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Fiji teeters on the brink of a coup as troops tighten grip
Elsa McLaren and agencies
Fijian troops tightened their grip on capital, Suva today by setting up roadblocks and disarming police and government bodyguards as the country faced its fourth coup in almost two decades.
Pressure was mounting on Laisenia Qarase, the Prime Minister, to resign as heavily-armed soldiers raided two police stations to seize weapons and later disarmed his bodyguards and those of his ministers.
Mr Qarase avoided one checkpoint by returning from a meeting with supporters by helicopter. He earlier insisted that he was still in control despite escalating threats from Frank Bainimarama, the military commander of the island.
Mr Bainimarama has been threatening to "clean up" the Government and set a deadline of noon last Friday for Mr Qarase to meet his demands, including dropping legislation which offered amnesty to plotters of a 2000 coup, or face a military takeover.
However, yesterday he altered his demands and called for Mr Qarase to resign and allow an interim government to be appointed.
Australia and New Zealand are both the most likely countries to intervene in Fiji and today Helen Clark, the Prime Minister of New Zealand, said that Mr Bainimarama had been warned international sanctions would follow if he staged a coup.
"There's quite a lot of ways we would be responding, but the emphasis now is to encourage people to work through this peacefully, mindful of the dire consequences of a coup," she said.
Alexander Downer, the Australian Foreign Minister, told parliament that Fiji remained "clearly on the brink of a coup". But that the military was mindful of the threat of international sanctions.
He said earlier: "They are now reaching a point, the military, where they are trying to persuade the prime minister to stand down without actually mounting a coup."
Mr Bainimarama said in a statement read to a news conference that the weapons seizures were "to ensure that police weapons are not used against the military."
He said that police continued to have a role in maintaining security in Fiji, although officers said they are not in a position to challenge the military of more than 5,000 regular and reservist troops.
Moses Driver, Fiji's acting police commissioner, said the military's actions were "unlawful, unwarranted and unnecessary," but said he did not believe that raids indicated the military had seized power.
"Until now I have not concluded a coup d'etat is in place," Mr Driver said. "This is only the disarming of the police. ... There will be no violent confrontation with the military, they are armed, we are not armed."
Mr Bainimarama and his senior commanders have repeatedly threatened a coup unless Mr Qarase agreed to drop legislation that would exonerate the leaders of a coup that happened in 2000, sack the police commissioner, the Australian Andrew Hughes, who was on leave, and curtail police investigations into whether Mr Bainimarama was guilty of sedition.
Fiji has lurched from one political crisis to the next and a coup would be the fourth in 19 years for the Pacific nation.
Last week, Mr Qarase offered concessions including suspending work on the contentious legislation, but these were rubbished as "lies" by Mr Bainimarama.
Elsa McLaren and agencies
Fijian troops tightened their grip on capital, Suva today by setting up roadblocks and disarming police and government bodyguards as the country faced its fourth coup in almost two decades.
Pressure was mounting on Laisenia Qarase, the Prime Minister, to resign as heavily-armed soldiers raided two police stations to seize weapons and later disarmed his bodyguards and those of his ministers.
Mr Qarase avoided one checkpoint by returning from a meeting with supporters by helicopter. He earlier insisted that he was still in control despite escalating threats from Frank Bainimarama, the military commander of the island.
Mr Bainimarama has been threatening to "clean up" the Government and set a deadline of noon last Friday for Mr Qarase to meet his demands, including dropping legislation which offered amnesty to plotters of a 2000 coup, or face a military takeover.
However, yesterday he altered his demands and called for Mr Qarase to resign and allow an interim government to be appointed.
Australia and New Zealand are both the most likely countries to intervene in Fiji and today Helen Clark, the Prime Minister of New Zealand, said that Mr Bainimarama had been warned international sanctions would follow if he staged a coup.
"There's quite a lot of ways we would be responding, but the emphasis now is to encourage people to work through this peacefully, mindful of the dire consequences of a coup," she said.
Alexander Downer, the Australian Foreign Minister, told parliament that Fiji remained "clearly on the brink of a coup". But that the military was mindful of the threat of international sanctions.
He said earlier: "They are now reaching a point, the military, where they are trying to persuade the prime minister to stand down without actually mounting a coup."
Mr Bainimarama said in a statement read to a news conference that the weapons seizures were "to ensure that police weapons are not used against the military."
He said that police continued to have a role in maintaining security in Fiji, although officers said they are not in a position to challenge the military of more than 5,000 regular and reservist troops.
Moses Driver, Fiji's acting police commissioner, said the military's actions were "unlawful, unwarranted and unnecessary," but said he did not believe that raids indicated the military had seized power.
"Until now I have not concluded a coup d'etat is in place," Mr Driver said. "This is only the disarming of the police. ... There will be no violent confrontation with the military, they are armed, we are not armed."
Mr Bainimarama and his senior commanders have repeatedly threatened a coup unless Mr Qarase agreed to drop legislation that would exonerate the leaders of a coup that happened in 2000, sack the police commissioner, the Australian Andrew Hughes, who was on leave, and curtail police investigations into whether Mr Bainimarama was guilty of sedition.
Fiji has lurched from one political crisis to the next and a coup would be the fourth in 19 years for the Pacific nation.
Last week, Mr Qarase offered concessions including suspending work on the contentious legislation, but these were rubbished as "lies" by Mr Bainimarama.
Racist Fijian government
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