(27 May 2000) English/Nat
XFA
Fiji's president has fired the country's democratically elected government, which is being held hostage in Parliament by armed rebels.
President Ratu Sir Kamisese Mara said rebel leader George Speight and the six gunmen who stormed parliament on May 19 would probably be granted immunity from prosecution for their roles in the coup attempt.
Speight and his cohorts are holding more than 30 members of the government, including Prime Minister Mahendra Chaudhry, Fiji's first ethnic Indian prime minister.
Fijian President Ratu Sir Kamisese Mara, who has been the country's acting leader since the coup began, says he will appoint a new government by Monday.
SOUNDBITE: (English)
"This is a move that will release all the ministers who are under arrest from their responsibility and possibly also remove from the ground in which they are being kept hostage. They are no longer ministers. I'm the only government, only person who's governing the country at the present moment until I decide in the next few days how many other people could help me carry out the duties."
SUPER CAPTION: Ratu Sir Kamisese Mara, Fiji President
The announcement came several hours after the rebels started a gunfight with Fijian soldiers at a roadblock outside parliament in which two soldiers and a television producer and cameraman were wounded.
Mara said the timing of his announcement was not related to the shooting.
At a news conference following the scuffle, Speight blamed the deployment of soldiers at the roadblock for the violence and demanded that all troops withdraw to barracks.
SOUNDBITE: (English)
"We want all the army removed immediately. We don't want any army deployed anywhere around the country because we don't see any reason why they should be deployed. We are not in a siege situation publicly, this is a situation that's here amongst themselves as indigenous Fijians, we are not at war with anybody and for them to start deploying the army in the public and restricting, I think the main reason is they want to restrict our supplies of food , and rations coming into the site and also to restrict members of the public from coming into the complex."
SUPER CAPTION: George Speight, Coup Leader
Speight said the negotiations with the Great Council of Chiefs would continue despite the confrontation with the army.
SOUNDBITE: (English)
"This is an ethnic issue. It has the potential to explode. There's the army raging out there, or portions of it - we've got portions of them in here and we got the Great Council of Chiefs on one side and there's me here on the inside, there's battles going on , we've got the leadership issues at stake, we've got His Excellency Ratu Mara and young upstarts like me saying "hey, you've had your day, go away ... so when you got this whole mix of issues going on , just , really... try and be a bit ... be careful, just be careful. "
SUPER CAPTION: George Speight, Coup Leader
At the same news conference, Speight alleged that he and his supporters had found evidence that Prime Minister Chaudhry had plans for an ethnic Indian colonisation of Fiji.
SOUNDBITE: (English)
"We have come across documents within Mr. Chaudhry's office, and on computers, and within Mr. Chaudhry's regime which confirmed that the Chaudhry-led government, at least the Indian portion of it, were embarking, were in the process of implementing what's called the Indian colonisation of Fiji programme at all levels in our society."
SUPER CAPTION: George Speight, Coup Leader
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