Coup fear in Fiji again

Fiji braced for yet another coup Thursday as military leader Frank Bainimarama warned the government of 'bloodshed and violence' in the tiny island unless Prime Minister Laisenia Qarase dropped a proposed Bill granting amnesty to the plotters of the earlier coup in 2000.

Fears of a coup attempt were strengthened after the military seized a shipment of seven tons of ammunition from a wharf in the capital Suva, despite protests by the police.

"The fact that he [Prime Minister Qarase] doesn't want to accede to our requests, the fact that he doesn't want to resign means to the military that he's put us in a situation where there's going to be bloodshed and violence," said Commodore Bainimarama, who is in Iraq inspecting Fijian peacekeepers and expected to return late Friday.

"The last thing we want to do is have violence, the last thing we want to do is have bloodshed, but Qarase is pointing us in that direction," he told

Radio New Zealand in an interview broadcast Thursday.

On Tuesday, the military leadership rejected attempts by President Ratu Josefa Iloilo to replace Bainimarama.

"Something needs to be done. Fiji went through hell in 2000 we need to fix that up," he warned. "I'll be back to see that Qarase and his cronies step down," The Fiji Sun quoted Bainimarama as saying.

Qarase, however, asserted that "We have the constitutional authority and the support of the people to rule now and for the next five years."

"There is absolutely no question of me resigning - or of my government stepping down," he said in a radio address to the nation.

"The police have now started an independent inquiry into the commander's threats to remove the lawfully elected government of Fiji," Qarase said.

"The commander makes many untruthful allegations against the government. He regularly expresses unsubstantiated accusations about widespread corruption."