Wednesday, Dec. 06, 2006
A state of emergency was declared on Wednesday in Fiji, a day after the South Pacific nation's fourth coup in two decades. The grindingly slow military takeover of government during the past few weeks has now given way to swift action. Without a shot being fired, new president and coup leader Commander Voreqe "Frank" Bainimarama dissolved Parliament, dismissed the acting police chief and appointed a new Prime Minister. "We have reasonable grounds to believe that the life of the state is being threatened," Bainimarama said. "Should we be pushed to use force, let me state that we will do so very quickly,"
On Tuesday it appeared as if Prime Minister Laisenia Qarase might be able to defy his nemesis Bainimarama. Holed up in his official residence in the suburb of Domain in the hills above the capital Suva, Qarase seemed undaunted as he conducted media interviews and gave orders to his cabinet by cell phone. Outside the residence, six soldiers struggled to open the locked steel gates to his driveway as dozens of journalists and photographers watched on.
By midday, the military's presence immediately became more menacing as 20 soldiers who had arrived in a truck leapt from the vehicle and began to jostle reporters and photographers. By late afternoon, Bainimarama named himself as president and declared he had taken control of the government. Qarase, sheltering in his official residence, maintained he was still Prime Minister and invited supporters to join him at his home for a kava drinking session.
But by Wednesday Qarase's defiance was over. Slipping out of his house at 5 am, the deposed Prime Minister was soon sitting in a fixed wing plane at Suva airport. He was flown to his home island of Vanua Balavu Island about 280km (175 miles) from Suva. A few hours later he told Australian ABC radio that Fijians would stage protests: "We want to live under the rule of law, and we are fed up with illegal takeovers in our country." After dissolving Parliament, however, Bainimarama told reporters: "Qarase and his cronies are not coming back."
Fiji's neighbors, including the governments of Australia, New Zealand and Papua New Guinea, condemned the coup. Australia's' Prime Minister John Howard declined a request from Qarase for military intervention by Canberra. "I exhort those responsible for this coup, not to do any physical harm to anybody in the properly elected Government of Fiji," Howard told reporters on Tuesday. "There will be long international memories about this if that occurs."
A military officer who declined to be named told TIME on Wednesday evening that any attempt by citizens to protest would probably be met with force. Although most Suva stores were open and business owners had started removing protective boards that had been placed over display windows, the city's streets were virtually deserted.
During the day, Commander Bainimarama declared a state of emergency and warned curfews could be put in place. His soldiers shut down Fiji's Parliament in the middle of a debate on the budget. Jona Senilagakali, a doctor new to politics, was sworn in as interim prime minister. As well, soldiers arrested the acting head of the country's police force Deputy Commissioner Moses Driver after he issued a firm statement saying police would not be cooperating with the Army.
By nightfall,10-man military checkpoints with makeshift anti-tyre spike boards were positioned at major access roads to Suva's business district. The soldiers, clad in body armor and helmets, but without magazines in their automatic rifles, attempted to elicit friendly waves from passing motorists; few people responded, as they battled heavy traffic.
For several days before Tuesday's coup, Bainimarama's soldiers had been patrolling Suva's streets, as the Commander repeated his "non-negotiable" demands that Qarase resign and that his government abandon moves to exonerate perpetrators of the attempted coup in 2000. Bainimarama had grown increasingly bellicose in recent weeks. As troops fired mortars into Suva's harbor during a 3 a.m. training exercise Nov. 30, he told a press conference that he was "boss" of Fiji.
A meeting between him and Qarase in Wellington last week—hastily arranged by the New Zealand government—failed to soften Bainimarama's stance. Qarase emerged from the talks saying progress had been made; Bainimarama immediately denied it. On Sunday, speaking in Fijian on Fiji One television, he said there were "5,001 ways we can make him resign," and, referring to the prison island where several coup perpetrators are serving long sentences, said, "Nukulau is a beautiful place where we can go and think about how we can better serve our country."
Before the coup, the Commander's stance had won him malevolent enemies. An officer says he has received numerous death threats, and there is fear in the military's higher ranks that Bainimarama has been targeted for assassination—a fate he narrowly escaped in 2000, during a failed mutiny in the wake of the coup. The Commander is constantly shadowed by eight bodyguards in bulletproof vests. There were rumors before Tuesday's coup that some senior officers wanted the Commander removed. "There is a split in the ranks as well," one officer told TIME. But after a day of rapid forward movement by Bainimarama and his men, such talk seems fanciful for now.
