Rebels dismiss Commonwealth suspension as "blackmail"

The action against Fiji could lead to a suspension of its membership and freezing of aid from the organisation of Britain and its former colonies, but that decision can be taken only by Commonwealth heads of government.

Fiji’s new military leaders did not immediately react to the Commonwealth move.

Commonwealth foreign ministers, including Alexander Downer of Australia and New Zealand’s Phil Goff, are due to visit Fiji on Friday to seek a peaceful solution to the crisis that has gone on nearly three weeks.

In western Fiji, tribal chiefs met today to discuss how to protect their region — Fiji’s economic powerbase — from the civil and economic turmoil that has gripped Suva since gunmen stormed the parliament on May 19 and took the government hostage.

Home to many of Fiji’s tourist resorts and much of its lucrative sugar industry, the West has long harbored the idea of splitting from the rest of Fiji. That desire has been reawakened by the economic troubles that have enveloped the country since the coup attempt.

"What we are trying to do here is to firstly maintain law and order and secondly ensure that we try and protect the deteriorating economic situation which will end up in social unrest," Ratu Osea Gavidi said before entering the meeting at a hotel in Nadi, 20 kilometres west of Suva.

"The possibilities of a western cessation or western government is something that has always been in the back of our minds. That, I would say, is a last resort."

In an attempt to force a return to democratic rule, labour unions in Australia and New Zealand have refused to handle Fijian goods or shipments to Fiji, leading to a de facto blockade of the country by two of its most important trading partners.

Meanwhile, a general calm in Suva was briefly shattered early today by bursts of automatic gunfire from inside the parliamentary complex.

Capt Eroni Volavola, a spokesman for the military which took control of Fiji in the wake of the coup attempt, said shots were fired in a skirmish as troops attempted to stop a gang of youths breaking into a house near parliament. Nobody was injured.