Tribal Chiefs Don’t Back Attempted Coup

Tribal leaders said they sympathize with the gunmen who are holding members of the ethnic Indian-led government hostage, but the chiefs also threw their support behind Fiji’s president, who has condemned the gunmen and demanded that the captives be released. The meeting of the Great Council of Chiefs came on the fifth day of a crisis that began when gunmen--angry that ethnic Indians have power in this majority Fijian nation--stormed Parliament and took Prime Minister Mahendra Chaudhry and other leaders hostage. As the council met, about 60 men continued to hold Chaudhry, who is ethnic Indian, and at least 20 members of his Cabinet and governing coalition inside the Parliament grounds in Suva, the capital.