FIJI: MILITARY ACTIVITY AFTER SPEIGHT ARREST MORE

(27 Jul 2000) English/Nat

George Speight, who toppled Fiji's elected government in a two-month hostage standoff, may be charged with treason for threatening the life of the country's new president.

Speight was arrested at a military checkpoint on Wednesday along with three key advisers and a bodyguard, the first step in a crackdown on the rebels who for weeks stirred civil unrest across the country.

Hours after Speight's arrest, heavily armed troops fired tear gas as they stormed a school in the capital, Suva, where more than 350 Speight supporters were encamped.

Fiji's army swings into action in the first crackdown on the rebels that stormed the country's parliament and held the then Prime Minister, Mahendra Chaudry, and other politicians hostage for several weeks.

The crisis brought down the government and led to the appointment of a new head of state, President Ratu Josefa Iloilo.

The army set up road blocks around a school in Suva on Thursday morning where more than 350 Speight supporters were encamped.

Gunfire rang out shortly before 6 a.m. on Thursday (1800 GMT Wednesday) at a school at Kalabu, a suburb of Suva, where several hundred Speight supporters have been camped for more than a week since leaving Parliament.

A second burst of shots was heard about 45 minutes later.

A heavily guarded truck carrying more than 20 Speight supporters, their hands and feet tied, left the school and arrived at Suva's main hospital where the men, some bleeding and all covered in mud, were treated.

Including Speight's group and the dead man, a total of 369 were held by police.

This included 12 members of the military's commando unit that defected to Speight's side to help him stage the coup.

Those uninjured were taken to police stations in Suva.

One man died and 39 others were injured, seven seriously, in the clash.

At a press conference later a Fiji army spokesman said it followed information that the life of President Iloilo had been threatened by people demanding that he appoint a certain cabinet line-up.

There also threats of further unrest in Fiji.

SOUNDBITE: (English)
"We were informed that he had been warned if he did not agree to certain government line-up, interim government line-up, then instability would erupt around the country and that his own very life would be under threat."
SUPER CAPTION: Lt Col Filipo Tarakinikini, Fiji Military spokesman

Tarakinikini said Iloilo was threatened in connection with Speight's desire to have his supporters installed in the interim government.

SOUNDBITE: (English)
"There is a possibility, it depends on how the investigation turns out that in itself, the head of state to be pressured under duress to name a certain government lineup can be seen as an act of treason but like I said that has to be fully investigated before any charges can be laid towards that end."
SUPER CAPTION: Lt Col Filipo Tarakinikini, Fiji Military spokesman

The military regime, which took power 10 days after the raid, agreed to scrap the multiracial constitution and oust the government of prime minister Mahendra Chaudhry, Fiji's first ethnic Indian prime minister, in exchange for the hostages.

Although Speight and his supporters had been granted an amnesty for releasing the last of their 27 hostages on July 13, Tarakinikini said the amnesty was conditional on the rebels turning in their weapons.

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