Fiji mulls next move as former PM told to go<\/p>\n
SUVA (Agencies): Fiji's ousted prime minister was under
\ngrowing pressure on Tuesday not to seek reinstatement as the
\ninterim government considered its response to a court ruling that
\nit is illegal.<\/p>\n
The cabinet met on Tuesday and later briefed President Ratu
\nJosefa Iloilo on possible options in the wake of the court
\nruling. Iloilo and Prime Minister Laisenia Qarase have said they
\nwould abide by a ruling restoring the multiracial 1997
\nConstitution, abandoned after last year's coup.<\/p>\n
The Fiji Appeal Court last week ruled that Qarase's interim
\ngovernment, imposed by the military following the coup, was
\nillegal, and said that Iloilo must recall parliament and vacate
\nhis office by March 15.<\/p>\n
Troops ringed the government building in Suva during the
\ncabinet meeting in a show of force by the military.<\/p>\n
Fiji Radio, citing sources, reported that government lawyers
\ntold the cabinet that it must resign, but it may be able to stay
\non in a caretaker role. The cabinet was expected to meet again on
\nWednesday, the station said.<\/p>\n
The government did not make any statement on the meeting.
\nWith no timetable for restoring democracy, former prime minister
\nMahendra Chaudhry's five-party People's Coalition was in
\ndisarray.<\/p>\n
Three of the parties said on Monday they support a government
\nof national unity, despite Chaudhry's opposition. Chaudhry's Fiji
\nLabor Party was one of the three parties backing a unity
\ngovernment.<\/p>\n
There is a growing belief in the coalition that an indigenous
\nFijian at the head of a government of national unity is needed to
\nunite the ethnically divided nation. Chaudhry was the country's
\nfirst ethnic Indian prime minister before being deposed by
\nnationalist gunmen in the May coup.<\/p>\n
Ethnic Indians make up 44 percent of the population.
\nIndigenous Fijians account for 51 percent. Relations crumbled as
\nIndians gained more economic and political power, culminating
\nwith Chaudhry's 1999 election.<\/p>\n
Chaudhry admitted on Tuesday there were four other coalition
\ncandidates for his job, but maintained the alliance was not
\ndisintegrating. He said the leadership should be determined when
\nparliament is recalled.<\/p>\n
"The coalition is intact, we have had some problems on this
\nscore, and the decision is that when parliament is recalled this
\nmatter will be settled," he said.<\/p>\n
Pressure for Chaudhry to step aside is growing, from within
\nand outside Fiji.<\/p>\n
Former deputy prime minister, Tupeni Baba, a leading candidate
\nto replace Chaudhry, told Australian Broadcasting Corp. radio on
\nTuesday the coalition has decided Chaudhry must go.<\/p>\n
"Mahendra Chaudhry has been found by people to be totally
\nunsuitable for governing this country," Baba said. "They have
\ncalled for his stepping down, not only from our party but from
\neverywhere."<\/p>\n
A report in The Fiji Times newspaper on Tuesday said army
\ncommander Commodore Voreqe Bainimarama told the National Security
\nCouncil that Chaudhry was a national security threat. An army
\nspokesman said the report was not the military's official view.<\/p>\n
New Zealand's High Commissioner to Suva, Tia Barrett, told
\nRadio New Zealand on Tuesday the situation in the South Pacific
\nnation is increasingly unstable.<\/p>\n
Chaudhry's determination to stay on, "has raised a great deal
\nof concern within the public, because they fear this could bring
\na backlash from the Fijian population and particularly the
\nnationalists who have made it very clear, publicly, that they
\ndon't wish to see Chaudhry back in the seat," he said.<\/p>\n
Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said Tuesday his
\ngovernment would lift economic sanctions imposed on Fiji after
\nthe coup if leaders moved quickly toward establishing a national
\nunity government.<\/p>\n
However, Downer warned that more sanctions could be imposed if
\nthe Great Council of Chiefs, an important group of traditional
\nleaders, did not uphold the rule of law.<\/p>\n
"If they decide on top of all the things that have happened
\nthat they're going to flout the rule of law then obviously it
\nwould generate a very negative reaction from us," Downer told
\nAustralian Broadcasting Radio. "We wouldn't sit on our hands in a
\nsituation like that."<\/p>\n
In a new development, Chaudhry conceded here on Tuesday that
\nnew general elections may be necessary to bring Fiji back to
\nconstitutional rule.<\/p>\n
Elected as Fiji's first Indian prime minister in May, 1999,
\nand deposed by a coup a year later, Chaudhry said he believed an
\nelection as early as possible may now be the only solution to
\nconstitutional crisis.<\/p>",
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