Military stages coup in Fiji

SUVA—Fiji’s military took over running the country in a bloodless overthrow on Tuesday after confining the elected prime minister to his home in the South Pacific island nation’s fourth coup in 20 years. Military Commander Frank Bainimarama said he had temporarily stepped into President Ratu Josefa Iloilo’s role as head of state and dismissed the government of Laisenia Qarase after a power struggle that had simmered all year.
Promising that the takeover would not be permanent, Bainimarama said he had appointed little known Jona Senilagakali Baravilala, a former military doctor and political novice, as interim prime minister before fresh elections are called. “The stalemate has forced me to step forward and the military has taken over government,” Bainimarama said, adding that the chief executives of government ministries would run their departments until Baravilala appoints an interim government. Bainimarama had repeatedly threatened to topple Qarase’s government, which won a second five-year term in May, calling it corrupt and too soft on those behind Fiji’s last coup in 2000.—Agencies