FIJI'S COMMODORE FRANK BAINIMARAMA SWORN IN AS INTERIM PRIME MINISTER [Agence France-Presse, January 5, 2006] FIJI'S military coup leader Voreqe Bainimarama was sworn in as the South Pacific nation's interim prime minister today, exactly a month after he overthrew the elected government. "In all things, I will be a true and faithful prime minister,'' Commodore Bainimarama said during the short swearing-in ceremony. Commodore Bainimarama was sworn in at Government House in the capital Suva by President Ratu Josefa Iloilo, who was reinstated by the military chief yesterday. Mr Iloilo was president until the December 5 coup, when Commodore Bainimarama assumed the title of interim president. The new interim prime minister and military commander will address the nation later today and local reports said an interim cabinet was also expected to be named. The 86-year-old Mr Iloilo, a close ally of Commodore Bainimarama, yesterday backed the coup, which overthrew the elected government of prime minister Laisenia Qarase. Speaking for the first time since the coup, Mr Iloilo said yesterday he would appoint an interim government which would offer legal amnesty to the military over its actions in overthrowing the government. Under Fiji's political system the presidency is largely a figurehead role, with the prime minister and cabinet holding executive power. Jona Senilagakali, the caretaker prime minister since the coup, resigned yesterday to make way for the appointment of Commodore Bainimarama. In December's coup, the island nation's fourth in two decades, Commodore Bainimarama ousted Mr Qarase's nationalist government accusing it of corruption, racism against the country's ethnic Indian minority and of being soft against plotters of a coup in 2000. Last month, the military advertised in Fiji newspapers for applicants interested in joining an interim cabinet, and it has been sifting through the applications. FRANK BAINIMARAMA – from Wikipedia Commodore Josaia Voreqe Bainimarama, MSD, OStJ, Fijian Navy, known commonly as Frank Bainimarama and sometimes by his chiefly title, Ratu (born 27 April 1954) is the Commander of the Fijian Military Forces. 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 earlier putsch led by George Speight. He handed power over to the newly-appointed President Ratu Josefa Iloilo. He was instrumental in the rise to power of the government of the Prime Minister, Laisenia Qarase, but his intense criticism of the government's policy of showing leniency towards persons implicated in the coup later strained his relations with the regime, and on 5 December 2006, he overthrew the Qarase government and announced that he had "reluctantly" assumed the powers of the presidency.