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Fiji president plunges nation deeper into political crisis
Sydney Morning Herald - April 12, 2009
Fiji was plunged deeper into chaos yesterday after military chief Commodore Frank Bainimarama was reappointed Prime Minister just 24 hours after its President scrapped the constitution and assumed executive power.
President Ratu Josefa Iloilo swore in Mr Bainimarama as interim Prime Minister at a ceremony at Fiji's Government House, from which international media were banned. Mr Iloilo also declared a 30-day state of emergency in the country.
Fiji remained calm yesterday, with police checkpoints on key roads the only visible sign of the Government crisis. The radical moves by the titular head of state to overturn the constitution, sack the judiciary and reappoint Mr Bainimarama ensures the armed forces chief, who seized power in 2006, retains control despite a senior court's ruling on Thursday his Government was unlawful.
The turmoil marks the latest chapter in a long-running political crisis in the country of 800,000 people that has become increasingly unstable and poor after four coups in the past 20 years.
In a move against freedom of speech and association, Mr Iloilo declared a 30-day state of national emergency, with police given powers "to control the movement of people".
He said its powers meant the state could stop any broadcast or publication it deemed "could cause disorder... promote disaffection or public alarm or undermine the Government or state of Fiji".
Mr Bainimarama said a short time after yesterday's swearing-in ceremony that he had not advised Mr Iloilo to overturn the country's 1997 constitution – a view that had spread rapidly when the military commander stood down on Thursday after the appeal court ruling.
Australia and New Zealand have condemned the President's move to overturn the constitution and sack the judiciary. Australia described the action as "backwards" and backed the appeal court's recommendation for prompt elections.
The United States and the Commonwealth of Nations also expressed concern.
"The United States is deeply disappointed by the collapse of Fiji's political dialogue process and the abrogation of Fiji's constitution, which we see as movement away from the goal of returning Fiji to democratic governance and its formerly leading role in the Pacific," State Department spokesman Richard Aker said in a statement.
In a national address on Friday, Mr Iloilo announced he had abrogated the constitution and revoked all judicial appointments, leaving him to rule by decree as part of what he called "the new order". He said he would hold elections no later than September 2014.
Mr Iloilo's declaration came a few hours after Mr Bainimarama, in his own national address, said he was stepping down as Prime Minister because of the court ruling that declared his Government illegal.
"It looks like a prepared statement by Bainimarama, delivered by Iloilo," said Rod Alley, a senior fellow at New Zealand's Centre for Strategic Studies.
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