SUVA, Fiji — Armed rebels holding Fiji's former prime minister and about 30 others hostage today rejected the latest offer by the country's president: a new government and immunity from prosecution.
President Ratu Sir Kamisese Mara said he had fired the democratically elected government of Prime Minister Mahendra Chaudhry, who has been held captive by an armed gang for 10 days inside the Parliament compound.
But rebel leader George Speight insisted Mara must resign and Fiji's 1997 constitution, which indigenous Fijians say gives too much power to the nation's ethnic Indian minority, must be scrapped before the hostages are freed.
The offer was "the act of a desperate man," Speight said. "His agenda is clear — he was trying to do everything in his power to retain power in this country."
He said he expected a new offer within two days that could lead to the freeing of the hostages.
Mara's announcement on Saturday came several hours after two soldiers and a journalist were injured in a gun battle outside Parliament between rebels and Fijian soldiers. The president said the timing was unrelated.
Mara, a figurehead who normally holds little government power, said he would appoint a caretaker administration by Monday and would continue to rule the Pacific nation until then through state-of-emergency powers.
The president also said it was "highly likely" that rebel leader George Speight and the six gunmen who stormed Parliament on May 19 would be granted immunity from prosecution for their roles in the coup attempt.
But Mara did not accept the rebels' third demand — that he resign as president.
Mara acknowledged it would look like he was caving in but said that he had no choice and that his plan was the last hope for a "constitutionally viable route" to end the crisis.
He admitted that if the plan is accepted, Fiji would become an international pariah. Main trading partner Australia as well as New Zealand, the United States and the United Nations have condemned any deal that replaces the elected government as giving in to terrorism.
The foreign nations have threatened to impose economic and diplomatic sanctions. Mara warned that Fiji's main industries of sugarcane growing and tourism would collapse under sanctions.
"We are going to face not only purgatory, but hell," Mara said.
Chaudhry, who was elected prime minister last year, is the country's first leader of Indian ancestry.
Speight claims to be acting on behalf of the majority indigenous Fijians, and wants to reduce the powers that Indians can have in the government. He has declared himself prime minister and appointed his own cabinet.
The gun battle Saturday began after some 200 rebel supporters and at least three armed rebels left the parliament compound. On the way out, one said: "We're going to take down the roadblocks."
Confronting about eight soldiers at a roadblock 400 yards from the compound, the supporters tried to grab the soldiers' weapons and pushed one of them to the ground. The other soldiers fired warning shots. Rebels shot back, setting off a gun battle that lasted for less than five minutes.
The soldiers withdrew and were chased by the rebels and their supporters, who threw rocks and carried machetes. The mob eventually returned to parliament, marching, singing a song and carrying army tents they had pulled down.
Officials said one soldier was hit in the shoulder and the other in the leg. Jerry Harmer, 38, of Britain, a senior producer and cameraman for Associated Press Television News, was shot in the right wrist. Doctors at Suva's Colonial War Memorial hospital said his condition was good.
Speight did not appear to be involved in the confrontation.
Army commander Commodore Frank Bainimarama said his soldiers could not stop the armed rebels because they were using unarmed supporters as human shields.
Fiji, which had two bloodless coups in 1987, is an island nation in the Pacific 2,250 miles northeast of Sydney, Australia. Fijians of Indian ancestry make up 44 percent of the population of 813,000, while indigenous Fijians account for 51 percent.
Ethnic Indians own many shops and businesses in Fiji. Some ethnic Indians have been attacked since Speight's coup began.