The collective amnesia of the mainstream media and its willingness to be manipulated means that stories of vital national importance routinely go under the radar in Fiji. And none more so than with the extrajudicial killing by the RFMF of the accused drug lord, Jone Vakarisi.
It will be four months next week since Vakarisi was beaten to death while under interrogation at the Queen Elizabeth Barracks in Suva. And while the cries for justice were long and loud over the extrajudicial killings of the 2000 mutineers and Vilikesa Soko in 2014, a collective silence has fallen over the Vakarisi case.
Anywhere else, in the civilised world at least, there would be constant demands for progress on the military and police investigation into Vakarisi’s brutal murder. But not in Sitiveni Rabuka and Jone Kalouniwai‘s Fiji. What is happening to bring his killer or killers to account? Who knows? But we need answers.
Sixteen weeks is more than long enough for the facts of what happened at the QEB to have been established and charges laid. Why haven’t they been? Vakarisi was tortured and died in RFMF custody. The RFMF Commander, Major General Ro Jone Kalouniwai, will know precisely who is responsible. So will the Defence Minister, Pio Tikoduadua. And it is time for both of them to explain why there has so obviously been a delay in bringing Vakarisi’s killer/killers to account.
In the case of the RFMF Commander, it is even more important that he updates the community on precisely what is happening. Because there is a huge blot on his reputation for having initially claimed that Jone Vakarisi died of a “pre-existing condition” when that was a lie.
It may have been a lie told to the Commander by his subordinates. But it was a lie nonetheless. And for Kalouniwai to repeat that lie to the public without waiting to get to the bottom of what really happened places a big question mark over his judgment in itself. His reputation and that of the RFMF is on the line and the delay in laying charges over this murder is only making things worse.
Pio Tikoduadua gave an update to the media yesterday on the joint police-military drug operation that led to Jone Vakarisi’s death. But did he give us an update on the progress of the investigation into his murder? No. Did the media ask him why almost four months has passed without charges being laid? Of course not.
The double standard that has applied to extrajudicial killings under the Bainimarama regime and this government is stark. There was a national outcry over the retaliatory killings of the 2000 mutineers even when they had murdered innocent troops in cold blood and a similar national outcry 14 years later when Vilikesa Soko died from an infection after military and police personnel shoved a baton up his rear end. But where is the national outcry now? Total silence.
Jone Kalouniwai crows about a new era in the RFMF. Yet stripped to the essentials, the more things change, the more they stay the same. Except for the silence that has descended on this case because the “new order” and its media cheerleaders want to pretend it is different from the old.
A “prompt, independent, impartial and effective investigation”? Yeah sure.
Confirmation that the police have been investigating the killing since April 17. What’s happened?
Again, like always, delay until the hue and cry dies down and weeks, then months go by and something else occurs to rile people up and what happened months ago, pales into insignificance.
Classic government tactic to cover up yet another significant incident so that no blame is attributed to anyone, and a grieving family is left to mourn the passing of a loved one and get no justice from a self centred regime that exists only for what it can pocket from the population it was hired to serve.
Despicable!
Another merciless killing in Sigatoka of an Indian. Police still waiting for post mortem report. Hopefully this time they don’t give the usual excuse of victim having medical conditions.
Yes, the circumstances of this particular killing are deeply disturbing. The implications of anything other than zero tolerance by the authorities for this are frightening. But can we trust the nation’s current leadership to deal with it appropriately? I am personally starting to wonder.
In a free country, you can do as you wish. You can make laws as you go. You can kill and murder without a worry. You are free to be racist, prejudiced and arrogant.
Fijians have a different perspective on freedom. You see, this is their land and they are free to do as they wish. Just see what the government and its ministers are doing and those in the GCC. Is that an unreasonable assessment?
If ever there is a survey on which country has the largest proportion of donkeys, Fiji would win gold easily.
It is a terrible indictment on Fiji as a country and a poor reflection its pathetic leaders.
To a certain extent it’s a poor reflection on all Fijians because in our silence we are complicit.
As for the news media, it seems like they are completely hopeless. They should be asking/hounding the Prime Minister and other officials and asking them questions. But it seems like they are content to sit on their fat arses and re-write government press releases.