M A I N   N E W S

Speight men cut off power supply

SUVA, July 6 (AFP, Reuters) — Supporters of Fiji coup leader George Speight put the country’s main power station out of action today, plunging the capital Suva into total darkness.

The move came after the military began attempting to seal off the parliamentary complex where Speight and his supporters are holding 27 hostages, including the country’s elected Prime Minister Mahendra Chaudhry.

Witnesses said hundreds of Speight supporters who had assembled outside the Queen Elizabeth barracks, the military’s headquarters, had stoned cars and began attempting to loot businesses in the centre of the capital.

But an AFP reporter who arrived at the scene shortly afterwards said the crowd appeared to be calm with a heavy contingent of armed troops guarding the entry to the barracks.

Fiji’s electricity authority told Fiji TV that the water supply to the main Monosavu power station had been cut off by the indigenous Fijians who own the land on which it is located.

Parts of the country were getting electricity from diesel generators.

Former Fiji military commander Ratu Epeli Ganilau was reportedly inside the Parliament complex negotiating with rebel leaders for a resumption of peace talks.