Five people were wounded when Fijian troops started a 15-minute gunfight with nationalist rebels outside the country's parliament yesterday, raising tensions in the six-week hostage crisis.
The military spokesman, LieutCol Filipo Tarakinikini, said the incident was the result of a miscalculation by two inexperienced soldiers who strayed too close to the parliament compound where the rebels are holding the deposed Prime Minister, Mr Mahendra Chaudhry, and 26 other politicians.
"The incident today was rather unfortunate in the sense that it was triggered by some miscalculation on the part of some troops on the ground," Lieut-Col Tarakinikini told Australian television. "We are still firmly determined in our resolve to find a peaceful resolution to this." But the crisis appeared to worsen with the reported seizure of an army camp by rebel supporters on Fiji's second largest island, Vanua Levu.
"The military camp in Labasa has been overrun by supporters of coup leader George Speight," state-owned Radio Fiji said.
Lieut-Col Tarakinikini said the military had sent a delegation of officers to Vanua Levu for talks and believed the apparent mutiny would be resolved quickly.
"Why we've taken this incident seriously is that they've got all the rifles on the island with them," he said.
The rebels have held Mr Chaudhry and the politicians since May 19th, when they stormed parliament in the name of indigenous rights. In the shoot-out, about 200 civilian supporters of the rebels were caught in the cross-fire as three soldiers shot at armed rebels in a crowd which had surrounded the soldiers at a small military post near the parliament.