Thursday, 13 July, 2000, 15:17 GMT 16:17 UK
Speight: I'd do it again
Mr Speight: No Indians in the new government
Rebel leader George Speight says he will stage another
coup in Fiji if there is another ethnic Indian prime minister.
Mr Speight, who also said he would not take a position in the Fijian
government due to be chosen on Friday.
He was speaking to the BBC after releasing deposed
ethnic Indian prime minister Mahendra Chaudhry and 17 other
hostages.
The rebel leader overthrew the democratically elected, multi-ethnic government
after storming parliament eight weeks ago, claiming power for indigenous Fijians.
Mr Speight dismissed international condemnation of the
coup and accused Australian and New Zealand of being hypocrites.
He told the BBC he was pleased Fiji's Great Council
of Chiefs had chosen Fijian chief Ratu Josefa Iloilo as the new president.
"He's a supporter of Fijians. He's a Fijian chief by blood
and by birth and by status. He's also been a supporter
of the case - every Fijian is," he said.
The rebel leader said he expected he would be asked
to join the new government, but would decline.
Mr Speight said there was absolutely no place in the
new government for ethnic Indians.
And he warned that if Fiji ended up with another
government led by an Indian he would have no
hesitation in taking exactly the same action as he did
on 19 May when his gunmen stormed parliament.
"There will never, ever be a government led by an
Indian, ever, in Fiji," Mr Speight added.
"But more particularly it's the system of government
that brought them here - and that's constitutional democracy, the common law
version - that has gone. And that will never return."
Fiji's powerful Pacific neighbours, Australia and New
Zealand, have both threatened sanctions if democracy
is not restored.
But Mr Speight said: "We don't care what Australia and
New Zealand think, quite frankly.
"I consider their governments to be hypocritical and
totally ignorant of their own miserable histories that are
far worse than ours," he added, referring to the
oppression of indigenous Aborigines and Maoris.
"The migrant populations, mainly Europeans, are guilty
of greater crimes in those countries - sanctioned by
democracy - than what the Indians have been able to
achieve [here]", Mr Speight said.
"That's why I've stepped in to stop the Indians, or any
other migrant culture, achieving in this country what the
Europeans have achieved in Australia or New Zealand."
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