Word: fiji
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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...
...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...
...also lashed out at the media for its coverage of the drawn-out crisis, saying journalists were inflaming the situation and singling out the Fiji Daily Post for criticism. The paper's staff evacuated their offices and inquired to the Australian High Commission about emergency visas...
...potential alternative government. However, Ganilau told Time he has been talking to the military "when asked, on ceremonial matters." The split between backers of the abortive 2000 coup and those who would stage another coup rather than see its perpetrators freed goes right through the heart of indigenous Fiji. -By Rory Callinan/Suva
...beginning of his own belated Pacific homecoming. His subsequent play Paradise was set in a Fijian island resort in the weeks before the May 2000 coup attempt, and it was while in Suva on a writing residency in 2001 that Fraser began his screenplay for No. 2. "Fiji is still an enigma for me," he concedes. But "I figure I know what makes New Zealand tick these days, especially Mount Roskill." With its Pacific wave, New Zealand cinema is all the more refreshing...