It appears that coup fever is spreading across the South Pacific. A little more than two weeks after Fiji became engulfed in a coup crisis, a rebel group has taken the prime minister and other government officials hostage in the capital city of Honiara on the island of Guadalcanal. The move followed the cancellation of planned peace talks between rival ethnic groups that have been fighting each other the past 18 months. The conflict is rooted in the growing influence of immigrants from a nearby island in the affairs of Guadalcanal.
