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Associated Press
Fijian army soldiers struggle with a mob during a
Saturday clash near the country's Parliament. The
overthrow of the country's leadership has put a
quick halt to Fiji's tourism boom, officials say.

Outrigger delays
July opening
of Fiji hotel

The political upheaval
disrupts construction

By Tim Ruel
Star-Bulletin

Outrigger Hotels & Resorts has delayed plans to open a 207-room beachfront hotel in Fiji this summer because of the ongoing coup.

Honolulu-based Outrigger planned to begin operations at the Outrigger Reef Fiji Resort in July, but construction delays caused by the coup have suspended the deadline, Chief Operating Officer Perry Sorenson said today. Outrigger's hotel is about 70 miles west of Suva, Fiji's capital city where the coup is taking place on the island of Viti Levu.

Because the coup has hampered the unloading of cargo on the island's docks, building materials necessary are not getting to the hotel fast enough, and there is much work left to do, Sorenson said.

"It's certainly a serious situation."

Sorenson said he believed the problem would get resolved and construction would continue.

He said he could not believe Fiji's population, with its traditionally generous and sharing culture, would want to return to the racist practices supported by the coup's leaders.

"It seems to be a disaffected band of people," Sorenson said.

The new military government has revoked Fiji's constitution in favor of a 1990 charter favoring rule by ethnic Fijians over Indians.

Coup leader George Speight said he took action to restore power to Fiji's indigenous population, which makes up a little more than half the nation's 813,000 people.

Ethnic Indians, originally brought to the island to work on sugar plantations, now control much of Fiji's sugar and tourism industries.

Despite the coup, a Hawaii spokesman for Air Pacific Ltd. said today that the airline, which is partly owned by Fiji's government, has no plans to cancel any of its three weekly flights between Honolulu and Fiji. The Fiji Visitors Bureau is telling airlines that the tourist side of the island, where Outrigger's hotel is, faces no danger from the coup at the Parliament on the other side of the island, airline manager Peter Kim said today.