KEY POINTS:
Fijian Prime Minister Laisenia Qarase says he does not know what will happen at noon today in his country (1300 NZT) when military commander Commodore Voreqe (Frank) Bainimarama's deadline for a "clean up" is reached.
Cdre Bainimarama's coup threat came last night when he demanded that the Government
meet all his demands by that time.
But Mr Qarase said this morning he did not know what Cdre Bainimarama wanted, and did not know what the "clean up" would turn out to be.
"It is really bizarre," he said on National Radio.
"Nobody knows what he wants...we're just keeping our fingers crossed that he won't go ahead."
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Asked whether Cdre Bainimarama was threatening to overthrow the Government in a military coup, he replied: "I suppose it will amount to that."
He said he had already met some of Cdre Bainimarama's demands and did not know what else he wanted.
"Nobody knows (what he wants). There are rumours he wants to send some of us back to our homes, things like that, but nobody really knows," he said.
Mr Qarase said the people of Fiji could do nothing.
"He's got all the firepower and the rest of the population has got nothing."
Prime Minister Helen Clark, who brokered Wednesday's talks, said Cdre Bainimarama simply kept repeating that he wanted all his demands met immediately.
"We really don't know what the commander wants, unless we assume he himself wants total power over Fiji," she said on National Radio.
"That is something the international community is not going to accept."
Helen Clark said a coup would have very serious consequences for Fiji.
"For the military itself, there is a very real prospect that the United Nations will carry through on its threat not to have Fijian military forces in its peacekeeping forces," she said.
"And that is basically how Fiji finances its military."
She said the Fijian people were likely to suffer through the withdrawal of financial support from the EU development fund and the loss of UN peacekeeping duties for their soldiers.
Helen Clark said she understood Mr Qarase was going to see Fiji's President Ratu Josefa Iloilo this morning.
"I think the commander may be telling himself he has the support of the president," she said.
"The president could refute that utterly, as could the vice-president, and as could many members of Fiji's elite.
"It really depends on Fiji's elite, and its people, to say it is completely unacceptable behaviour and they don't want to be driven to the cliff yet again, the fourth coup in 19 years, by the actions of the military."
Helen Clark said the Government's warning that people should not go to Fiji unless they had to was still in place.
- NZPA / NEWSTALK ZB
