Fiji's president dissolved parliament on Tuesday and sanctioned the military to remove embattled Prime Minister Laisenia Qarase, said New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark, who immediately imposed sanctions against Fiji's military.
SUVA: Fiji's president dissolved parliament on Tuesday and sanctioned the military to remove embattled Prime Minister Laisenia Qarase, said New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark, who immediately imposed sanctions against Fiji's military.
Australia has refused a request from Qarase for military intervention, Prime Minister John Howard said in Sydney on Tuesday.
Qarase, who is holed up in his residence in the capital Suva, said the military was staging a coup and he would not resign but would have to be forcibly removed from office.
“I am not going anywhere,” Qarase said.
“I am the democratically elected prime minister of the people of Fiji. They will have to move me by force.”
Military commander Frank Bainimarama has repeatedly threatened to topple Qarase's government, which won a second five-year term in May, claiming it is corrupt.
Fiji has had three coups since 1987.
“I have been advised this morning that the president of Fiji has acted outside his constitutional powers and supported the removal of the democratic prime minister by the military,” Clark said in a statement to the New Zealand parliament.
Troops surrounded Qarase's residence on Tuesday, isolating him from the rest of the capital.
About 40 troops armed with M16s cut off the road leading to Qarase's residence and positioned themselves at the rear of his home, after earlier confiscating his motor vehicles.
Qarase was inside his home meeting several cabinet ministers.
The troops later left Qarase's residence, but the prime minister remained inside.
Heavily armed troops have set up roadblocks throughout Suva, including around Qarase's office, and other towns such as Nadi, the tourism hub in the west of the main island of Viti Levu.
Soldiers have raided key police installations and removed the weapons of the police's only armed unit and disarmed the bodyguards of Qarase and other government ministers.
Clark said New Zealand would implement a series of sanctions against Fiji military officials. Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said Australia would also impose sanctions on the Fiji military and anyone the military puts into power.
Qarase and Bainimarama have been embroiled in a power struggle all year. Bainimarama gave the government a list of non-negotiable demands a fortnight ago and threatened a clean-up campaign.
Bainimarama believes Qarase's government has been too soft on those behind Fiji's last coup in 2000 and wants certain government members removed from office.
The United States, Britain and the United Nations have all warned Bainimarama not to attempt to take over the government, with concerns that another coup would devastate the fragile economy based on tourism and sugar.
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