Gunbattle erupts at Fiji military barracks

By ROBERT KEITH-REID

AP Writer

SUVA, Fiji (AP) — Mutinous elite forces battled regular army units Thursday, seizing a barracks and taking hostages. State-owned Radio Fiji reported that two soldiers were killed and at least nine injured.

Members of the army’s Counter Revolutionary Warfare (CRW) unit took control of the armory at Queen Victoria Barracks and were holding an unknown number of officers inside, local radio reports said. The CRW soldiers reportedly had dozens of supporters inside the compound.

New Zealand’s deputy high commissioner in Fiji, Roger Ball, said the army had the situation “contained” but warned that with hostages involved “this could be a slow and very difficult standoff.”

Renegade members of the CRW were key members of a group of gunmen that stormed Fiji’s parliament on May 19, launching a nationalist coup that toppled the democratically elected government of former prime minister Mahendra Chaudhry.

Eight of the CRW soldiers involved in the coup were released from custody two weeks ago after treason charges against them were dropped, but military commander Commodore Frank Bainimarama reportedly was planning to purge the army of coup supporters.

“What may have triggered this off is the fact that commander of the military forces Frank Bainimarama has said he wants to clean out those members in the armed forces involved in the coup of May 19,” New Zealand Foreign Minister Phil Goff said.

Gunfire broke out at the barracks just outside Suva at about 1 p.m. Wounded soldiers were taken to Suva’s main hospital. Australian Broadcasting Radio reported that at least one soldier was carried in covered by a blood-soaked sheet. Sporadic guinfire continued in the afternoon.

Radio station FM96 aired a telephone interview with an unidentified officer from inside the barracks who said he had a gun to his head and that he was one of a number of officers being held by CRW rebels. The officer said the rebels wanted to negotiate with senior military officers but did not elaborate on their demands.

Bainimarama escaped from the barracks and was safe at an undisclosed location, Australian Broadcasting Corp. radio reported. A military roadblock was put up in front of Bainimarama’s house.

Fiji, a nation of 320 islands about 2,250 miles northeast of Sydney, Australia, is ruled by an interim military-installed civilian government that has pledged to hold democratic elections within two years.

The coup earlier this year was masterminded by failed businessman George Speight, who said he wanted to rein in the large ethnic Indian minority, which controls much of Fiji’s commerce.

Chaudhry was Fiji’s first prime minister of ethnic Indian descent.

Speight was arrested after the coup and is awaiting trial on treason charges that carry the death penalty.