Fiji chiefs call on troops to lay down arms

SUVA, Dec 7 (Reuters) New elections may be two years away, Fiji's military-appointed caretaker prime minister said today as the island nation's powerful tribal chiefs called on soldiers to lay down their arms after this week's bloodless coup.

Fiji's Great Council of Chiefs, the country's traditional authority representing villages across Fiji's 14 provinces, opposes Tuesday's military ouster of Prime Minister Laisenia Qarase, calling it unlawful.

''Now is the time for you, sons and daughters of Namosi (village), to leave the barracks and return home to your people,'' Ratu Suliano Matanitobua told Fiji radio.

Text messages urging Fijians to wear black in protest at the takeover circulated Suva today. Qarase has called for non-violent protests and Australia and New Zealand have encouraged passive resistance to restore democracy.

Military chief Commander Frank Bainimarama has vowed to use force to suppress any uprising against his move.

Troops continued to round up public officials opposed to the coup and the military chief has sacked at least six senior officials, including the police commissioner and his deputy, the elections supervisor and the head of the public service.

Caretaker Prime Minister Jona Baravilala Senilagakali, a military doctor and Methodist lay preacher, said the military would determine the timing of elections in the South Pacific nation, which has now suffered four coups in 20 years.

''That could be tomorrow, that could be next week, it could be in the next two years or more,'' Senilagakali told Reuters.

The economic impact of the military takeover is already hitting ordinary Fijians, just as it did after coups in 1987 and 2000. The trade union representing hotel workers and catering said that 800 of its members had already lost their jobs.

''Christmas is only two weeks away and some parents don't have money to put food on the table,'' the union's secretary Mikaele Ruru said.

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