Fiji's military chief said the army had taken over the country, plunging the South Pacific island nation into its fourth coup in 20 years.
Updated at 6 pm
SUVA: Fiji's military took over running the country in a bloodless overthrow on Tuesday after confining the elected prime minister to his home in the South Pacific island nation's fourth coup in 20 years.
Military Commander Frank Bainimarama said he had temporarily stepped into President Ratu Josefa Iloilo's role as head of state and dismissed the government of Laisenia Qarase after a power struggle that had simmered all year.
Promising that the takeover would not be permanent, Bainimarama said he had appointed little known Jona Senilagakali Baravilala, a former military doctor and political novice, as interim prime minister before fresh elections are called.
“The stalemate has forced me to step forward and the military has taken over government,” Bainimarama said, adding that the chief executives of government ministries would run their departments until Baravilala appoints an interim government.
Bainimarama had repeatedly threatened to topple Qarase's government, which won a second five-year term in May, calling it corrupt and too soft on those behind Fiji's last coup in 2000.
“We trust that the new government will lead us into peace and prosperity and mend the ever-widening racial divide which currently besets our multi-cultural nation,” he said.
Fiji's three earlier coups, the first in 1987, were racially motivated with indigenous Fijians who make up 51 percent of the 900,000 population fearing they would lose political control of their nation to minority ethnic Indian Fijians who already dominate the economy.
Qarase told Reuters he was still prime minister.
“I have been removed illegally,” he said over the telephone from his home as soldiers blocked off the street outside.
“Fiji has now become a laughing stock in the international arena,” he said as several hundred supporters gathered behind army barricades, singing hymns and praying.
Police Commissioner Andrew Hughes, an Australian, thought Bainimarama's coup would spark a popular uprising that he hoped would be non-violent.
“He doesn't have the support of the government, of the president, of the police, of the churches, or the chiefs, of the people of Fiji,” Hughes told Australian television.
Troops manned roadblocks around Suva for the second night in a row on Tuesday although the capital was largely calm.
The military warned local media not to publish material critical of the military or run stories about Qarase.
At last two newspapers have suspended publication, while TV news programmes did not air late on Tuesday.
Bainimarama said Baravilala would dissolve parliament and that he would surrender presidential powers back to Iloilo next week.
He gave no timetable for new elections.
Fiji's political crisis has alarmed its neighbours, with Australia sending three warships in case it needed to evacuate holidaying nationals.
Bainimarama has warned that his soldiers will oppose foreign intervention.
Australian Prime Minister John Howard said Qarase telephoned him on Tuesday morning to seek help.
“The possibility of Australian and Fijian troops firing on each other in the streets of Suva was not a prospect that I, for a moment, thought desirable,” Howard said.
New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark said Bainimarama had taken complete leave of his senses.
Australia and New Zealand said they would impose sanctions on Fiji's military, with New Zealand to seek Fiji's expulsion from the Commonwealth.
Bainimarama wanted Qarase to remove members of his government he said were involved in the 2000 coup.
He had also told Qarase to drop a number of bills, including one that would have granted amnesties to members of the 2000 coup.
Bainimarama said he was forced to act because Qarase refused to step down and the president would not sack him.
Iloilo said in a rare statement he did not support the military's action.
The latest coup is expected to severely damage Fiji's fragile sugar and tourism industries, just like previous upheavals, with tourism bookings falling.
Australia issued a travel advisory saying: Political tensions could lead to mob violence and civil disorder.
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