I'm New Head Of State, Proclaims Fiji's Military Strongman

The Age

Wednesday December 6, 2006

MALCOLM BROWN, SUVA and BRENDAN NICHOLSON, CANBERRA, WITH AGENCIES

FINALLY, after months of threats, Fijian military chief Frank Bainimarama has declared himself head of state and sacked the Government of Laisenia Qarase.

Commodore Bainimarama last night told the people of Fiji what they knew was inevitable - that he had plunged the country into its fourth coup in 20 years.

The military commander made his announcement at Suva's Queen Elizabeth barracks at 6pm while the Prime Minister was trapped in his home, surrounded by soldiers and conceding he was under house arrest.

Commodore Bainimarama said he was breaking a stalemate after Fijian President Ratu Iloilo issued an afternoon statement saying he was "neither supporting nor condoning" the military's actions.

Commodore Bainimarama's proclamation ended a dramatic day in which Mr Qarase and a number of senior ministers were placed under house arrest and the military seized government ministers' vehicles.

Mr Qarase called Prime Minister John Howard yesterday requesting help, an apparent reversal of recent comments that foreign intervention was out of the question.

Mr Howard rejected a plea to send Australian troops to put down the coup because "the possibility of Australian and Fijian troops firing on each other in the streets of Suva is not a prospect that I for a moment thought desirable", Mr Howard said.

At his news conference, Commodore Bainimarama said: "As of six o'clock this evening, the military has taken over the Government, has executive authority, and the running of the country."

He appointed the military force's senior medical officer, Dr Jona Senilagakali, as interim prime minister. Dr Senilagakali has served with peacekeeping forces in the Sinai and Lebanon but has no political experience.

Dr Senilagakili posed for photographs last night, but made no comment.

Commodore Bainimarama said the Qarase Government had "undermined the constitution by engaging in bribery and corruption" and proposing bills that would seriously disadvantage Fiji and its future generations.

He said the military forces have made entreaties to the Qarase Government, which had been delivered in a spirit of "fairness and sincerity", but it had responded by attacking the "republic of Fiji military force" and had tried to remove Commodore Bainimarama from his post.

Outside Mr Qarase's house, a group of women started a vigil yesterday singing hymns.

A member of Parliament in the Qarase Government, Meri Samisoni, said that the vigil was the beginning of a revolt by the people of Fiji in which they would "do a Gandhi and Mandela", focusing on non-violent protest.

"We are going to fight for democracy," she said, "we are going to fight for the community. Unless we fight now, we are going to face a coup culture."

A group of Fijian churchmen led by Tui Killakilla Qaratu, president of both the Assembly of Christian Churches and the Fiji Council of Churches, sought permission to go through the military roadblock to pray with the ousted Prime Minister.

Tui Qaratu said the Christian churches represented 52 per cent of the people of Fiji and were making a stand for democracy and the rule of law. They were turned away at the checkpoint and soldiers told them to go home.

Fiji's Australian-born police commissioner, Andrew Hughes, told ABC television last night he believed an increasing number of Fijians were reaching the conclusion that Commodore Bainimarama was mentally unsound.

Mr Hughes said there was a real possibility that army support for the Commodore would gradually collapse. -- WITH AGENCIES

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