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Fiji Rebels, Supporters Stand Firm in Sea of Mud
After torrents of rain, the parliament compound where indigenous Fijian nationalists are holding 31 hostages is not a pretty sight.
The hostages, including Fiji's first ethnic Indian prime minister, Mahendra Chaudhry, have been held prisoner in the compound since a band of gunmen led by former businessman George Speight burst into parliament on May 19 and seized Fiji's first multi-ethnic coalition government.
But the rains have turned the grounds of the complex into a sea of mud where the hundreds of supporters who have flocked to parliament to support the rebels cook, drink and wait.
The friendly, carnival-like atmosphere that marked the beginning of the crisis, has long since disappeared.
Now visitors hardly ever hear the the traditional term of endearment "bula", and the gentle, gospel-like melodies of Fijian music are no longer broadcast through the complex.
Drenched clothing hangs everywhere and virtually everyone looks bored.
But for some indigenous Fijians fearful of domination by the economically powerful ethnic Indian minority, it's all worth it.
"These people are here to see that control over Fiji is returned to indigenous Fijians," Speight told Reuters.
VISITORS ALLOWED IN
Visitors are allowed in and can roam around most parts of the compound after showing identification and agreeing to a search by Speight's guards.
In the grounds of the traditional thatch-roof parliament Speight's supporters have pitched tents and dug barbecue pits in which cows and pigs donated by sympathisers are butchered and roasted.
A cache of kava root, used to concoct the mildly narcotic brew loved by indigenous Fijians but avoided by most ethnic Indians, is stacked high in a parking lot.
Nearby, a giant tortoise the size of a refrigerator lies dead on its back. Soon it will be cut up and cooked in soup.
People gulp kava from wooden bowls called tanoa, while others simply dip hollowed out coconut shells into plastic buckets of the root extract.
Some people are camped out in half a dozen cars left in the compound. Police claim the cars were stolen.
But a policeman who recently tried to check on the vehicles was set upon and brutally beaten by Speight's supporters.
ECONOMY TEETERS
Fiji's military tries to negotiate a solution and Commonwealth officials wring their hands but the crisis drags on and Fiji's economy teeters on the brink of ruin.
The crucial sugar crop may soon rot in the fields as sugar farmers, most of them ethnic Indians whose ancestors were first brought to Fiji by the British in the 1800s as sugar-field workers, are refusing to cut the cane to protest against the seizure of the ethnic Indian prime minister they so admire.
Fiji's other mainstay, tourism, is also facing disaster because of the political crisis while garment manufacturing and export is being hit by an Australian union ban on Fiji trade.
But for Speight and his supporters it seems no price is too big.
"When Chaudhry was elected, the parliament starting telling Fijians, now we are the rulers and we are going to rule you."
"This is not acceptable to true Fijians," Speight growls.
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