Fijian crisis drags on as military delays formation of interim administration

Neither figure has announced any program or policies to address Fiji’s severe economic and social crisis. Their statements on the political situation have been marked by a series of contradictions, retractions, and zigzags.

The strange state of affairs reflects the inherent contradictions of Bainimarama’s stance. He seized power on December 5 after a protracted standoff between the military and the government, which saw Qarase refuse to comply with military demands for the withdrawal of contentious legislation pitched to the government’s ethnic Fijian chauvinist constituency. Bainimarama accused the government of threatening economic growth and deterring international investment by extending tribal land rights over coastal areas and by granting amnesty to those involved in the 2000 coup that toppled the Labour-led government of Mahendra Chaudhry, the country’s first Indo-Fijian prime minister.

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http://wsws.org/articles/2006/dec2006/fiji-d22.shtml