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Armed Fiji soldiers moved into downtown Suva on Tuesday morning
and the military began seizing government ministers' vehicles,
continuing what appears to be the first stages of a coup.
Soldiers are manning checkpoints and guarding roads around
government offices and other key facilities in the Fijian
capital.
At 6.30am (7.30am NZT), about 20 soldiers in battle kit were
positioned near roads bordering the old parliament complex, which
houses offices of the prime minister and cabinet ministers.
Military checkpoints have been set up nearby on other roads leading
to the complex.
Fiji commercial radio reported that soldiers earlier on Tuesday
removed two government vehicles used by ministers from the car park
in the compound.
Land forces commander Lieutenant-Colonel Pita Driti was quoted as
telling the broadcaster all minister's vehicles would be seized,
including that of Prime Minister Laisenia Qarase.
Soldiers fanned out all over Suva and in the western city of Nadi
from late Monday, setting up checkpoints on roads leading to the
centre of Suva and near vital assets.
The military says the checkpoints are to ensure the public's safety
because of a potential threat from dissident groups.
There have been no reports from other sources of any resistance to
the military.
Qarase said he would meet President Ratu Josefa Iloilo on Tuesday
morning after soldiers turned away his vehicle from Government
House late Monday.
The prime minister said the soldiers had wanted him to walk from
the entrance gate along an uphill driveway about 400 metres
long.
"I refused to do that, so I came back," Qarase told the radio
station.
The prime minister on Monday flew back to Suva by helicopter from a
function outside the capital after a military checkpoint was set up
on the road back.
Police bodyguards who drove Qarase's vehicle handed over their
weapons to soldiers at the checkpoint.
Military commander Commodore Frank Bainimarama later said the
bodyguards' weapons had been returned.
Driti said Qarase's flight home was unnecessary.
"The PM does not deserve a bullet, let alone be apprehended," he
told the Fiji Sun newspaper.
"We only wanted to disarm his bodyguards as part of the clean-up
campaign."
The campaign is Bainimarama's term for forcing the government to
meet a list of military's demands.
The prime minister has called an emergency cabinet meeting on
Tuesday to discuss Bainimarama's demands, which Qarase says have
changed.
But the commander has said the prime minister's time is up and is
demanding his resignation.
On Monday Bainimarama, after receiving a communication from Iloilo,
cut short a press conference in which he had been expected to
announce his intentions.
Bainimarama instead briefly defended the army's seizure of police
weapons on Monday and refused to take questions.
One of Fiji's three daily newspapers was not published on Tuesday
after management evacuated its building on Monday on reports of a
military threat against the company.
The Daily Post is partly owned by the government and has taken a
strong anti-military line in its editorials.
Qarase said later that the cabinet meeting planned for Tuesday
morning had been postponed.
The prime minister remains in his Suva residence and received a
visit from Foreign Minister Kaliopate Tavola at 9.30am local time
(10:30 NZT)
Tavola arrived in a taxi and declined to comment on the current
crisis.
Qorinasi Bale, Fiji's attorney general, arrived a short time
later.
Local radio reported seven government vehicles used by ministers
and parliament's Speaker had been confiscated by the military since
Monday night.
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