Contexts - Rough Guide to Fiji - page 317

Bainimarama, caught in the middle, declared martial law and appointed Laisenia Qarase , an
ethnic Fijian, as the interim prime minister.
On July 12, 2000, 56 days after storming the parliament, Speight released the hostages,
having been assured sanctuary by Bainimarama. However, he was later arrested and found
guilty of treason - he remains locked up in a high-security prison. On September 2, 2000,
an attempted mutiny of the army was quashed by Bainimarama with the loss of eight lives
- again Rabuka was accused of being its instigator. Ten days later, a High Court ruling of-
ficially found the interim government illegal and returned power to Chaudhry. The decision
was challenged by the ousted prime minister, Laisenia Qarase, and in March 2001 the ruling
was overturned. Afraid it wouldn't hold, Qarase immediately resigned as prime minister to
ensure the dissolution of parliament and to force a general election. Five months later, cam-
paigning under a newly formed SDL party, Qarase was returned legally as prime minister.
The country regained economic stability but the government introduced several extremely
controversial policies, including the Reconciliation, Tolerance and Unity Bill (2005) which
would pardon all preceding coup perpetrators, and the Qoliqoli Bill (2006) which entrusted
all beaches, lagoons and reefs to indigenous land owners with strong implications for the
tourist industry.
Bainimarama and the fourth coup, 2006
Commodore Frank Bainimarama , head of Fiji's oversized military forces, had publicly
disapproved of Qarase's contention of the 2001 elections, claiming that it had been a condi-
tion of his appointment as interim prime minister after the 2000 coup that he would not stand
for re-election. Bainimarama was hell-bent on prosecuting all those involved in the previous
coups, regardless of chiefly status, and on undertaking the even greater task of weeding out
the corruption and nepotism rife amongst Qarase's highly paid and bumbling senior civil
servants. Despite a very public war of words between the two, Qarase and his SDL party were
returned to power in the general elections of May 2006.
By October, Bainimarama had issued a number of demands to the Qarase government relat-
ing to corruption and bringing the 2000 coup perpetrators to justice. A three-month deadline
was set and when it came and went he announced that the Fijian military was taking control
of the country in a televised address on December 5, 2006 . Qarase was flown to his home
island of Vanua Balavu. The coup, Fiji's fourth, had been widely expected and there was little
disruption to daily life apart from army roadblocks. Foreign governments, particularly Aus-
tralia and New Zealand , condemned the coup as illegal and issued stern advisories against
all travel to Fiji, paralyzing the country's tourist industry.
Post-coup Fiji
In order to appease the international community, Bainimarama promised democratic elec-
tions for March 2009 and established a multiracial interim government that included Ma-