BULLETIN¥¥¥¥ - Deposed Fiji Prime Minister Mahendra Chaudhry… freed

Swimming with Sharks Chapter 10.5

Much of the media watch during the hostage period took place up the hill from Parliament at ‘Iloilo’s house’, the official residence of Vice President Josefa Iloilo. With round arches and a stucco look, it was 1950s suburban Palmerston North. 

Each day Speight and crowd would drive up for talks with the military. One afternoon as he drove to the house in the prime ministerial car, somebody in the military shot at him. He was unhurt. 

On 9 July, a deal was signed. Speight led a large crowd of his supporters from Parliament up the road to the house. We entered, greeted, again, by the smell of urine - Speight’s kava filled rebels had pissed all over the place. At the back was a boarded-over swimming pool, and tables set up. It was all a charade; Speight’s goose was being cooked and Bainimarama was bringing events around to the point he wanted; him as leader.

Speight would occasionally release hostages or two for various reasons. He would find out it was happening usually after the event. By the end, there were 18 left, including Chaudhry and his son. 

On the afternoon of Thursday 13 July, I was sitting in my car alone outside the entrance to Parliament, doing the usual kind of watch. Only a few of us were there. I was unaware we were the last allowed in; the military had snapped shut the barricades. 

At the other entrance to Parliament, the one usually not used, two covered Red Cross trucks went in. The doomed head of the branch, John Scott, was in one.