SUVA, Fiji (13 Aug 2000) -- Racist rebel leader, George Speight and 16 of his co-conspirators have been charged with treason, which carries the death penalty. Speight and others charged were sent back to the prison island of Nukulau near Suva where they will await a bail hearing scheduled for August 25 and trial scheduled for September 1. KILL THE MESSENGER - HONOR THE MESSAGE Although Speight, his co-conspirators and over 450 rebel supporters have been arrested and charged with various crimes, the military-backed, ethnically-based interim government is set to follow through with Speight's racist agenda. Fiji's democratically-elected officials have not been returned to office, the multiracial constitution has been trashed and Prime Minister Laisenia Qarase has declared that his administration will write a new constitution that conforms to Speight's demands that Indo-Fijians be stripped of their right to hold political office. © CDNN - CYBER DIVER NEWS NETWORK | 
