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Ousted Fiji PM warned on unrest | |
(about 3 hours later) | |
Fiji's military has warned ousted Prime Minister Laisenia Qarase not to incite unrest, threatening to arrest him if he returns to the capital Suva. | |
Mr Qarase has said he plans to return to Suva, having been banished after last week's coup. He has urged peaceful resistance to the new leadership. | |
Coup leader and army chief Cmdr Frank Bainimarama said his comments showed a "willingness to resort to violence". | |
He was speaking as another ex-PM was cleared of inciting an earlier mutiny. | |
Sitiveni Rabuka had been accused of encouraging senior military officers to rise up against Cmdr Bainimarama in November 2000. | |
Dissenters warned | |
Cmdr Bainimarama said troops and checkpoints would remain on the streets after Mr Qarase indicated at the weekend he would return to Suva from his home on an outer island. | |
FIJI TENSIONS TIMELINE 2000: Brief coup put down by army chief BainimaramaJuly 2005: Bainimarama warns he will topple government if it pardons jailed coup plottersMay 2006: PM Laisenia Qarase wins re-election31 Oct: Qarase tries - and fails - to replace BainimaramaNovember: Qarase says he will change law offering clemency to coup plotters - Bainimarama warns of coup5 Dec: Military declares coup Fiji voices: Coup impact Fears for future History of coups | |
The democratically-elected former prime minister - who insists he remains head of the country - has also called on Fijians to hold peaceful pro-democracy protests. | |
"It gives us reason to believe Mr Qarase and his supporters are willing to resort to violence," Cmdr Bainimarama said. | |
He also hit out at Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer, who like Mr Qarase has urged Fijians to show passive resistance. | |
Such comments "could incite people, and their actions could very easily turn into a situation where the military will have to confront them with force," he said. | |
Dissenters were warned by the military at the weekend to keep quiet or face being taken in for questioning. | |
But the military is facing some powerful opposition, with both the Great Council of Chiefs and influential church groups denouncing the coup. | |
Cmdr Bainimarama assumed presidential powers after dismissing the government in last Tuesday's coup. A state of emergency is now in place. | |
He says the military has received more than 300 applications from people interested in ministerial positions after adverts for interim government jobs were placed in weekend newspapers. | |
Ethnic tensions | |
Sitiveni Rabuka - who served as elected prime minister in the 1990s after leading two coups in 1987 - has spoken of his relief at being found not guilty of inciting mutiny. | |
Sitiveni Rabuka denied the charges against him | |
"I'm free. I'm glad to be cleared of suspicion. I knew the facts, it was a matter of all the evidence and facts coming out," he told reporters outside the court. | |
High Court Judge Gerard Winter told Mr Rabuka: "I hold honest and reasonable uncertainty in my mind of your guilt." | High Court Judge Gerard Winter told Mr Rabuka: "I hold honest and reasonable uncertainty in my mind of your guilt." |
His decision to clear him came after a jury failed to reach a verdict in the case. | His decision to clear him came after a jury failed to reach a verdict in the case. |
Mr Rabuka was accused of inciting senior military officers to seize control of the Queen Elizabeth Barracks, the army's main headquarters, near Suva in November 2000. | |
Cmdr Bainimarama escaped assassination after jumping through a window. | |
The mutiny, which failed, was linked to a coup led by indigenous armed nationalists against the country's first ethnic-Indian prime minister earlier in the year. | |
The coup in May 2000 ended without bloodshed after Cmdr Bainimarama imposed martial law and installed Laisenia Qarase as prime minister - a man he now accuses of corruption. | |
Cmdr Bainimarama's actions angered some within the military who had sympathised with the leaders of the May 2000 coup. | |
Tensions between the ethnic Fijian majority and Indian Fijians, who make up roughly 40% of the population, lie at the heart of each of the Pacific nation's four coups in the past two decades. | Tensions between the ethnic Fijian majority and Indian Fijians, who make up roughly 40% of the population, lie at the heart of each of the Pacific nation's four coups in the past two decades. |
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