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Fiji's prime minister goes into hiding
2006-12-01
Fiji's prime minister went into hiding Friday in anticipation of a coup, but a deadline set by the country's defiant military commander passed without the threatened ouster of the government. Prime Minister Laisenia Qarase said he understood the government had been given a reprieve until Monday to meet the military's demands, but armed forces chief Commodore Frank Bainimarama rejected the idea. "Who's saying the deadline has been extended?" Bainimarama told The Associated Press late Friday. "Is he the commander? I am the commander." As Qarase invoked a plan to split up his Cabinet and send them to separate undisclosed locations for security reasons, Bainimarama spent part of Friday in the stands at the annual sports competition between the military and police forces. "It's going to happen today; we're going to coup the police in the rugby match," Bainimarama joked to news crews as he entered the national stadium. The police team won the game 17-15. The city was calm but tense Friday, a day after Bainimarama dramatically escalated a long-running feud by issuing Qarase the ultimatum of meeting his demands on a range of topics by midday Friday or facing ouster. The deadline passed with troops remaining in their barracks. Bainimarama has demanded the government kill legislation that would grant pardons to conspirators in a 2000 coup in the South Pacific island nation, and quash two other bills that he says unfairly favor majority indigenous Fijians over the ethnic Indian minority. He also is demanding the removal of Fiji's police chief, who has threatened to charge Bainimarama with sedition for his comments about toppling the government. Qarase, in phone interview with the Legend radio network, said he had made all the concessions he could within the law to Bainimarama, and urged Fijians to show there displeasure at the military's actions. "We are really fighting for our democracy," Qarase said. "We want freedom to live within a democratically civil government, where the government is elected by the people. That's what people want. We do not want a dictator." Washington has expressed deep concern at Bainimarama's threats and warned U.S. aid to the country could be cut if a coup occurs. The U.S. State Department on Friday warned Americans not to travel to Suva, Fiji, because of the uncertain security situation. It recommended that Americans already on the island evaluate their security. Foreign ministers from the 16-member South Pacific Forum said a coup would be "a tragedy for Fiji and would have dire consequences for the international reputation of the region as a whole." The 53-member Commonwealth of Britain and its former colonies also urged Bainimarama to back down. Fiji, a nation of about 900,000 people, is located about 1,800 miles northeast of Sydney, Australia. Fiji was rocked by two military coups in 1987 in addition to the civilian-led coup in 2000.
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