Fiji rebels and military signed an accord yesterday aimed at ending a seven-week crisis and enabling the release of the elected Prime Minister, Mr Mahendra Chaudhry, and 26 other political hostages.
Fiji's army commander, Commodore Frank Bainimarama, who signed the deal with the rebel leader, Mr George Speight, said: "The accord will culminate with the release of the hostages on Thursday, July 13th".
The military said it would allow nationalist rebels who overthrew the Pacific nation's elected government to have some influence in choosing a new administration in exchange for the release of the 27 hostages.
Mr Speight and his gunmen have held Mr Chaudhry, Fiji's first ethnic Indian prime minister, hostage inside Suva's parliamentary complex since May 19th, when they overthrew the government.
Mr Speight and his core group of supporters have been granted amnesty from any acts of treason carried out during their coup attempt. He said that once Commodore Bainimarama had signed the amnesty decree, "then we will make our way back to the parliamentary complex, perhaps for a bowl of grog [kava] and a little bit of celebration while we wait for Thursday."
Mr Speight had refused to accept an interim government chosen by the army, and this administration will be disbanded next Thursday.
In line with Mr Speight's demands, the accord empowers the influential tribal elders' group, the Great Council of Chiefs, to choose a president and vice-president and to have a say in naming a civilian government. Mr Speight said he was confident the chiefs would name Ratu (Chief) Josefa Iloilo, the rebels' candidate, as president.
Free elections are not expected for up to two years.
Mr Speight seeks to further entrench indigenous Fijian land rights and effectively exclude ethnic Indians from power.
Indians make up about 44 per cent of Fiji's 800,000 population.
Prof Brij Lal, a historian who helped to draft the multi-ethnic constitution that Fiji has now abandoned, said of the accord: "It's an outstanding success for George Speight and a spectacular failure for the military."
The US said on Saturday that its ambassador to Fiji had been recalled for consultations and repeated that it was weighing steps that could have a "serious impact" on Fiji.
Dr Lal, now a professor at the Australian National University in Canberra, said the stability of the South Pacific could now hinge on how strongly other countries reacted to the exclusion of ethnic Indians from power in Fiji. International inaction would send a dangerous message to other volatile countries in the South Pacific, he commented, pointing to the coup attempt last month that inflamed a longstanding ethnic conflict in the Solomon Islands.
Earlier yesterday Mr Speight's supporters staged another of a series of protests meant to underline the extent of his influence.