George Speight, Holding 27 hostage
A new hostage crisis has developed in Fiji. Armed supporters of George Speight who is still holding 27 people in the parliament building stormed a police station in the town of Korovou. They are now holding up to 30 people are being captive. The gunmen claim they are acting from orders from rebels inside the parliament compound. One of the gunmen said they wanted the removal of the interim government, appointed by Fiji's military authorities earlier this week.
Earlier Fiji's martial law authorities had said that they were confident that an agreement would be reached this weekend with the coup plotters to end the country's 51-day-old hostage crisis. Martial law spokesman Colonel Tarakinikini suggested the 27 hostages held in the parliament could be released early next week. On May 19, George Speight and a soldier accomplice seized parliament in the name of indigenous Fijians. They still hold Fiji's first ethnic Indian prime minister Mahendra Chaudhry, his cabinet and MPs.
