Troops disarm Fiji's police
Troops entered at least two police compounds in Fiji and grabbed weapons today in the apparent first step towards seizing control of the south Pacific country.
Fiji’s acting police commissioner Moses Driver said troops had gone to the compound of the police tactical unit, the Fijian police’s only armed squad, loaded weapons and ammunition into trucks and taken them away in actions that were “unlawful, unwarranted and unnecessary”.
Troops also went into an armoury at the police academy in the capital, Suva, and removed firearms privately owned by police, dress rifles and other weapons used in official ceremonies.
There was no violence between troops and police and the police were not a threat to the armed forces, Driver told a news conference.
Driver said he had no knowledge that the military had moved to replace the government, as has been repeatedly threatened by armed forces commander Commodore Frank Bainimarama.
“Until now I have not concluded a coup d’état is in place,” Driver said. “This is only the disarming of the police.”
Bainimarama has threatened to topple Qarase at any time, after last week saying a deadline to meet his demands to “clean up” the government had expired. He has vowed a peaceful transition.
Today Qarase said he was in his office in Suva and the government was still in charge. He said he was willing to hold more talks with Bainimarama on his demands.
Qarase said Bainimarama’s threatened action against the government amounted to treason.
“What he’s saying he’ll execute, that will be totally illegal,” Qarase said. “It will be against the constitution of Fiji, against the laws of Fiji and will amount to treason.”
In a television interview yesterday, Bainimarama said he was planning to appoint an interim civilian administration and hold elections at a later date to restore democracy to the country. He said Qarase must resign or be removed.
He also wants the government to kill legislation that would grant pardons to conspirators in a 2000 coup and quash two other land-rights bills he says unfairly favour majority indigenous Fijians over the ethnic Indian minority. He has demanded the police tactical unit be disbanded.
Qarase last week offered to suspend work on the contentious bills, but says many of Bainimarama’s other demands went outside the law and he could not agree to them.
Bainimarama said yesterday he had not picked a new prime minister and invited people to write to him to express interest in the job.
