Search in Fiji for renegade troops

By ROBERT KEITH-REID

AP Writer

SUVA, Fiji (AP) – Soldiers captured 12 mutineers and searched for more Friday after putting down a bloody uprising by elite fighters who tried to take over Fiji’s main military barracks.

Military spokesman Maj. Howard Politini said Friday that a group of 11 was captured in an early morning raid while hiding in bushes near the Queen Elizabeth II Barracks in the capital, Suva. Another rebel, who sought refuge in a nearby house, was caught when the homeowner tipped off the army.

The fugitives were from a group of 15 mutineers who escaped through a security cordon as government troops retook the barracks late Thursday, interim Prime Minister Laisenia Qarase said.

Soldiers from the elite Counter-Revolutionary Warfare unit had seized the officers’ mess at the headquarters Thursday and briefly taken five soldiers hostage. The day’s battle with government forces left eight people dead and at least 25 injured.

In a nationally televised speech, Qarase appealed to the fugitives to surrender and admitted the events were a major setback for Fiji, still reeling from sanctions and declining tourism following a May 19 coup.

It was unclear what inspired the mutiny, but speculation was that at least eight of the 40 rebel soldiers feared they would be dismissed from the army for playing pivotal roles in the coup.

Renegade members of the Counter Revolutionary Warfare unit were among a group of gunmen that stormed Parliament in May, launching a coup that toppled the government of then-Prime Minister Mahendra Chaudhry.

Suva was quiet Friday after authorities imposed a curfew until Saturday while they conducted their search. Suva’s airport, located on the edge of the city, was also closed after reports that some of the rebel soldiers were in the area.

The army found weapons apparently dumped by the rebels as they fled. This indicated “the rebels would prefer to be caught without their guns than with them,” Politini said.

Banks and businesses downtown were closed, some with their windows boarded up. Schools also closed and no buses or taxis were operating.

Politini confirmed five of the eight people killed in Thursday’s gun battle were mutineers. Qarase said 20 soldiers were injured, two seriously. Five civilians were hospitalized in stable condition.

Qarase’s Cabinet met Friday with senior military officers to discuss the crisis. Qarase declared after the meeting that Commodore Frank Bainimarama was “fully in control of the situation.”

The leader of the May coup, George Speight, 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 Indian descent.

Speight was arrested after the coup and jailed, pending trial on treason charges.

Fiji, a nation of 320 islands about 2,250 miles northeast of Sydney, Australia, is ruled by a military-installed civilian government that pledged to hold elections within two years. But it also says it will reserve the top political jobs for indigenous Fijians.