Laisenia Qarase

The law, as it stands, would allow coup leader George Speight and others to apply for a pardon and be set free if a government-appointed reconciliation commission rules that their actions were politically rather than criminally motivated.

Speight is serving a life sentence for treason for leading the coup, which he said was aimed at restoring political power to Fiji's indigenous population. The coup toppled the country's first ever ethnic Indian-led government.

Qarase denied accusations that the bill's primary purpose was to secure support of ethnic Fijian nationalists in what is expected to be a close-fought 2006 general election. The main opposition Fiji Labor Party, ousted from power in the coup, boycotted the bill's first reading.

The Japan Times Weekly: Aug. 6, 2005
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