Speight's hostages weep

By TONY WALL in Suva

There were extraordinary scenes at Parliament in Suva last night when rebel gunmen escorted Commonwealth Secretary-General Don McKinnon and a United Nations special envoy into the inner sanctum of coup leader George Speight.

Mr McKinnon, former Deputy Prime Minister of New Zealand, and Sergio Vieira de Mello, the UN's top man in East Timor, arrived to loud applause from hundreds of Speight's supporters just on dark on a hot, rainy night.

It was the first time international envoys had visited Suva since Speight and his henchmen stormed Parliament almost a week ago and took Prime Minister Mahendra Chaudhry and his ministers hostage.

Mr de Mello was sent by UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan to plead for the release of the hostages, while Mr McKinnon was called in by the New Zealand High Commissioner in Suva.

Although they had come to deliver a strong message of disapproval to Speight and to plead with him to release his captives, the pair were treated like heroes and Speight was clearly using their visit as a photo opportunity.

They met Speight for an hour and were then taken to visit the hostages.

Mr McKinnon said later that about 35 hostages in all were being held in two parliamentary debating chambers. They seemed under great stress and anguish and several broke down in tears at the surprise visit.

Mr Chaudhry told them that he and his son had been "manhandled" by their captors.

The Herald was able to watch through a window the entire hour-long meeting between Speight, members of his "government" and the two diplomats.

As Mr McKinnon and Mr de Mello were seated, they fidgeted and seemed nervous about the presence of guns and looked bewildered by the bizarre mix of journalists and gunmen.

A masked gunman, believed to be Speight's brother, acted as a kind of public relations officer, organising groups of photographers to file through and take pictures of the meeting, all the while clutching his Uzi submachine gun. Speight spoke for the first half of the meeting, moving his hands in front of him and occasionally raising his voice. Mr McKinnon spoke occasionally, but spent most of the meeting listening intently with his hand on his chin.

Mr de Mello was the most animated, taking the opportunity to lay down the law in no uncertain terms. He began pointing his finger at Speight with a furious look on his face and hit the table.

Later, Speight faced the media with the two men, who stood awkwardly away from him, and told reporters there had been "fruitful dialogue." But not fruitful enough for the two envoys - he flatly refused to release the hostages as they had requested.

Asked by the Herald whether their visit to the compound had legitimised the Speight "government," Mr McKinnon said: "No, of course not."

Later at a press conference Mr de Mello said: "Did you expect us to come to Suva without trying to see Mr Chaudhry and the other hostages, and do you believe that we could have seen them without talking to Mr Speight?

"I had a message for Mr Speight and if I was gesticulating at him you can imagine why."

The message the men said they delivered was that the hostages should be released immediately and that there was no tolerance in today's world for the violent overthrow of democratically elected Governments.

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