Today is crunch time in Fiji.
The Great Council of Chiefs meets in Suva to decide whether to endorse Friday's coup by George Speight. Mr Speight said yesterday that the nation's indigenous people, having recovered from the shock of the third coup in 13 years, were rallying behind him and that support was starting to flow from the ranks of the police and armed services. But yesterday he reinforced the nature of his takeover when, after an incursion by intruders into the parliamentary grounds, his gang marched Mr Chaudhry on to the lawn and pointed a rifle at his head. I want to protect them rather than shoot them in defence of ourselves. Mr Speight, who had up to 400 indigenous Fijians with their chiefs in the parliamentary complex paying homage to him yesterday, said he believed he had won the hearts and minds of the nation - or at least that part of it which concerned him.