Administration had withdrawn earlier acceptance "due to concern for the safety of their families."

Chaudhry has vowed to press for his reinstatement based on Fiji's 1997 multi-racial democratic constitution, dumped after the military declared martial law on May 29.

Speight described Chaudhry's intention as "misguided."

Fiji coup leader George Speight has bitterly attacked the new Government named by Prime Minister Laisenia Qarase and warned its appointment could trigger further unrest.

"This list has not been finalised or discussed with us, and it was supposed to be," he told the Fiji Broadcasting Commission.

"The announcement is quite mischievous because it is trying to show there has some kind of agreement and unity ... and that is absolutely untrue."

The presence of Speight supporters in the cabinet and the total absence of ethnic Indians is likely to prompt more nations to follow New Zealand's and Australia's lead and slap sanctions on Fiji to press for a return to multiracial democracy.

Prime Minister Laisenia Qarase remains in the post he was appointed to just last week, heading an unelected interim government that has a mandate to guide Fiji to elections in about 18 months.

Although Speight initially rejected him, Qarase's standing rose last Friday when he released a blueprint for Fiji's future, guaranteeing political superiority and affirmative action for indigenous Fijians and promising redistribution of resources to benefit them.

Those were the stated goals of the May 19 coup led by Speight.

However, rebel spokesman Joe Nata immediately rejected Qarase's appointment, saying: "We are not accepting it."

Speight, who wants to exclude ethnic Indians from political power, has threatened further civil unrest if he is not happy with the government announced by Iloilo, his candidate for president.

The last 18 of dozens of legislators taken hostage in Parliament were freed on Thursday as part of a deal Speight said would disenfranchise ethnic Indians, who make up 44 percent of the population.

However, in a news release, Iloilo said the new cabinet would not work only for Fijian interests.

Rabuka, who heads the influential Great Council of Chiefs, said yesterday that he could not rule out a second coup in Fiji if Speight did not get what he wanted and predicted the situation would worsen before it got better.

"We will have to heal the wounds of the last two months."

- REUTERS