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Concept
2006 Fijian coup d'état
Summary
The Fijian coup d'état of December 2006 was a coup d'état in Fiji carried out by Commodore Frank Bainimarama, Commander of the Republic of Fiji Military Forces (RFMF), against Prime Minister Laisenia Qarase and President Josefa Iloilo. It was the culmination of a political crisis that started the previous year, when the Qarase government introduced three bills to the Fijian Parliament. The Qoliqoli, Land Tribunal, and Reconciliation, Tolerance, and Unity Bills dealt with the ongoing ethnic conflicts in Fiji and the aftermath of the 2000 coup, and were considered to be pro-ethnic Fijian. Bainimarama presented the government with a list of demands on October 16 that included withdrawing the bills. Attempts at negotiation failed and the military launched the coup on 4 December. Parliament was dissolved, Qarase and his cabinet were dismissed, and some civilian officials were placed under house arrest. After the Great Council of Chiefs refused to appoint a cabinet friendly to the military, Bainimarama reached an understanding with Iloilo and reinstated him as President on 4 January 2007. Iloilo then appointed Bainimarama acting Prime Minister in charge of the Interim Cabinet.
Bainimarama stated that he launched the coup in order to "lead us into peace and prosperity and mend the ever widening racial divide that currently besets our multicultural nation". Australian journalist Hamish McDonald described it as "a revolution against the country's chiefly and church establishment". There was strong criticism of the coup by many domestic observers, but public protests were much more muted than in 2000. Australia and New Zealand condemned the coup, and several international organizations imposed penalties on Fiji. Debates over the constitutionality of the coup continued until 2009, when the High Court of Fiji ruled the coup unconstitutional, precipitating the 2009 Fijian constitutional crisis.
While Fiji was a British colony, the Colonial Sugar Refining Company brought large numbers of indentured Indian laborers to the islands to work on their sugar plantations.
Official source
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