Nationalist rebels demanding an end to ethnic Indian political power freed Fiji's deposed prime minister, Mr Mahendra Chaudhry, and 17 other hostages yesterday after a key demand on a new president was met.
"Ratu [chief] Josefa Iloilo was . . . unanimously elected as interim President of the country," the Pacific nation's Great Council of Chiefs said in a statement released by the Ministry of Information.
Ratu Iloilo was the rebel leader, Mr George Speight's nominee for President. Mr Speight had made plain in negotiations with Fiji's military rulers that he would not free the hostages he seized on May 19th unless he had a major say in who governed Fiji.
"The military is finished," Mr Speight told a news conference. "They [the chiefs] have just appointed Iloilo as President. Their [the military's] job now is to go back to the barracks."
Mr Speight said he had been told of the chiefs' decision before releasing the hostages. He seized Mr Chaudhry, Fiji's first ethnic Indian prime minister, and the others to demand the entrenchment of indigenous Fijian dominance over land and power.
Ethnic Indians make up 44 per cent of Fiji's 800,000 population and dominate the sugar industry.
Asked by reporters whether he still considered himself prime minister of Fiji, Mr Chaudhry said: "That is for the people to decide. I have been in politics a long time.
"The situation is pretty alarming," he added, referring to civil unrest in which landowners have taken over several tourist resorts. The tourism and sugar-based economy has been crippled.
"I am an optimist. Fiji is a great country and if we have a future we have to work together," said Mr Chaudhry as he walked down the driveway of his home in Suva after medical checks.
Mr Chaudhry said he was beaten once by rebels, on the second day of his captivity, but he was not hurt.
"I can take it. I am all right. I have been fasting for the past six weeks. I have been on one meal a day, so I have lost some weight, otherwise my health is OK," he said. Asked how he felt towards Mr Speight, he said: "I have no animosity towards him. I think I am a very forgiving person." Fiji's military said the release of the hostages would now allow the Great Council of Chiefs to appoint a new government, possibly today when the council is due to reconvene at 10 a.m. to elect a vice-president.
"I will not be satisfied until we have a full representation of our people in there," Mr Speight said. "Only then will I have considered my work finished and complete."
The rebels did not hand in weapons as they had agreed with the military on Sunday in an accord which also granted them amnesty.