Fiji coup leader consolidates power, warns against resistance

SUVA, Fiji - The military ruler who led a coup against Fiji’s elected government forcibly dissolved the South Pacific island’s parliament Wednesday, installed a new prime minister and warned that he could use force against dissenters.

Commodore Frank Bainimarama, leader of the country’s fourth coup in 19 years, also dismissed the country’s police chief, who had publicly opposed him.

Armed troops entered Parliament and demanded senators end budget deliberations that had resumed despite the government’s ouster. Bainimarama said he had formally dissolved the legislature.

Deposed Prime Minister Laisenia Qarase remained defiant but subdued, agreeing to a military demand that he leave the capital to avoid becoming a rallying point for Bainimarama opponents. He insisted he was still the country’s only legal ruler.

But the capital, Suva, remained largely quiet, a day after Bainimarama seized power to end a long impasse with Qarase over legislation offering pardons to conspirators in a 2000 coup and handing lucrative coastal land ownership to the indigenous Fijian majority.