CCF: No to immunity and yes to Caretaker Government

The final Citizens Constitutional Forum's submission to the Yash Ghai Commission calls for a 'no immunity' policy for coup perpetrators and the installation of a caretaker government as recommended by the 2009 Court of Appeal.

It also repeats a call made by many: that there be a clear delineation between police and military.

 The following excerpt is from its 23 page submission.


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Regime turns to propaganda to silence condemnation of prisoner brutality

Easy peasy: shots Bainimarama with kids. pic MINFO

Pictures that show how wrong things continue to be in Fiji.

While the regime has tried to justify its use of violence against the five Naboro escapees, the media has settled for easy photos of the illegal prime minister with schoolchildren, instead of having a crack at the big story.

A huge contingent trailed Frank Bainimarama at one of the Suva schools taking part in the new e-ticketing scheme, but showed little vigour in nailing the dramatic details of the escapee story, let alone the unjustified torture and beatings meted out to all five prisoners by the RFMF and police.

It has been left to the blogs and NGO Coalition Chairperson, Shamima Ali, to squirrel out the information and challenge the lies.

Toasts while chaos unfolds over escapees. pic MINFO

Ali has publicly questioned the involvement of the military in the hunt for the men and denounced the violence used in recapturing them citing, the breach of human rights under the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Typically, the regime has turned to propaganda to defend the indefensible with Ministry of Information spokesperson, Sharon Smith-Johns, claiming Ali 'is out touch with the plight and welfare of women in Fiji.'

Smith-Johns reckons there was widespread fear among women while the prisoners were loose and that female bank tellers were 'traumatized' by last week's armed robbery.

She says 'all the women in Fiji, especially in Suva, appreciated the assistance provided by the police except Ali and her politics.' 

The NGO leader countered with the reminder that the issue of safety for women in Fiji is not new. 
 

Naivalurua: 'Reasonable' force was used. pic FBC

The Police Commissioner, Iowane Naivalurua, has finally fronted, too, this morning to defend the action of officers claiming they had to use reasonable force to subdue 'the fugitives'. 

“In this particular case it was not peaceful situation so as such we needed to be prepared to achieve the mission. Achieving the mission, the mission was simple the mission was simply to recapture. In the process of recapture there things we must do.”

Naivalurua told FBC the public must appreciate the situation they had on their hands.

“This is the other scenario if people expect us to go in with a Tabua and Sevusevu that would not have happened we all know that. They have terrorized the country for a week and the appropriate plans and actions were put into place and as such they had to carry out the mission.”

It remains to be seen just what the prisoners did, as inconsistencies have already started to appear in the coverage of their break out and recapture. 

One fact already established is that a key Chinese delegation was in the country last week and the regime was desperate to keep the news of the runaway prisoners and the messy police response contained.

But while Bainimarama and co were sipping red wine with fake cherry blossom trees as a backdrop, soldiers and police were being outwitted by the escapees sparking an ugly campaign of revenge. 

Editor's Note at 11:40am:  In a statement released just a few minutes ago, the UPP Leader Mick Beddoes says it is Sharon Smith Johns is who is out of touch with reality, not Shamima Ali and attacking Shamima Ali for her statements on the issue of ‘excessive force’ does not absolve the authorities from its responsibilities in the matter.

Beddoes says it is the Police and Prisons departments who are responsible for keeping prisoners in jail, so it is the police and prisons who must take responsibility for the ‘escape’ and it the Police and Prisons department who are responsible for the recapturing the escapees.

"If the Police had seen fit to abrogate its responsibility to the military, then they must explain to the people why they felt this was necessary?

"What happened, how did they escape in the first place, which official authorized the level of force to be used in their recapture? Why was the military roped into what is essentially a police and prisons area of responsibility, these are the questions people are asking and these are the questions Smith-Johns needs to answer without distorting the ‘truth’ with deflective attacks on people like Shamima Ali.

Dirty secrets behind capture of Naboro escapees revealed

Strike Back police officers used the $7000 found on the escaped prisoners to party and beat the officer who got the jump on where the escapees were because he gave the information to military officers

 

Escapees: Capture caused fallout

Police investigations into the capture of the escape prisoners has revealed some dirty secrets about the Fiji Police Force and the Strike Back team commissioned to capture the escapees.

Police Commissioner Iowane Naivalurua had activated the Strike Back team based at the Ready Action Unit in Makoi to go all out to capture the five prisoners.

‘Dont rest until all of them are caught,” was his reported order to the 40-plus men.

Sources reveal, though, that it was the hard work of a Police Intelligence Officer based at the Central Police Station who got the first lead that the escapees were on the island. The information was given to him by a taxi driver. What happened after that is now part of a police inquiry.

Reshuffle tipped with Kean touted to replace Naivalurua

Illegal PM and Police Chief: parting of ways?

Sources say Frank Bainimarama could be announcing major changes to his government soon.

The reshuffle is the main reason for him apparently ditching his plans to travel to New York to address the United Nations General Assembly.

Though un-confirmed at this stage, sources say the changes will include new postings in key administrative positions within the security forces.

Leaks of a new line up comes hot on the heels of Bainimarama’s unhappiness with the Commissioner of Police poor handling of the escape of five prisoners from Naboro last Monday night.

In the wings: Francis Kean

Sources say Iowane Naivalurua will be relieved off his duty to make way for a new Commissioner. 

The man tipped as Fiji's new police chief is Francis Kean, the current permanent secretary for Works, Transport and Public Services.

It is also likely former police chief and current ambassador to China and North Korea, Esala Teleni, will take up the role of Defence Minister.

Bainimarama cancels UN gig because of police mess

Captured: Isoa Waqa

Fiji's illegal prime minister has cancelled his trip to New York to deliver a speech to the United Nations General assembly amidst suggestions the army is ready to take over responsibility for the police.

The illegal foreign Minister, Ratu Inoke Kubuabola, is already in the U.S. and will represent Fiji at the UN General Assembly.

Sources say Bainimarama has made changes to command and control of the police after the daring escape of the prisoners from Naboro, and their alleged daylight robbery of BSP, just 150 metres away from Samabula police station. Police apparently took 45 minutes to arrive on the scene.

Rusitate Tudrau: Police used reasonable force on escapees.

It seems he is furious about how police and its leaders have handled the escape, which has shown the force is incapable of acting in a emergency situation.

In the last week the police commissioner, Ioane Naivalurura, has been no where to be seen and sources say he has certainly not been around to reassure the nation and the business community that all is well. The acting ACP has instead been fronting.

Former judge rejects Marshall's claim he was a regime stool pigeon

Sosefo Inoke: Singled out by Marshall

In our third story on the disclosures of the former Appeal Court judge, William Marshall, we take a look at what he says about Justice Sosefo Inoke, whose story was publicised by Coupfourpointfive earlier this year. We revealed that Inoke's contract had not been renewed by the illegal attorney general Aiyaz Khaiyum and the fallout was an insight to the inner workings of the judiciary. (see the following link http://www.coupfourandahalf.com/2012/05/high-court-judge-gets-marching-orders.html). Marshall now claims Khaiyum had planted Inoke to process 'favourable results for the Executive'. 
Inoke's rebuttal is at the end of the story. 

The strange facts relating to Justice Sosefo Inoke and his tenure as a High Court Judge

173. Justice Sosefo Inoke who comes from Rotuma was appointed in early 2009. He was an obscure personal injuries practitioner in the West. If in any other areas of the law he ran the kind of argument that he would become wellknown for in his judgments, there is every reason to understand why he remained obscure. What was said about his appointment by the Attorney General and Chief Justice was that it was politic to have another “i-taukei” judge in addition to Justice Temo. The real reason for his appointment was that

the Attorney General wished to have someone committed to turning out judgments in favour of the Executive. It was arranged that the Attorney General would be able to “forum shop” and send to Justice Inoke particular files in which he wanted a favourable result for the Executive without regard to the merits of the Executive’s case.

174. Almost the first civil ruling I delivered in Fiji was in the case of South Sea Cruises Limited v Samsul Mody. It was an admiralty limitation of liability case. A passenger on a cruise had drunk from a bottle containing corrosive cleaning fluid thinking it was water. He was seriously injured. An International Convention applies and, through a complicated but upwards adjusting formula, limits

damages to a reasonable level. South Seas had already paid out beyond this limit in paying Mr Mody AU$135,000. South Seas had an unanswerable case in Fiji for invoking and succeeding under the International Convention.

175. Justice Inoke dismissed South Sea Cruises ‘ application with the following

words:-

“[15] Mody’s personal injuries were not as a result of a collision between the Seaspray and another vessel. Clearly, the Act and the Conventions have no application to this case. I must say that I had to check myself to make sure that I was right. Such a slip by any counsel, let alone by both counsel from either side

must be very rare.

[16] The application must be dismissed.”

176. Justice Inoke then ordered “indemnity costs of $10,000” in favour of Mr Mody. Finally in order to prevent an appeal, Justice Inoke made his judgment an interlocutory one. Since Justice Inoke knew that this was a final order under the application, this was a dishonest act to ensure that South Seas must lose the litigation. The authorities are strongly against leave to appeal being granted if

the order is interlocutory. Justice Inoke had ruled that South Seas’ claim was an abuse of process.

177. Since this was the most dishonest and manifestly wrong judgment I had ever seen in 41 years as Counsel or on the Bench, I brought it to the attention of the Chief Justice. Apart from thanking me for doing so, Anthony Gates C J made no comment on my statements objecting to this judge continuing on the

Bench. I then sought an interview with Christopher Pryde the Solicitor-General. I told him about South Seas and many other cases decided by Justice Inoke noton the applicable facts and the law of Fiji, but on his subjective exercise of personal power being anything other than the law of Fiji. Like Anthony Gates C

J, Christopher Pryde S G politely heard me out but said nothing.

178. Some time later when the substantive appeal was heard on 7th March 2011, Mr M Thompson S C from Australia for Mr Samsul Mody, immediately disowned reliance on everything said and done by Justice Inoke in the Court below.

179. I found that Justice Inoke had been seemingly always invited in one or two cases per session of both the Appeal Court and the Supreme Court. I was expected to continue this practice when I took over running the Court of Appeal, and I reluctantly did so. I neutralized this to some extent by choosing cases on personal injuries, where if the original Plaintiff had the merits, the facts

and the law on his side, Justice Inoke could and would write a judgment that was honest and legally correct.

Captured escapees in hospital after beating from RFMF and police

Naboro escapees in hospital after beating

Fiji police have captured four of the five runaway prisoners but they beat them so badly, three are in hospital.

Police officials have lied about the details of the men's recapture with spokesperson Rusiate Tudravu bullshitting to media yesterday, saying the prisoners were being questioned and processed.

Former WAGES chair crosses swords with regime

The former regime supporter, Father Kevin Barr, is reported to have been questioned by police after a march involving 200 people yesterday.

Barr's Ecumenical Centre for Research, Education and Advocacy group was supposed to start its march from Vanua Arcade to Civic Centre as part of a celebration for International Day of Peace but was stopped at the eleventh hour with police saying it was a 'national threat'.

ECRA march. pic Fiji Times

It's believed a second march went ahead from Battery Rd later in the day with more than 200 people wearing tee-shirts with the slogan 'Just Peace-Just Wages for All'.

There was a suggestion Barr had been arrested but sources say he was questioned over the gathering that took place at parliament house. 

"He went to present his submission to the constitution commission but had about 30 people accompany him holding placards and banners." 

Barr had told Fiji Times their march was called off despite them having a permit.

The paper says Superintendent of Police Rusiate Tudravu referred all questions to Barr saying: “When the permit is cancelled that means it’s cancelled." 

It is not known when Barr's permit to march was granted but the chair of the WAGES Council,  is now a controversial figure after resigning from his position about three weeks ago, in protest at at the regime's decision to put a hold on the 10 new Wages Regulations Orders 2012 until October 31.

Barr said he also resigned because the illegal government was allowing employers to dominate the 10 Wages Regulations Orders while ignoring the plight of the workers.

He told the Fiji Times: "The Wages Council made three submissions in the last four years seeking an increase in the wages for workers but it was deferred by the government every time the matter was put forward."

He also said poverty was increasing in Fiji.

The negotiations were being overseen by the illegal attorney general Aiyaz Sayed Khaiyum.