The army has given the hostage takers holding Prime Minister
Mahendra Chaudhry and 30 members of his government hostage 24
hours to sign the Muanikau Accord.
"Failing that we might be pushed to carry on and appoint an interim
civil administration or the military government might rule," army
spokesman Lt Col Filipo Tarakinikini told the media a short while
ago.
After a short meeting, Tarakinikini said the army had reiterated that
its position remained that of last Friday where they had agreed to cut
short the army rule and hand over to the Great Council of Chiefs
earlier.
The GCC would then appoint a President and an interim Prime
Minister who would then appoint his cabinet based on his nominees,
that of the GCC and some from Speight's group. This is according
to the GCC resolution passed at its meeting two weeks ago.
Tarakinikini said he had given the Speight group 24 hours to
reconsider their stand and get back to the table.
He said while the military option was always there, he believed the
crisis "can be resolved peacefully. We have come a long way."
Asked whether they were negotiating with the wrong man (Speight
instead of Ligairi), he said it was obvious the Speight group was not
clear where they were coming from.
It has been obvious in the past week that former SAS soldier and
former head of the army Counter Revolutionary Unit, Major Ilisoni Ligairi and
others are calling the shots in
Parliament.
Police, expecting ethnic problems to escalate once deposed prime
minister Mahendra Chaudhry is released, have put in motion a
community safety programme through the advisory council.
Police officers are briefing Indo-Fijian and Fijian advisory councilors
on how to contain the reaction of Indo-Fijians when Chaudhry is
released from captivity.
The councilors are briefed by members of their own ethnic group in
what is the first time that the Advisory Council has met on racially
divided lines.
Advisory councilors are community leaders in the rural areas elected to
facilitate development and projects.
SOME schools in Suva and the Western division came to a
standstill after receiving threatening calls as classes resumed
yesterday.
Sigatoka Methodist School in Sigatoka had to send children back
home after receiving a bomb threat from an unknown caller.
School principal Vijay Nadan said the call was reported to the
Sigatoka police and Ministry of Education and upon their
instructions, children were asked to go back home. Mr Nadan said
the caller told one of his staff that a bomb was planted somewhere in
the school compound.
"We received the call in the morning and by 10 am, all students of
both the primary and secondary school had left' "Classes for both
schools will resume today and it is entirely on the parents whether to
send their children to school or not."
Rishikul Sanatan College, DAV Boys College and Mahatma Gandhi
Primary schools were some of the other schools, which received
threatening calls.
Fiji's Daily Post
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