Fiji coup of 2000

• Timeline (2000)
  • May: 19, 20, 26, 27, 29, 30.
  • June: 7, 20.
  • July: 4, 6, 7, 9, 12, 13, 27.
  • November.
• Aftermath and Investigation (2001-2005)

May 19, 2000

• A group led by George Speight takes Prime Minister Mahendra Chaudhry and others hostage in the Parliament building of Fiji in Suva.
• Speight names Timoci Silatolu interim Prime Minister.
• The President Ratu Sir Kamisese Mara, denounces the coup, and declares a state of emergency.

May 20, 2000

• The military and police pledge loyalty to Mara.

May 26, 2000

• Fifteen soldiers and two officers defect to the coup.

May 27, 2000

• The rebels try to break the siege. Gunfire is exchanged.
• President Mara dismisses Mahendra Chaudhry and appoints Ratu Tevita Momoedonu as Prime Minister in his place. Momoedonu holds office for only a few minutes: he is appointed in order to "advise" the President to assume emergency powers, something that Chaudhry, in captivity, is unable to do. Mara claims to be following the Great Council of Chiefs. Mara offers Speight a pardon, which Speight rejects. (Mara later accused the Great Council of Chiefs of deception: according to him, they had lost confidence in him also, although that did not become apparent until two days later).

May 29, 2000

• Commodore Frank Bainimarama declares himself head of an Interim Military Government, with the claimed backing of the previous president, and declares martial law. (In an interview on April 29 of the following year, deposed President Mara denied that he had given Bainimarama his support. His resignation had been, he said, extorted from him, following his refusal of their request to abrogate the constitution).

May 30, 2000

• Bainimarama revokes the 1997 constitution and names Ratu Epeli Nailatikau interim Prime Minister. After opposition from Speight, he withdraws the nomination on May 31.

June 7, 2000

• Fiji is suspended from the Commonwealth of Nations.

June 20, 2000

• Speight rejects an ultimatum demanding he sign an accord.

July 4, 2000

• Laisenia Qarase made interim Prime Minister.

July 6, 2000

• Rebels cut off Suva's power supply.

July 7, 2000

• Rebels overrun an army based on Vanua Levu
• Gunfire between rebels and military in Suva

July 9, 2000

• Speight and the military sign an accord.
• There is rioting in Levuka

July 12, 2000

• Speight's group release 9 hostages.

July 13, 2000

• Chaudhry and the other hostages are released. Josefa Iloilo named as interim President. Jope Seniloli is vice President.

July 27, 2000

• Speight is arrested.

November 2000

• The Supreme Court rules that interim government is illegal. Ratu Sir Kamisese Mara remains the lawful President; Parliament had not been dissolved but only suspended, and should now be reconvened, and by implication, Chaudhry remains the lawful Prime Minister. As Mara has not been performing his duties, however, Iloilo has been rightly exercising the prerogatives of the office in his place.

Aftermath and investigation (2001-2005)

Mara's version

On April 30, 2001, Fiji's deposed President, Ratu Sir Kamisese Mara, publicly accused the police chief, Colonel Isikia Savua and former Prime Minister, Sitiveni Rabuka, of instigating the coup which removed Mara and the Prime Minister, Mahendra Chaudhry, from office and led to the abrogation of the Constitution. Claiming that George Speight — who was then in custody and has since been convicted of treason — was only a front, Mara told Close-Up on Fiji Television that he confronted Savua and Rabuka two days after the coup about their possible involvement. "I could see it in their faces," said Mara, emphatically rejecting their denials.

Ratu Mara told the programme that within half an hour of Speight's forcible occupation of the Parliament, Rabuka had telephoned Government House (the official residence of the President) to offer to form a government.

Mara said that he was shocked to learn that the Counter Revolutionary Warfare Unit of the Army had been involved in the coup. He alleged that they took George Speight to Parliament, and that their senior officers supplied them with weapons, blankets, and food. Mara also declared that the Counter Revolutionary Warfare officers who joined Speight's coup had trained on a farm owned by Rabuka.

Police investigation

On May 21, 2003, the Police Investigations Department confirmed that they had opened an investigation into the resignation of the Fiji's former President, Ratu Sir Kamisese Mara. Mara resigned on May 29, 2000, and handed power over to Commodore Frank Bainimarama. In what policians are calling a "coup within a coup," Ratu Mara was whisked away on a warship on May 28, where he was allegedly approached by a group of present and former military and police officers who ordered him to suspend the Constitution. When he refused, ("If the Constitution goes, I go," he defiantly declared) the group, including Bainimarama, former Prime Minister and 1987 Coup Leader Sitiveni Rabuka, former military commander Ratu Epeli Ganilau (a son-in-law of Mara's), and former Police Commissioner Isikia Savua , are said to have forced Mara's resignation. He was subsequently taken to his home island in the Lau Islands .

Mahendra Chaudhry, the deposed Prime Minister, has publicly supported Mara's version of events, and has further alleged that Mara was blackmailed with a threat to kill his daughter, Adi Koila Mara Nailatikau, who was one of the hostages. Commodore Bainimarama has defended his role in the incident saying it was "necessary" at the time. The military regime that took over appointed the current President, Ratu Josefa Iloilo. After the coup had been quashed, the Supreme Court ruled that Mara's replacement was unconstitutional and ordered his reinstatement, but Mara decided to spare the country further constitutional trauma by resigning officially, with his resignation retroactive to May 29, 2000.

Police declared in 2003 that they were facing "many challenges" in their investigation, finding many officers uncooperative. Then on 30 April 2004, Police spokesman Mesake Koroi , said that a lot of "hearsay and rumours" were going around that would not stand up in court. Many witnesses were refusing to talk. "Unfortunately we are hitting a brick wall in our investigations at the moment," Koroi said.

Controversial trials and verdicts

In August 2004 Jope Seniloli, the then Vice-President, was convicted of falsely swearing in ministers in 2000, and was sentenced to four years' imprisonment. Ostensibly for "health" reasons, he was paroled in November 2004 having served less than four months of his sentence, generating a storm of protests from the Indo-Fijian dominated opposition and, significantly, from the ethnic Fijian-dominated military.

The political fallout from the coup continued into 2005. On April 4, Ratu Naiqama Lalabalavu (the Tui Cakau and Minister for Lands and Natural Resources), Senator Josefa Dimuri , Ratu Rokodewala Niumataiwalu (the Tui Wailevu ), and Ratu Viliame Rovabokola (the Tui Nadogo ), were convicted of unlawful assembly for having met with the plotters while the coup was in progress, and were imprisoned for eight months.

On 14 April 2005, Lalabalavu and Dimuri were released on parole, after having served only eleven days of their eight month sentence. This provoked an angry reaction from the opposition Fiji Labour Party and from the Citizens Constitutional Forum . Poseci Bune , Deputy Leader of the Labour Party, called their release "a travesty of justice and made a mockery of the country's judicial system," and accused the government of perverting the course of justice in order to retain the support of its coalition partner. Akuila Yabaki of the Citizens Constitutional forum concurred, saying that the decision smacked of political interference in the judicial process, showed disrespect to the court, and abused principles of equal treatment.

The Fiji Military Forces added its own voice to the criticism on 17 April. In a strongly worded statement, Commodore Frank Bainimarama said that he was "frustrated, disturbed, and disappointed" by the decision which, he said, "made a mockery of the military, police, and the judiciary." He went on to emphasize that he was speaking on behalf of the military, not only for himself. His outburst provoked a strong response from Home Affairs Minister Josefa Vosanibola , who warned him that he would face "discipline" if he did not cease making statements to the media without consulting him. The row escalated, with Bainimarama saying on 19 April that he would not be silenced. Army spokesman Captain Neumi Leweni also issued his own statement supporting Bainimarama's criticism of government policy. Leweni also criticized Aisea Taoka , Fiji's Commissioner of Prisons , for his role in the release of the two chiefs, and also hinted darkly of "secret forces in place before the actual release" - believed to be a veiled reference to political intervention in the course of justice. He said that persons convicted of politically motivated crimes "should not be classified as ordinary prisoners" and indicated that early release should not be an option for them. On 20 April, Vosanibola said that he would not be "intimidated" by Bainimarama's comments to the media, and reiterated his threat to take unspecified disciplinary actions against him if he did not cease making public statements without consulting him.