Indo-Fijian leader made history — and enemies

SUVA, Fiji — Mahendra Chaudhry was elected prime minister in 1999 as the leader of a coalition government. A scrappy former union leader, he had a vision for drastic change in Fijian society that quickly won him many enemies.

In May 2000, native Fijian businessman George Speight and a gang of followers seized Parliament and held Chaudhry and his ministers hostage for two months.

Eventually, the military stepped in and ended the crisis but did not restore Chaudhry to power. Instead, the country held new elections in September and Laisenia Qarase, an indigenous Fijian, was elected prime minister at the head of another coalition government.

Since the coup, the United States has not restored military ties with Fiji.

Most of the recent emigrants are the nation's best-educated and wealthiest Indo-Fijians. So many doctors have left that Fiji is suffering a shortage and has begun recruiting physicians from Myanmar and the Philippines.

U.S. officials estimate that after the coup, 200,000 Fiji citizens entered their names in the U.S. green-card lottery.

Under Fiji's most recent constitution, adopted in 1997, the prime minister is required to appoint a Cabinet that includes opposition members in proportion to their numbers in Parliament. For Qarase, that would mean naming eight of Chaudhry's people to his 20-member Cabinet. He has refused.

"You can't marry unwilling partners," said Apisalome Tudreu, permanent secretary of the Ministry of National Reconciliation, Information and Media Relations.

Chaudhry's Fiji Labor Party won a judicial order to put the opposition members in the Cabinet. Qarase continued to refuse and appealed to the Supreme Court. A hearing is set for September.

Qarase has shown little interest in prosecuting many of the native Fijians who backed the 2000 coup.

Speight is in prison for life after pleading guilty to treason. But Jope Seniloli, who was sworn in on the second day of the coup as provisional president of Fiji, has not been tried. Instead, he is serving as Fiji's vice president.

Chaudhry, who as finance minister was twice held hostage during two coups in 1987, is still angry at losing his post of prime minister. He remembers the verbal abuse, the cracked ribs and the injured knee he suffered at the hands of the rebels two years ago.

"The Indian people are peace-loving people," he said. "I think they have demonstrated their good faith over the years by being good citizens, but they are regarded as foreigners in the land of their own birth."