Fiji, 2000 — military coup

Event Summary

On 19 May 2000 the businessman George Speight led a group of armed men, backed by soldiers of Fiji's elite Counter Revolutionary Warfare Unit, into the parliament in Suva and seized Prime Minister Mahendra Chaudhry, the country's first Indo-Fijian premier, along with dozens of members of parliament. Speight claimed to act on behalf of indigenous Fijians against the growing political role of the ethnic Indian population, purported to revoke the 1997 multiethnic constitution, and named himself and allies to head an interim government. The hostages were held for 56 days while mobs looted Indo-Fijian shops in Suva.

Ten days into the crisis, on 29 May, military commander Frank Bainimarama forced President Kamisese Mara to step aside, declared martial law, and took control, committing that Chaudhry would not return as prime minister. Under the 9 July Muanikau Accord the rebels released the remaining hostages in exchange for an amnesty that was later ruled invalid. Speight was arrested on 26 July, and in February 2002 he was convicted of treason and sentenced to death, commuted to life imprisonment.

The courts later ruled the abrogation of the constitution and the interim regime illegal.