FIJI'S military rulers are cracking down on dissent, making house calls on those who dare criticise the new regime. Only a night after their illegal takeover last Tuesday, the army was flexing its muscles -- well before yesterday's declaration it would interrogate anyone suspected of inciting opposition to the new regime. Former minister Kenneth Zinck, who called Commodore Frank Bainimarama a coward in a roomful of people on Wednesday night, was arrested shortly after and forced at gunpoint to jog around the parade ground at Suva's Queen Elizabeth Barracks. Mr Zinck said he was also made to stand under a bright light while his interrogators stood behind him so he could not see their faces, before being released with a warning. "(They) warned me not to speak out against their commander again and for me to watch out," he said.
Critical letter writers to the country's main newspaper, The Fiji Times, have found soldiers knocking on their doors, warning them not to criticise the new regime. "They picked me up from work and took me down to the base here in Nadi," one letter writer told The Fiji Times. "They asked me about my letters and said that this was a verbal warning." The man said that the soldiers were courteous and told him they were acting under orders from Suva.
On Saturday night a house just outside Suva, strung with pro-democracy banners, had its windows smashed and the signs torn down. "We had some eyewitnesses who said they were in civilian clothing," said democracy campaigner Petrina Zinck, the daughter of Kenneth Zinck. The young pro-democracy campaigners had been told by the military to pull down the banners but had refused. The military have denied having anything to do with the attack.
That's how you know when a coup has failed: when the coup plotters deny committing acts of terror on those who oppose them. Talk to Pinochet (ooops, can't now) about this; when he staged his coup, his boyz went door to door, kicked ass, rounded up the opposition and tossed them into soccer stadiums for further processing. And he didn't care one whit who knew it.