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About UsAround AustraliaFront page Shots fired as Fiji coup
continues  KERRY O'BRIEN: With the Fijian political crisis now
in its fourth week, tensions flared again today when a spray of
shots was fired at a car carrying coup leader George Speight as
it drove through a military checkpoint in Suva.  While the
potentially explosive incident was contained, it provided
dramatic emphasis on how little has been achieved to resolve the
impasse or secure the release of 31 political hostages in Fiji's
parliamentary compound.  It also came as, for the first time,
one of George Speight's key backroom men offered a chilling
threat to reduce Fiji to dust if the army attempts an armed
attack on the compound.  This man was head of Fijian Military
Intelligence until the unit was closed down last year by the
newly elected Chaudhry Government.  He is one of several
officers who crossed over to the Speight s