Police break up meeting of Fiji's ousted Labor Party

Police break up meeting of Fiji's ousted Labor Party

SUVA (Reuters): Fiji police broke up a meeting of the Labor Party of deposed prime minister Mahendra Chaudhry held on Monday to determine how to react to last week's court ruling that Fiji's military-backed interim government was illegal.

Chaudhry was not present at the meeting but it was attended by his ousted deputy Tupeni Baba, the man local media say is lobbying to be the next premier after a court ruled the island's post-coup interim administration illegal.

Serious cracks have appeared in Chaudhry's ousted coalition government, local media reported. Chaudhry, Fiji's first ethnic Indian leader, was deposed by a racist coup last May.

Police broke up the Labor Party gathering, saying public meetings were not permitted under emergency powers invoked in the wake of the coup.

"Under the emergency decree, such meetings are prohibited," police spokeswoman Sera Bernard told Reuters.

Baba was taken in for questioning but was not arrested, police said.

The Fiji Times said Baba -- a member of Chaudhry's Labor Party -- had put himself forward as a candidate to lead a new government of national unity.

The newspaper said the influential Adi Kuini Speed, Fijian affairs minister and co-deputy prime minister under Chaudhry, had backed Baba as leader of a government of national unity.

"In light of this support, I have agreed to put my name forward as prime minister of Fiji...," the newspaper quoted Baba as saying.

Chaudhry returned to Suva at the weekend from a trip to India after claiming Thursday's Court of Appeal ruling meant that his coalition was still the rightful government of Fiji. The ruling also left the way open for the formation of a government of national unity.

The court of appeal ruled the military had no right to install the interim government following the May 2000 coup in the name of indigenous rights. The ruling has sparked fears of renewed racial violence similar to that which followed the coup.

The Court of Appeal ordered a return to the 1997 multi-racial constitution, which gave political rights to the 44 percent of Fijians with Indian descent. It ruled the former parliament had been suspended after the coup and not overthrown.

The court also indicated that the suspended parliament should reconvene to cement a return to constitutional, democratic rule.

President Ratu Josefa Iloilo is due to meet the Great Council of Chiefs, a grouping of traditional indigenous rulers, from Thursday to chart a course of action.