By DPA
Wellington : Fiji military strongman Commodore Voreqe (Frank) Bainimarama, who seized power in a bloodless coup last December, declared martial law Thursday and accused the prime minister he ousted of destabilising his regime.
Bainimarama said he had reinstated public emergency regulations, which permit the army to arrest people without bringing charges, to restrain former prime minister Laisenia Qarase who returned to the capital Suva Saturday from his home village on an outlying island for the first time since he was deposed.
In a government statement, Bainimarama who has installed himself as interim prime minister, accused Qarase of spreading lies about the regime and causing “disruptions to peace, harmony and progress to normalcy”.
“He is also stage-managing media to seek public sympathy and also in the process causing ill feeling and incitement not only to the work of the interim government but the public at large,” Bainimarama said.
He told the independent Fijilive website that Qarase and the spokesman for his SDL political party would be sent back to his island “if they try to speak out and destabilise the country again”.
Radio New Zealand said there were unconfirmed reports that the Fijian military were looking for Qarase to arrest him.
Qarase arrived in Suva Saturday in a chartered aircraft after claiming the military had directed the national airline Air Fiji not to fly him to the capital.
He said last week that he had received death threats from the military if he returned to Suva but the army denied that.
Qarase said he had returned to contest his removal in the Dec 5 coup in legal action to be heard in the High Court next month.