M A I N   N E W S

2-day ultimatum to Fiji rebels

SUVA, July 5 (Reuters, AP) — Fiji’s military today announced a two-day ultimatum for rebels to leave Parliament where they have been holding deposed Prime Minister Mahendra Chaudhry and 26 other hostages since May 19.

The military said it was creating a no-go zone around the sprawling Parliament complex and ordered the rebels and residents in the vicinity to leave the area in 48 hours.

“The decree will come into effect from midnight tonight...Everyone in the parliamentary complex will be given 48 hours to move out,” military spokesman Lieut Col Filipo Tarakinikini told reporters.

“This can be seen as an amnesty period whereby they are allowed to make up their minds and move out,” he said.

He did not say what action would be taken if the rebels, who have ignored similar offers during the six-week crisis, did not leave Parliament.

The ultimatum and the imposition of an exclusion zone around the Parliament complex comes after a shootout between troops and rebels yesterday in which five persons were wounded.

Three civilians and two armed rebels were wounded in yesterday’s firefight. Military officials later said inexperienced troops overreacted to a crowd of rebel supporters who emerged from Parliament.

But Tarakinikini said the exclusion zone, which will come into force at midnight today, should not be seen as a precursor to the use of force to end the crisis.

“This is not a first step towards a military option. It is just a step to resolve a situation that has gone on too long.”

However, George Speight, who led the May 19 coup that ousted an ethnic Indian-led government, said he would see such military action as provocation that could spark violence toward the hostages.

Tarakinikini said the military still was considering utility cut offs to the Parliament compound, which Speight also has warned against. Food will be allowed in, but only a driver will have permission to carry it.

Speight supporters who have been entering the area freely will be banned in an effort to isolate the hostage-takers.

“The door to continuing negotiations remains open, and the military trusts that both parties can now focus on the safe release of the hostages,” Tarakinikini said.

The military has, in the meanwhile quelled a mini-mutiny at an army base but said local chiefs were threatening disturbances in support of George Speight.

Two or three soldiers who were sympathetic to rebel leader Speight had confiscated arms and ammunition yesterday inside the base at Labasa, on the northern island of Vanua Levu.

“All of the arms are back in the armoury and the soldiers have resumed normal duty,” Colonel Tarakinikini told AP. “But some of the chiefs in the area who apparently were behind this move are still holding on.”

He said the chiefs had not undertaken any specific action.

“It’s more the threat that they represent,” Colonel Tarakinikini said. “They can cause disturbances. The police has gone around and warned shops that they might have to be closed.”

Schools were closed on Fiji’s main two islands, a day after five rebels were wounded in yesterday’s shootout. First-semester examinations at the University of the South Pacific were postponed.