Commander Commodore Frank Bainimarama called it " Reconciliation bull " on 13 May 2005, and on 16 May, Army spokesman Captain Neumi Leweni said that a meeting of senior officers had resolved to try to prevent the passage of the legislation.

Only Commodore Bainimarama, Captain Leweni, and Bainimarama's bodyguards would use cellphones from now on, he said.

Bainimarama was supported by Army spokesman Captain Neumi Leweni, who said on 16 May that a meeting of senior officers had resolved to try to prevent the passage of the legislation.

The latest information revealed by some of the CRW troops arrested with Speight suggest that Bainimarama may have been the " real " coup leader after giving the go-ahead at the last security council meeting on Friday May 12, 2000 at Valelevu.

This conflict led to a 56 day rule by Bainimarama after which he as forced to step down by Speight and to return the office of the Presidency to civilian rule.

On 6 September 2007, Commodore Frank Bainimarama said Fiji's military rulers declared again state of emergency since ousted Prime Minister Laisenia Qarase was engaged in destabilization when he returned last week to Suva after 8 months of exile.

The BBC reported that after being warned by Commodore Bainimarama not to " incite violence ", Prime Minister Qarase planned to return to Suva, from which he was banished, but was warned that he faced arrest if he returns.

On 6 September 2007, Bainimarama imposed a renewed state of emergency for one month, alleging that Qarase and his spokesman, Peceli Kinivuwai, were spreading lies and attempting to cause destabilization, following Qarase's return to Suva after having been confined to Vanuabalavu since his ouster.

Bainimarama has taken power twice in Fiji's history, the first time as Head of the Interim Military Government of Fiji from 29 May to 13 July 2000, after organizing a counter-coup to neutralize the ethnic Fijian putsch led by George Speight.

Fiji's Commodore Frank Bainimarama has stepped down on 10 April 2009 as interim prime minister, after the country's court of appeal ruled the removal of the democratic government during his 2006 military coup was unlawful.

Bainimarama, who initially kept a high profile after the coup, later became embroiled in constant controversy.

" You ( the media ) can play a major role and come to us first instead of coming to us after highlighting what he ( Bainimarama ) has said ," Vosanibola told the Fiji Times.

On 5 December President Ratu Josefa Iloilo was said to have signed a legal order dissolving Parliament after meeting with Bainimarama.

On 6 September 2007, Bainimarama imposed a renewed state of emergency for one month, alleging that Qarase and his spokesman were spreading lies and attempting to cause destabilization, following Qarase's return to Suva after having been confined to the island of Vanuabalavu since his ouster.

Bainimarama became acting Minister of Finance on 18 August 2008 after Chaudhry and the other Labour Party ministers withdrew from the interim government.

Leung said on 4 July that he was seeing an audience with the Attorney-General to try to persuade him to rewrite the bill after Military Commander Frank Bainimarama called it " ethnic cleansing.

On 24 August 2005, Commodore Bainimarama went public with allegations that a number of politicians, including the nationalistic Senator Apisai Tora, had approached him at a meeting held in the boardroom of the Fijian Holdings company during the 2000 crisis and asked him to depose the newly appointed President, Ratu Josefa Iloilo, barely a week after Iloilo's inauguration.

He said that the meeting to which the Commander referred took place before Iloilo's inauguration as President, not after, and that Commodore Bainimarama must be confused.

Tensions escalated after 4 June, when Bainimarama publicly accused Prime Minister Qarase of having snubbed a military parade the previous day, in honour of Fijian soldiers returning from peacekeeping missions in East Timor.

" You ( the media ) can play a major role and come to us first instead of coming to us after highlighting what he ( Bainimarama ) has said ," Vosanibola told the Fiji Times.

He left for New Zealand in 2001 after reporting to the police the names of several present and former Military officers including Bainimarama, whom he claimed to have had prior knowledge of the coup.

Members of the 3 FIR Unit, commanded by Lieutenant Colonel Viliame Seruvakula allegedly foiled a plot by rebel soldiers, who supported the armed takeover of Parliament by George Speight, to kidnap Bainimarama at Nadi International Airport on his return from Poland soon after the seizure of the parliamentary complex.

He accused Commodore Bainimarama of " conveniently forgetting " that the Fiji Labour Party ( FLP ), which he accused the Commander of supporting, had itself attempted to form a coalition with the Conservative Alliance ( CAMV ), which included numbers of coup-sympathizers, some of whom were subsequently convicted of involvement, after the 2001 election, and had offered amnesty to coup-convicts in exchange for CAMV support for an FLP government.

On 17 April 2005, Bainimarama harshly attacked the government's decision to release on parole Ratu Naiqama Lalabalavu and Senator Ratu Josefa Dimuri, who had served only eleven days of their eight-month prison sentences for their role in the 2000 coup.

On 25 June, Bainimarama reacted angrily to the government's decision not to renew the contract of Peter Ridgeway, the Deputy Director of Public Prosecutions, who was ordered on 20 June to return to his native Australia.

Commodore Bainimarama has been one of the most vociferous critics of the government's proposal to establish a Reconciliation and Unity Commission, with the power to grant compensation to victims of the 2000 coup, and amnesty to perpetrators of it.

On 23 December 2003, Conservative Alliance parliamentarian Samisoni Tikoinasau, a brother of George Speight, condemned Bainimarama for his attacks on the government's handling of coup prosecution cases while himself allegedly ignoring murder accusations against his own men.

Commodore Frank Bainimarama, Commander of the Republic of Fiji Military Forces, has been a vociferous and uncompromising critic of the government's proposal to establish a Reconciliation and Unity Commission, with the power to grant compensation to victims of the 2000 coup, and amnesty to perpetrators of it.

On 21 June, Bainimarama's predecessors as Military commander, Sitiveni Rabuka ( who supports the government's proposed reconciliation commission ) and Epeli Ganilau ( who opposes it ) both called on the government to settle its quarrel with Bainimarama and stop " passing the buck " to the President.

On 18 December 2006, Fiji's military ruler, Commodore Frank Bainimarama, announced his decision to close the prison and convert the island into a public park, as it was before 2000.

On March 18th, 2010, Commodore Voreqe Bainimarama announced that both Ratu Sir Lala Sakuna Day and National Youth Day would no longer be treated as public holidays, as a result of a Cabinet decision to amend the Employment Relations Promulgation.

Military commander Commodore Frank Bainimarama, one of the most unyielding opponents of the legislation who had attacked it in an address to the Great Council lasting more than an hour, issued a statement on 29 July strongly critical of the decision.

Bainimarama said that the Military accepted the decision of the Great Council to endorse the legislation, but said that the Military would continue to oppose it.

Bainimarama said he was " frustrated, disturbed, and disappointed " at a decision which he said " made a mockery of the military, police, and the judiciary.

Meanwhile, High Court Justice Jiten Singh ruled on 14 October that an earlier decision of the Ministry of Finance to surcharge Commodore Bainimarama for blowing his 2003 budget was unconstitutional, and ordered the Minister to pay F $ 800 to cover Bainimarama's court costs.

Beddoes welcomed the decision of the Military to restore Ratu Josefa Iloilo to the Presidency on 4 January 2007, but condemned the appointment of Bainimarama as interim Prime Minister on 5 January and criticized the President's endorsement of the coup, the Fiji Times reported.

On 29 July, Bainimarama issued a statement critical of the chiefs ' decision to support the bill.

" It is sad that they had forgotten that wise decision and have also forgotten the rest of the multi-racial society within which we live ," Bainimarama said.

In a strongly worded statement, Commodore Frank Bainimarama said that he was " frustrated, disturbed, and disappointed " by the decision which, he said, " made a mockery of the military, police, and the judiciary.

Davis noted that Bainimarama had introduced greater ethnic diversity into senior positions, and suggested that " maybe that's what drives Bainimarama most of all ; the notion, however quixotic, of a multiracial meritocracy belatedly fulfilling the great promise Fiji had in its early post-independence years, when a visiting pope John Paul II famously described it as a model for the developing world.

Bainimarama declared that Fiji belonged to all of its citizens, and that no one should feel intimidated by politicians who spit out racist remarks, adding that the Senator would be shocked to find that many of those who refused the apology were ethnic Fijians.

Reacting to statements from Military Commander Commodore Frank Bainimarama that whatever amendments might be forthcoming, the Military was still opposed to the legislation, Bale declared on 26 October that the Military was entitled to its opinion, but it was not the government.

Bainimarama declared that Fiji belonged to all of its citizens, and that no one should feel intimidated by politicians who spit out racist remarks, adding that the Senator would be shocked to find that many of those who refused the apology were ethnic Fijians.

Meanwhile, Radio Australia admitted its embarrassment over a telephone interview conducted, supposedly with Bainimarama, on 18 July.

On 26 July, Bainimarama declared that the military would continue to oppose the legislation, despite its endorsement by the Councils of all fifteen Provinces and dependencies.

Addressing a special meeting of the Great Council of Chiefs in Lami on 28 July, Bainimarama said that the legislation would strip the Military of its ability to carry out its responsibilities in an emergency and would weaken national security.

Bainimarama ended his address by reminding the chiefs that in 2000, they had not agreed to forgive the perpetrators of the coup, but had insisted that justice should take its course.

Leweni's public statement coincided with an Australian Broadcasting Corporation interview with Commodore Bainimarama on its Asia Pacific program.

Standing in for Armed Forces Commander Commodore Frank Bainimarama, Army Chief of Staff Colonel Meli Saubulininayau said that if the nation was to move forward, its citizens must be not only clever, but wise.

Following the military coup which ousted Laisenia Qarase's government in December 2006, the " interim government " led by coup leader Frank Bainimarama received unexpected support from the Fiji Human Rights Commission ( FHRC ) and its chairwoman Dr. Shaista Shameem.

Bainimarama said on 9 March that the Military would support any government that was elected, but would not necessarily support its program.