A masked rebel leads a delegation, including UN and Commonwealth representatives, to meet the Fiji coup leader, Mr George Speight, yesterday. Photograph: AP
The offices of the company formerly headed by the Fiji coup leader, Mr George Speight, were ablaze in Suva after a suspected arson attack early this morning, witnesses said.
The offices were occupied by Fiji Hardwood Corporation which last year sacked Mr Speight for alleged misappropriation of funds.
"One of our guards saw a person throw a firebomb and run away," said Mr Praveen Chand, general manager of City Security Services Ltd.
The fire was the biggest since the outbreak of a wave of looting and arson attacks following the coup last Friday in which gunmen led by Mr Speight took the Prime Minister, Mr Mahendhra Chaudhry, and members of his government hostage. A total of 22 buildings have been destroyed in arson attacks in Suva since Friday.
The captors yesterday rejected appeals for Mr Chaudhry's immediate release from the UN and the Commonwealth. The Commonwealth secretary-general, Mr Don McKinnon, and Mr Sergio Vieira de Mello, personal envoy of the UN secretary-general, visited Fiji's ethnic Indian Prime Minister. "We found him and his colleagues in what under the circumstances could be described as good spirits, although he complained that he and his son were twice manhandled," they said in a joint statement.