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SUVA - The military has finally seized control in Fiji in the fourth coup in 20 years after days of shadow boxing.
At a press conference at 7pm, Commodore Frank Bainimarama said he had established military law in Fiji and installed himself as President.
"As of six o'clock
this evening, the military has taken over the government, has executive authority and the running of this country," Bainimarama told reporters.
He added: "We urge all citizens to stay calm."
New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark immediately branded the Commodore as "deluded" and said his actions were a "display of military arrogance".
And Fijian PM Laisenia Qarase said the action was illegal, a "national embarrassment" and the action "raped" the Fiji constitution.
The coup came after days of pressure by the military in an effort to force Qarase to step down.
A calm-looking Bainimarama read a lengthy statement which included legal arguments over the military's right to take control under what he called the "doctrine of necessity".
"Having taken over from the president I dismiss the Prime Minister Qarase."
He said soldiers would accompany police on patrols through Fiji and he gave Cabinet Ministers one month to clean out their desks in Government.
"The stalemate has forced me to step forward and the military has taken over government," Bainimarama said.
He said Prime Minister Laisenia Qarase's refusal to agree to President Ratu Josefa Iloilo's request to resign had left Fiji in "limbo" and forced him to act.
Bainimarama said the interim prime minister would be Jona Baravilala Senilagakali, a former Army medic in his 70s who has little political experience except as head of the Fiji Medical Association.
Asked how effective the new interim prime minister would be, given his lack of political experience, military spokesman Major Neumi Leweni said: "What do you mean he's got no qualifications. That's your interpretation".
Senilagakali was paraded before the media following the press conference but did not take any questions.
The coup, the fourth in 20 years, came after a prolonged period of uncertainty in which the military and the Government squared off over controversial laws.
At a press conference tonight, Qarase said a military regime was "illegal and unconstitutional".
He was quoted on fijilive.com as saying; "What the military commander has done is that he has raped the constitution and we have become the laughing stock of the world.
"They (military) have bought shame to the country, it is a national embarrassment.
"I don't think that we should take this lying down," he said.
Speaking minutes after Cdre Bainimarama announced in Suva that he had taken over, Miss Clark said she could only conclude the commander was "severely deluded".
"He called on people not to break the law -- the military commander has just ripped up Fiji's constitution and chucked it out the window," she said on TV One's Close Up programme.
"It is supreme arrogance to say other people shouldn't break the law when you have just single-handedly set out to destroy the law."
Miss Clark described Cdre Bainimarama's actions as "simply an extraordinary display of military arrogance".
Miss Clark said Cdre Bainimarama had talked about government ministers not being arrested, but Mr Qarase had told her during a phone conversation at 1.45pm he was going to be taken to the offshore island where convicted traitor George Speight is imprisoned.
"The tragedy of this is that Mr Bainimarama has turned himself into a Speight, and history will be his judge," she said.
Speight was the leader of a failed coup in 2000, backed by army mutineers. He pleaded guilty to treason and is serving a life sentence.
Miss Clark praised Mr Qarase's courage, and has urged him to continue resisting Cdre Bainimarama's demands that he resign.
"He knows he's absolutely in the right," she said.
Miss Clark brokered talks in Wellington last week between the two men, hoping they would be able to at least agree to a framework for negotiation.
Cdre Bainimarama initially agreed to negotiate, but reneged on that when he reached Suva and said the talks had failed.
The Auckland-based Coalition for Democracy in Fiji (CDF) condemned the military's actions.
"We are saddened that Fiji is yet again being subjected to an illegal and armed usurping of parliamentary democracy," CDF chairman Ahmed Bhamji said.
"We call on those forces in Fiji that are undermining democracy to pull back and uphold the constitution."
Earlier, Qarase was placed under house arrest with soldiers surrounding his home.
But he refused an official request from President Ratu Josef Iloilo to give into military demands or resign, saying he still has the backing of his cabinet.
He told ABC radio: "We are totally unarmed and we can't give in to the commander's demands and I am not prepared to resign voluntarily or even by force."
He said he was not frightened but expected to be taken away by the military.
"So basically if they want to carry out the coup, they have all the freedom to do it now," he said.
Australia refused a last ditch plea for military help from the Fijian prime minister.
Qarase earlier phoned Prime Minister John Howard from his home in Suva, appealing for assistance.
Mr Howard rejected the plea, declaring it was not in Australia's national interest to become involved in the political crisis.
"The possibility of Australian and Fijian troops firing on each other in the streets of Suva was not a prospect that I for a moment thought desirable," he told reporters.
The Fiji military had made it clear in the lead-up to today's coup that it would not welcome foreign intervention.
- Additional reporting by AAP/NEWSTALK ZB
