KEY POINTS:
This is coup number four, but deposing a Government by force still shocks Fijians.
As when man walked on the moon, people remember where they were and what they were doing.
When George Speight's hooded gunmen stormed Parliament in Suva on May 19, 2000, taking hostages in the
debating chamber, Emori, now in hotel management, was at college learning the business. Naziah, who has just begun working as a reporter, was in high school dreaming of a job in the media.
Tupeni Baba and Adi Koila Nailatakau won't forget. They were among those MPs held hostage for 56 days.
And yesterday, Mr Baba and Ms Nailatakau, senators now, were in that same debating chamber when men with guns came again.
"This brings back sad memories," Ms Nailatakau says. "If it wasn't for 2000, my parents would be here."
Both died of natural causes, but she no doubt the trauma of Speight's coup killed them. Her father was Ratu Sir Kamisese Mara.
There is not much Mr Baba, who spent time as a fellow at Auckland University's Pacific studies centre, does not know about Fiji coups.
He was detained for seven days in 1987 by soldiers under the orders of Sitiveni Rabuka, then a soldier and now a civilian on trial in Suva's High Court accused of orchestrating a mutiny in 2000 that left eight dead.
As he arrived at court yesterday, Rabuka had a cheery word for foreign photographers as though it were any normal day.
As a spectacle, the events at Parliament yesterday couldn't have been better scripted.
The soldiers took up positions around the park-like grounds in mid-morning, but did not appear at the doors of the debating chamber until the senators had moved from discussing the raising of VAT to 15 per cent to pass a motion condemning what is happening in Fiji now.
The soldiers moved to shut the Senate down and seal off Parliament at 12.27pm (1.27pm in New Zealand). Mr Baba had just finished his speech.
"There is a coup culture pervading this land," he had said, "elements that believe in change through guns rather than through our intelligence and our moral courage."
The next speaker was cut off just as he began by the president of the Senate, who said it would be adjourning until this morning, though no one really expects it to resume.
The soldiers had allowed the small concession of letting the Senate choose to adjourn rather than suffer the indignity of being forced to do so at gunpoint.
Mary Chapman, a small woman with a large character, relayed the message from the soldiers. It is not the first time she has seen armed strangers at these doors.
She is secretary-general of Parliament and has worked there during all of the coups.
Adi Koila Nailakatau said the Senate did not want the troops to forcibly end the sitting at gunpoint, so it was decided to adjourn immediately.
Soldiers, of course, are not always soldiers. In the armed platoon at ousted Prime Minister Laisenia Qarase's house on Wednesday were coup leader Commodore Frank Bainimarama's son Meli and Dale Tonawai, skipper of the Fiji sevens rugby team.
People have been going to work in Suva as usual, though none was busier yesterday than Commodore Bainimarama.
His men chased Mr Qarase away - he flew early yesterday to Mavana, his village in the Lau group of islands far to the east of Suva.
Armed soldiers ordered the Government printer to run off a declaration of a state of emergency.
The Fiji Times and Fiji Television shut for the day rather than agree to run only the news the commodore approved, and the heads of government departments were rounded up and carted off to military headquarters, as was the acting commissioner of police, Moses Driver, who annoyed the commander by refusing to toe the line.
To complete presidential business for the day, Commodore Bainimarama swore in his GP, Dr Jona Senilagakali, as Prime Minister, dissolved Parliament, replaced Mr Driver as head of police with a loyal colonel and said he would resort to force if necessary.
Last night, he warned that troops would quickly suppress an uprising he said was being stirred by Mr Qarase.
"Should we be pushed to use force, let me state that we will do so very quickly," he said. "The military will suppress very quickly any uprising against us."
Yesterday, New Zealand extended sanctions against Fiji, suspending aid and banning sporting contacts.
Prime Minister Helen Clark and Foreign Minister Winston Peters said in a joint statement the Government could not overstate how seriously it viewed the actions of Commodore Bainimarama and his Army.
"They must cease their disgraceful acts and restore the legitimately elected Government, or suffer the consequences of their grossly illegal acts," they said.
Meanwhile, the man Commodore Bainimarama appointed interim president in the crisis of 2000 and now says he has deposed, his old ally Josefa Iloilo, 86, remains at Government House, proclaiming that he is still President.
Late last night the Great Council of Chiefs said Commodore Bainimarama had removed Vice-President Ratu Joni Madraiwiwi from office, AAP reported.
The chiefs said the vice-president had been sacked and told to move out of his official residence.
Australian-educated Ratu Madraiwiwi is a high chief and former High Court judge.
* Comments attributed to Mary Chapman in an earlier version of this story were made by Adi Koila Nailatakau, daughter of former president Ratu Sir Kamisese Mara.
