Fiji alert as police check coup threat

Fiji authorities are urgently investigating whether prominent figures in jail have been planning a coup for next week, senior police sources said last night.

A paramount chief serving a life sentence for his role in a bloody military mutiny and linked to convicted traitor George Speight, who led a coup in 2000, is under military and police investigation amid fears of unrest next Tuesday.

The chief, Inoke Takiveikata, who is in the tough Naboro maximum-security prison near Suva, has been questioned over rumours of a coup next week, Assistant Police Commissioner Kevueli Bulamainaivalu told the Weekend Herald.

"We have received information that suggests Takiveikata was the source of the rumours which have been circulating within the prison walls," Bulamainaivalu said, declining to elaborate.

Takiveikata, paramount chief of Naitasiri district, north of Suva, played a key role in ending the hostage drama which in 2000 saw Speight, who also came from Naitasiri, seize the Government of Prime Minister Mahendra Chaudhry and keep it captive for 56 days.

After the hostages were freed, Speight and his followers moved to a school, where the military seized him in an operation which led to the death of one man.

Takiveikata was said to be outraged and organised a military mutiny to overthrow military commander Commodore Voreqe Bainimarama. Eight solders were killed in the mutiny in November 2000.

Last November, Takiveikata, who had been made a Government senator, was convicted of inciting and assisting the mutiny and given a life sentence.

Security sources told the Weekend Herald that a Tuesday breakout was planned at Naboro Prison where two other convicted traitors, Joe Nata and Timoci Silatolu, serve life sentences.

It's understood authorities are urgently considering moving all politically linked prisoners from Naboro to Nukulau Island off Suva, where Speight and several prominent military prisoners are serving life terms.

Several weeks ago Chaudhry claimed he was on an assassination list and the sources say that the list, linked to the plans for a coup next week, included Fiji's sole women judge, Justice Nazhat Shameem, and High Court Justice Anthony Gates, who sentenced Takiveikata.

Several other prominent local politicians, civil servants and a journalist are also on the alleged list.

Fiji TV reported last night that the rumours of a coup had gone beyond the jail and were circulating in the military's Third Infantry Regiment.

After the 2000 coup and in subsequent trials it was revealed that the Third Infantry had been alerted to Speight's coup plans.

It is still not known why they were prevented from acting against the plotters ahead of time.