Word: bainimarama
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Dates: during 2006-2006
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Commander Voreqe "Frank" Bainimarama, the top military man of the idyllic island nation of Fiji, is haunted by the memory of the day in 2000 when 30 of his own disgruntled soldiers came to kill him in his office at Queen Elizabeth Barracks in the capital of Suva. The military chief escaped the black-clad invaders and their gunfire, but he lost face as his flight was captured by video cameras. The would-be military assassins were allies of the men who had tried to overthrow the government the same year. During the past six years, Bainimarama has neither forgotten...
Longstanding tensions between the Fijian government and military approached breaking point Dec. 3, as Commander Voreqe (Frank) Bainimarama sent armed troops to surround the police barracks in Suva. For several days beforehand, his soldiers had been patrolling the streets of the capital, Suva, as the Commander repeated his "non-negotiable" demands that Prime Minister Laisenia Qarase resign and that his government abandon moves to exonerate perpetrators of the attempted coup...
...Bainimarama had grown increasingly bellicose in recent weeks. As troops fired mortars into Suva's harbor during a 3 a.m. training exercise Nov. 30, he told a press conference that he was "boss" of Fiji. A meeting between him and Qarase in Wellington last week-hastily arranged by the New Zealand government-failed to soften Bainimarama's stance. Qarase emerged from the talks saying progress had been made; Bainimarama immediately denied it. On Sunday, speaking in Fijian on Fiji One television, he said there were "5,001 ways we can make him resign," and, referring to the prison island where...
...Commander's stance has won him malevolent enemies. An officer says he has received numerous death threats, and there is fear in the military's higher ranks that Bainimarama has been targeted for assassination-a fate he narrowly escaped in 2000, during a failed mutiny in the wake of the coup. The Commander is constantly shadowed by eight bodyguards in bulletproof vests. There are rumors that some senior officers now want the Commander removed. "There is a split in the ranks as well," one officer told Time. Despite the threats, Bainimarama gave no sign of backing away from...