Fiji’s highest court has given legal backing to the 2006 military coup, ruling yesterday that the South Pacific nation’s president acted lawfully in supporting the replacement of the elected government.
Ousted prime minister Laisenia Qarase had challenged the legality of President Ratu Josefa Iloilo’s backing of the bloodless military coup and his appointment of the military-led regime.
But because of the constant state of strife in Fiji leading up to the coup, there was reason for the president to use his reserve powers, the High Court judgment said.
“The president’s actions at the time were valid and are held to be lawful,” acting Chief Justice Anthony Gates said.
These included the dismissal of Qarase and his Cabinet, and the appointment of a new government.
“It is certainly open to conclude his intentions were to unify the people of Fiji,” Gates said.
Gates, who was appointed by military chief Voreqe Bainimarama following the coup, interrupted the reading of the judgment for half an hour and the Suva court was cleared after an apparent bomb threat.
The judgment came seven months after the hearing of the application by Qarase for the appointment of the military regime to be declared illegal.
After the ruling, Qarase said he was surprised and disappointed.
“I think there has been a miscarriage of justice here. The judgment is virtually a passport to future coups,” he said.
But the regime’s Attorney-General Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum said it was time for Fijians to unite to work toward restoring democracy.
“I think the message to everybody, both inside and outside Fiji, is that we need to move ahead with the government that is in place,” he said.
Bainimarama toppled Qarase’s elected nationalist government on Dec. 5, 2006, accusing it of corruption and of unfairly favoring the indigenous Fijian majority over the minority ethnic Indian population.
After the coup, Bainimarama quickly reappointed Iloilo as president. Iloilo was then aged 85 and suffering frequent health problems.
Iloilo, who is widely perceived as an ally of Bainimarama, in turn appointed the military chief as interim prime minister.
The coup — the fourth in two decades — was condemned by the international community with the US, EU, Australia and New Zealand introducing targeted sanctions against the regime.
Bainimarama this year withdrew an earlier promise to hold elections to restore democracy by the end of March next year.
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