May 23, 2000	atimes.com

Oceania From coup maker to coup breaker By Kalinga Seneviratne SYDNEY - First he was the suspected coup leader, then the mediator and now the suspected coup breaker in Fiji's attempted coup on Friday. He is Sitiveni Rabuka, former Fiji prime minister and leader of a 1987 coup. Since a group of gunmen in civilian clothing took hostage more than 30 members of parliament on Friday in Fiji's capital Suva, Rabuka has taken center stage in attempts to solve the Pacific Island nation's political crisis. On Friday, Rabuka's presence in the parliamentary building just after the takeover fuelled rumors that he is in fact behind the coup. But since then, he has vehemently denied any hand in the takeover of Parliament House and tried to be the go-between the coup leader George Speight and President Ratu Kamisese Mara. Speight, the businessman son of an opposition member of parliament, says he launched the coup attempt on behalf of all indigenous Fijians, who he says are discriminated against by the government of Indo-Fijian Prime Minister Mahendra Chaudhry, who won in the May 1999 poll. The coup has again focused attention on these festering racial tensions, the same reasons Rabuka himself cited in launching the coup of 1987 which topped the then Indo-Fijian government and led to his being premier for 12 years until losing in last year's election. That election was held under a new constitution that gave Fiji's Indian and indigenous communities an equal say in the political system and was billed as a healing instrument for society. The majority of Fijians are indigenous, and about 45 percent are of Indian descent, indentured laborers brought to the islands by the British in the 19th century to work in the sugarcane plantations they established in the islands. Rabuka has argued that as the current chairman of the great Council of Chiefs (GCC), the custodian of indigenous Fijian rights, he had a duty to help negotiate a peaceful end to the crisis. But the former prime minister's critics say there is circumstantial evidence to suggest that he has had some hand in the coup attempt. In an interview with Radio Fiji on Saturday, Rabuka said that when he went to meet President Mara on Saturday morning, the first question he was asked was whether he was involved in the coup. ''This morning we had a very cold start as His Excellency had been informed that I was part of Sam Speight's group because I was seen in the camp (army barracks in Suva where the gunmen have come from) on Sunday (May 14th),'' Rabuka said. ''I told him I went to the camp on Sunday and I was in church with members of the unit from the camp that is involved in this government takeover,'' he added. Rabuka is known to be a close friend of Sam Speight, the coup leader's father. Rabuka said that he had assured the president that as the chairman of GCC he was mediating between the armed group and the president's office. But he admitted that he knew many of the coup plotters very well and has told them that he sympathized with their cause, but do not agree with their methods. ''I offered my services to His Excellency the President of Fiji - as someone who has gone through what they are going through and also who has seen the consequences of actions such as they have just performed brought to being on the nation of Fiji,'' he said on local television. ''I cannot be seen to be supporting any attempt to dismantle the (1997) constitution that I helped bring into being,'' added Rabuka. ''I'm totally behind the president because of his position and I believe we can come out of it constitutionally.'' On Monday, Speight has said that he no longer recognizes Rabuka's position as the head of GCC and he would not be used as mediator. The self-proclaimed prime minister said that he has lost trust in Rabuka and felt that he was biased against the ''civilian movement'' that has taken over government. Over the weekend, Speight released a number of parliamentarians and staff he was holding hostage, but still holds 34 members of parliament including the prime minister and acting deputy prime minister Tupeni Baba, an indigenous Fijian. Rabuka has called for an emergency meeting of the GCC Tuesday to discuss the crisis and recommend measures to the president to help solve the impasse, but, Speight has demanded that Rabuka step down as chairman first. Speight, who took a short stroll outside Parliament house at 4am Monday without being challenged by security personnel manning the streets around the compound, says that he has revoked the 1997 constitution. Thus, he holds all executive powers and the powers of the president and the GCC has been revoked. Tension between the two camps - the Speight group and Mara - is reported to be very high. The president has refused a request from Speight to meet him. ''I will not have any dialogue with those who are keeping the parliamentarians hostage, unless they are freed,'' said President Mara in a national television address on Sunday. He told the nation that Speight has asked him to step down and that if he does not, he will start executing the hostages one by one. Among the hostages is the president's own daughter, who is a government member of parliament. In an interview with ABC radio here, deputy prime minister Queenie Bavadra Speed, who is recovering from cancer treatment in a Canberra hospital, said that the coup has been executed by a bunch of people who are political opportunists rather than those who harbor deep-rooted anti-Indian racism. ''It's not only to do with Indians, it's also to do with their Fijian colleagues who have done better than themselves. These discontented people are a minority of people who just haven't made it, people like George Speight, I mean,'' she said. Speed is confident that Speight's attempted takeover of government will not succeed ''because he doesn't have the military to back him up''. She also pointed out that the people who took to the streets on Friday asking for the removal of the Chaudry government have left Suva, raising questions on whether they support Speight's takeover. Support for Speight suffered a major setback Monday when the nationalist Taukei Movement leader Apisai Tora, who led Friday's protest march, disassociated himself from the coup. Tora said he refused an invitation to join Speight's civilian self-proclaimed government, but still sympathizes with the cause. Meantime, Speight believes that he has support within the GCC and that in the Tuesday meeting, it will ask the president to step down, revoke the 1997 constitution and install an interim government dictated by his supporters. Asked whether he will be a contender for the presidency if Ratu Mara steps down, Rabuka replied: ''If he is removed right now, the vice-president comes in.'' At a press conference Monday, Mara has said that he has the support of the GCC and that he will be putting some proposals to the Tuesday meeting. ''We have to address the concerns of the Fijian community. But we must act within the constitution,''he said. ''These concerns will be thoroughly examined, and solutions considered to further protect and enhance the position of the indigenous Fijian community.'' Still, Mara said he is unable give an assurance that the same government will remain in place. ''I can't say that I will put back the government that caused all these problems,'' he added, hinting that a change in the government's composition may be in the offing. (Inter Press Service)

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