Previous Story
Fiji awaits step toward democracy
|
Posted on Mar 19 2001
SUVA, Fiji (AP) – Fiji’s new president and prime minister attended a prayer meeting Saturday aimed at healing rifts between the Pacific island nation’s sharply divided ethnic groups.
President Ratu Josefa Iloilo and Prime Minister Laisenia Qarase are dedicated to holding democratic elections, in the hopes of ending months of turmoil triggered by last year’s nationalist coup.
Political and economic rivalry between indigenous Fijians and the country’s large Indian minority helped spark last May’s coup, which toppled the country’s first Indian-led government.
On Friday, Iloilo – who was chosen by a tribunal of traditional chiefs — swore in a caretaker government led by Prime Minister Laisenia Qarase. The government has pledged to hold democratic elections in August to restore constitutional rule.
Qarase’s appointment ended a roller-coaster week in which he resigned as interim prime minister, a post to which he was appointed by the army after the coup. He was replaced for 19 hours by Iloilo’s nephew and was then reappointed in maneuvering meant to give Qarase’s administration some constitutional backing.
Mahendra Chaudhry, the prime minister ousted by armed rebels on May 19, condemned the machinations as “unconstitutional and unlawful.”
He described the 19-hour prime ministership of Iloilo’s nephew as “not only unlawful but farcical and fraudulent. It made a mockery of the constitution itself.”
Australian labor unions are considering re-imposing sanctions on Fiji to force Chaudhry’s reinstatement, but foreign observers in Suva expect the international community to accept Qarase’s appointment as the best way to restore democracy.
As a sign of relaxing tension, Indians and Fijians mingled freely Friday in the Dawasamu neighborhood of Suva for the first time since the coup, the Fiji Post reported.
