SUVA, Fiji — Fiji rebel supporters on Tuesday seized the upscale resort where "The Blue Lagoon" was filmed, worsening the Pacific island nation's 54-day government crisis with the first attack on a foreign-owned facility.
Foreign diplomats speaking on condition of anonymity said they had confirmed earlier reports that 40 tourists, including 19 Australians, were staying at the Turtle Island resort owned by American Richard Evanson.
All the guests were reported to be safe, and the attackers planned to let them leave Wednesday morning on a cruise ship anchored offshore, the diplomats said. The 500-acre island has no airstrip.
Turtle Island has 28 rooms costing up to $1,000 a night. The 1949 film "The Blue Lagoon" was made there, as were parts of the 1980 version starring Brooke Shields.
Those responsible for the takeover were believed to be from a tribe in the Yawawa islets off the northwest coast of Fiji's main island, Viti Levu. They have been involved for years in a dispute over who owns Turtle Island.
Members of the group told reporters they support rebel leader George Speight, an indigenous Fijian who has been holding members of Fiji's government hostage for six weeks. But they could be claiming rebel affiliation to take advantage of an amnesty being offered here for political crimes related to the hostage crisis.
The crisis began May 19, when rebels led by Speight stormed Fiji's Parliament and took several dozen hostages, including now-deposed Prime Minister Mahendra Chaudhry. The rebels are ethnic Fijians who say the nation's large ethnic Indian minority has too much power here.
They demanded that the country's multiracial constitution be scrapped and that Chaudhry, Fiji's first ethnic Indian prime minister, be deposed.
Ten days after the hostage seizure, Fiji's military took control and declared martial law. The military leaders signed a deal with Speight on Sunday under which he is supposed to free the hostages later this week in exchange for many of his demands, including a new government and a new constitution curtailing Indian rights.
But unrest has continued here despite the deal. Speight supporters have engaged in widespread civil disturbances across the nation, occupying police stations and blockading roads in an apparent effort to wring concessions from the military regime.
All of the unrest was peaceful, with no injuries reported.
Indo-Fijians, whose ancestors were brought here by English colonialists over a century ago to work in the rich sugar cane fields, make up 44 percent of the nation's 812,000 people. Many of the indigenous Fijians who comprise 51 percent of the population resent their economic clout.
Fiji's tourist industry has been devastated by the government crisis, with some of the hundreds of resort hotels scattered across dozens of islands reporting occupancy rates as low as 10 percent. However, around 1,000 Americans a week have been among tourists still coming into Fiji.