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Qarase Sworn in as Fiji's Prime Minister
Laisenia Qarase was sworn in as Fiji's new prime minister on Monday, ending a 15-month interim administration appointed by the military after a coup.
"I will be a true and faithful prime minister, so help me God," Qarase said in a nationally televised swearing-in ceremony.
Qarase's nationalist Soqosoqo Duavata Ni Lewenivanua party won 31 of Fiji's 71 parliamentary seats in a general election called to end military-appointed rule after the racially inspired coup.
Gunmen led by failed businessman George Speight deposed Fiji's ethnic Indian prime minister Mahendra Chaudhry in a siege on the nation's parliament in May 2000 in the name of indigenous Fijian rights.
Many of Fiji's indigenous population fear the country's ethnic Indian minority will match their economic might with political clout.
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