Fiji interim government plan offered

Fiji's opposition leader said yesterday he has offered to form an interim government that would grant immunity to prosecution to participants in the recent military coup that has set the country's economy reeling.

The offer from opposition leader Mick Beddoes is the first significant sign that armed forces chief Commodore Frank Bainimarama's plans for returning the country to democracy after his coup could succeed.

But Beddoes' plan, revealed in an interview in the Fiji Times newspaper yesterday, depends on getting deposed prime minister Laisenia Qarase to resign -- something he steadfastly refused to do in the monthslong buildup to his ouster.

Beddoes said he had begun talks with the military about setting up a government of "national unity" that would include members of the former government and the opposition.

Under the plan, Qarase would resign and a unity Cabinet would be sworn in that would then enter into "a comprehensive agreement with the military" that included "amnesty and immunity provisions" for coup participants, Beddoes was quoted as saying.

Beddoes said his plan was based on a pragmatic premise that trying to restore Qarase's government would cause more instability than accepting the military takeover and moving on.

Bainimarama ousted Qarase in a Dec. 5 coup, after a long standoff over alleged corruption and other issues.

Bainimarama says he wants to hand power to a military-appointed caretaker government that would eventually call elections that would return the Pacific island nation to democracy.

The plan has been blocked so far by Fiji's powerful and influential council of tribal chiefs, which has refused to recognize that Bainimarama had seized presidential powers used to depose the Qarase government.

The Great Council of Chiefs has Constitutional powers to appoint the president, and still recognizes one of its members, Ratu Josefa Iloilo, as holder of that office.

The chiefs council said on Friday it would hold consultations with Qarase at a scheduled meeting on Wednesday and Thursday.

Bainimarama has warned the council not to try to restore Qarase to power.

Bainimarama grabbed power after months of public rows with Qarase over the alleged corruption and two pieces of planned legislation.

The bills would have offered pardons to the plotters of a 2000 coup and handed lucrative coastal land to Fiji's indigenous majority.

Bainimarama says Qarase's nationalist government operated to the disadvantage of the ethnic Indian minority.

The chiefs would have been major beneficiaries of the proposed laws. Several high chiefs were imprisoned and one was sacked as vice president for their roles in the 2000 coup.