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Racism, intolerance disenfranchise Fiji's Indians

Nilesh Prakash watched in horror as armed gangs looted and torched his grocery stand on the same day anti-Indian rebels stormed Parliament and took Fiji's Indian-led government hostage.

"I looked but I couldn't do anything," said the 29-year-old merchant. "Some of the men knew us... but they were all out of their minds."

Prakash is one of thousands of ethnic Indians who have been targeted by a wave of anti-Indian sentiment sweeping this South Pacific island nation.

Reminders of the Indians' plight are everywhere in Fiji today: gutted Indian shops, burnt-out Indian restaurants, Indians locking themselves indoors to protect their children, a refugee camp in western Fiji filled with 250 Indians who fled rural violence after the Parliament raid.

The unrest began May 19, when gunmen took the government hostage in the name of indigenous Fijian rights. They said the ethnic Indian-led government had too much power and they called for a new government run by indigenous Fijians.

Indo-Fijians, who make up 44 percent of Fiji's 812,000 people, are still reeling from attacks on Indian homes and businesses.

The military has conceded to almost all of the hostage-takers' demands to disenfranchise Fiji's Indian population, leaving Indo-Fijians with a grave sense of insecurity in a nation they have always called home.

"We can't sleep at night. They throw stones at us, rob us attack us," said Mousam Ali, a 44-year-old vendor. "We want to leave.... But we have nowhere to go."

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