Commonwealth ministers met Friday in London to debate whether to suspend Fiji from the association following a military coup. Fiji's military commander, Commodore Frank Bainimarama, announced Tuesday he had taken control of the country from the elected government in the South Pacific nation's fourth coup in two decades. On Tuesday, Commonwealth Secretary-General Don McKinnon said «the likelihood of Fiji being suspended is high.» Fiji's powerful tribal chiefs indicated Friday they would meet Bainimarama, who wants the group to recognize his intended caretaker government. Bainimarama also received qualified support from opposition leader Mahendra Chaudhry, an ex-prime minister who was taken hostage for 56 days in a 2000 coup, who said the takeover was illegal but offered to help it to restore, the Associated Press reported. Fiji was suspended from the Commonwealth in 1987 following a coup led by Lt. Col. Sitveni Rabuka. It was readmitted in 1997 after Rabuka made a formal apology.
