Chaudhry sees US hand in Fiji coup

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Chaudhry sees US hand in Fiji coup

 

By Mahendra Ved

 

NEW DELHI: Deposed Fijian Prime Minister Mahendra Chaudhry has

charged

that his predecessor Sitiveni Rabuka had planned the May coup against

his government, to become the country's president, but George

Speight,

who was party to the conspiracy, upstaged the plotters by acting

three

days too soon.

 

Far from being the result of an ethnic divide, the coup was triggered

by his government's decision to award contracts for harvesting

forests

and processing of timber. The US embassy in Suva, he alleged, was

"pushy" about an American firm getting the timber contract. "I think

big bucks were involved," he told The Times of India.

 

As for the May 19 coup when he and his cabinet minister were captured

in the parliamentary complex, Chaudhry said: "The action was planned

for May 22. But Speight beat them to it by three days. And having

scented power, Speight wanted to remain in the driving seat, to

become

the prime minister himself or nominate one of his men."

 

"Speight is a fall guy, used by those defeated in last year's

election. Rabuka very much played a behind-the-scene role, Speight

and

his accomplices told me while I was their hostage. I had heard

Speight

asking on the telephone about Rabuka. Lingeri, Speight's principal

aide, told me the plan was that Rabuka would take over in the name of

the Great Council of Chiefs," he said.

 

"Rabuka had met me a little before Speight acted. His plans failed

because of Speight. Speight himself could not take matters to their

logical conclusion. So the crisis lingered on," Chaudhry said.

 

He added that his government had favoured Commonwealth Development

Corporation (CDC), a British government-owned firm with a good track

record in Africa. But Speight, during the Rabuka Government, had

favoured Timber Resource Management (TRM), a US firm put together to

bid for the right to exploit Fiji's forest wealth.

 

"There is speculation that the US embassy put indirect pressures on

my

government through the attorney-general and prominent coalition

members. There was big money and power involvement. So we want an

inquiry to find the real players behind the scene. I think the

game-plan was to remove us because we couldn't be bullied."

 

Chaudhry further alleged that, "Speight was their proxy. He received

money from the TRM."

 

AFP reports from Suva: Poseci Bune, minister for agriculture in the

deposed government, revealed that Speight, minutes after taking the

government hostage, said he was not the real leader of the coup.

 

Rabuka, a former prime minister who had plotted two coups, is not

above suspicion, though he has denied any involvement in Speight's

coup.

 

The army intends to hold a court martial to deal with the

conspirators

and interim president Iloilo has promised the appointment of a

commission of inquiry into the coup. But whether these inquiries will

reveal the real face of the man behind the May 19 coup is a moot

point.

 

Nevertheless, some are wondering whether Speight, facing trial for

treason, might reveal in court the identity of the man who failed to

turn up at one of the defining moments in Fiji's history.

 

"

 

Box: Fijian drama

 

``Speight is a fall guy, used by those defeated in last year's

election. Rabuka very much played a behind-the-scene role...There is

speculation that the US embassy put indirect pressures on my

government through the attorney-general and prominent coalition

members. There was big money and power involvement. So we want an

inquiry to find the real players behind the scene. I think the

game-plan was to remove us because we couldn't be bullied."