Military in Fiji Reports Breakthrough With Rebels

SUVA, Fiji —  The new military leader of Fiji appears to have given in to all the demands of rebels who have held officials of the former government captive for two weeks, and spokesmen for both sides said the hostages could be released soon.

After a ritual exchange of whale’s teeth, Commodore Frank Bainimarama, who took over the civilian government Monday in an effort to end the hostage crisis, met for several hours Thursday night with rebel leader George Speight at the military headquarters. Afterward, Capt. Eroni Volavola, the military spokesman, said the two had achieved “a very major breakthrough.”

The last major point of contention between Speight and the military had been the composition of a new civilian government. Earlier in the week, Bainimarama named the husband of one of Speight’s hostages interim prime minister, infuriating the rebel leader.

Speight, a charismatic figure who is considered a charlatan by some Fijians and a savior by others, calls himself a crusader for the rights of indigenous people. He had demanded that the country be run by people sympathetic to his cause.

Indigenous Fijians account for 51% of Fiji’s population; ethnic Indians, the nation’s largest minority group, make up 44%. The deposed prime minister being held hostage, Mahendra Chaudhry, was Fiji’s first ethnic Indian prime minister.

Bainimarama agreed Thursday night that Speight could have a say in the composition of the new government, a supporter of the rebel leader said. Volavola seemed to confirm the supporter’s statement.

“Let me put it this way,” Volavola said. “That was a proposal and, as I said, there was a very major breakthrough.”

Iliesa Duvuloco, the Speight supporter who took part in the negotiations, said the two sides agreed that the hostage-taker could be in the new government. Duvuloco said the deal was likely to be finalized and the hostages freed by late Monday--although their release has been promised before.

The deal must first be approved by the Great Council of Chiefs, an organization of tribal leaders from throughout the country. Fiji, a group of more than 300 South Pacific islands about 3,000 miles southwest of Hawaii, clings strongly to its traditional culture. Although it has a parliamentary form of government, its chieftain caste still wields great power.

The agreement appears to give Speight everything he had sought: full immunity from prosecution for the hostage-taking, a role in the government and the scrapping of the old constitution that ensured equal rights for ethnic Indians. He already has achieved two other aims: the ouster of Fiji’s appointed president and its elected prime minister.

Speight and six followers took Chaudhry and about 30 others hostage at gunpoint May 19 and have been holding them inside Parliament.