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Jail term for Fiji Vice-President over coup |
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Fiji Vice-President Ratu Jope Seniloli has been jailed for four years after he was convicted of unlawfully swearing in Ministers in a rebel government during a coup by armed nationalists four years ago. Seniloli and four others were convicted by Fiji’s High Court on August 5 for their role in the May 2000 coup which toppled the Government of Prime Minister Mahendra Chowdhury. George Speight, is already serving life term on a prison island off Suva for the coup that he claimed was launched to reclaim power for indigenous Fijians from the Government of Mahendra Chowdhury, Fiji’s first ethnic Indian leader. Indigenous Fijians who make up most of the population of some 800,000 resent the economic power of Indians whose ancestors were brought to work in British colonial sugarcane farms. Speight and a handful of gunmen stormed Parliament on May 19, 2000, taking unpopular Chowdhury and most of his multiracial government hostage. The hostage drama dragged on for 56 days and succeeded in toppling the Chowdhury government because martial law was declared in a bid to end the crisis.
Political observers say Vice President Seniloli’s jailing could have potentially serious implications for Fiji’s leadership because President Ratu Josefa Iloilo is an ailing 85-year-old who suffers from Parkinson’s disease and requires regular medical treatment in Australia. His death could now potentially leave a power vacuum, although constitutional experts said it was possible Ratu Ovini Bokini, the Chairman of the influential Great Council of Chiefs, could decide to act as an interim Vice President in place of Seniloli.
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