Grubsheet is today taking the unprecedented step of publishing photographs of the body of the accused drug dealer, Jone Vakarisi, who was tortured and beaten to death while in the custody of the RFMF three weeks ago.
We are doing so in the public interest and having established that this is with the knowledge and approval of Vakarisi’s family. Why is it in the public interest? For the following reasons:
- There is evidence in the photographs of injuries to Jone Vakarisi in addition to those caused by the beating he received that were revealed in his death certificate. They include burns to his body evidently caused by boiling water being poured on him. There are also stab wounds visible near an ear and on one of his legs.
- There was a clear attempt by the RFMF to cover up the circumstances of Vakarisi’s death. The RFMF Commander, Major General Ro Jone Kalouniwai, issued a statement saying he had died of a “sudden and severe medical emergency” caused by a “pre-existing condition”. This was a lie and was proven to be so within hours of the Commander’s statement when Vakarisi’s death certificate surfaced signed by Dr James Kalougivaki – reportedly Fiji’s sole specialist forensic pathologist, whose expertise is unquestioned.
- Ro Kalouniwai was forced into a humiliating backdown in which he issued a second statement acknowledging that he had provided the public with a false account of the circumstances of Vakarisi’s death, though this made no mention of the fact that he had been tortured and killed in RFMF custody.
- At the same time, the Police Commissioner, Rusiate Tudravu, issued a separate statement describing the killing as murder and said a police investigation had commenced. Since that statement 19 days ago, no-one has been suspended – least of all the RFMF Commander for misleading the nation – the police have issued no further statement on the progress of the investigation and the story has largely disappeared from the Fijian mainstream media.
- Condemnation of the extrajudicial killing has come from Amnesty International but while its statement was reported by the Fiji Times, large sections of the media – including those outlets receiving taxpayer funds as “public service” payments – ignored it. Most senior politicians have also chosen not to comment and there has been no condemnation from foreign governments. The Australian Foreign Minister, Penny Wong, and Canberra’s Pacific Minister, Pat Conroy, were in Suva during the week and said nothing about the Vakarisi killing even though Australia has been vocal about extrajudicial killings in countries such as Indonesia and the Philippines. To its shame, the local mainstream media didn’t raise the issue with them at all.
- Since the Vakarisi murder, the government – including the Prime Minister, Sitiveni Rabuka, and his Information Minister, Lynda Tabuya – have introduced a new word into the information lexicon – “mal-information”. According to the government, this is when something is true but is capable of causing harm to the reputation of others. Grubsheet has described this as Orwellian – a crude authoritarian tactic designed to inhibit legitimate public debate and inherently undemocratic.
- True to form, the Coalition’s Online Safety Commission issued a statement last night condemning the circulation of the following images and urging “social media administrators and platform operators to take prompt action to prevent continued dissemination of the material”. That statement (see below) suggests that the Online Safety Commission will be taking action against anyone on Facebook who shares the images and will be asking Facebook’s owner – Meta – to purge the material as contrary to its community standards and perhaps terminate their accounts.
- After careful consideration and having consulted three senior lawyers, Grubsheet has decided to publish these images on the basis that they are clearly in the public interest. Jone Vakarisisi should have been in police custody, not in military custody at the Queen Elizabeth Barracks. The police, not the military, should be leading the joint police/RFMF operation against the drug trade. That the RFMF Commander lied about the circumstances makes him unfit to hold the position and as we have said before, he must resign or be sacked. And the failure of the mainstream media to hold the authorities to account and the government’s attempt to suppress the free flow of information is inexcusable and must be confronted.
You have the choice not to see these images by clicking off this page now. But they are important in raising serious questions about the conduct of the security forces and the government. They are also a sad reminder that 26 years after some of the 2000 mutineers were beaten to death by loyalist troops, nothing has changed in Fiji. Contrary to the claims of politicians and the RFMF Commander that the military has entered a new era of discipline and accountability, the buturaki culture in its ranks continues to thrive. The buck for this also stops with Ro Kalouniwai, just as it was laid at the feet of Frank Bainimarama in 2000.
For more than two decades, there have been calls for those responsible for the extrajudicial killings in 2000 to be brought to justice. The same applies in this instance if not more so. Because the 2000 killings were retribution in the heat of the moment for the murder of innocent loyalist troops. This killing was during a routine interrogation at the Camp that should have been governed by clearly-defined rules of proper conduct.
The fact that Jone Vakarisi was allegedly involved in the drug trade is no excuse for his murder. Those who ordered his torture and those who killed him must be brought to justice. And the RFMF Commander should also pay for his deception with his job if the rule of law and proper standards of conduct, transparency and accountability are to be upheld.
There’s an old saying that sunlight is the best disinfectant. And Grubsheet, for one, intends to shine whatever light we can on this scandalous violation of human rights and the rule of law.
The official findings of the cause of death.
The full death certificate signed by Dr James Kalougivaki that was provided to Jone Vakarisi’s family.
The RFMF Commander’s initial statement.
The Commander’s second statement after the release of the death certificate.
The Police statement. But no further statement on the progress of the “investigation” almost three weeks on.
Last night’s warning from the Online Safety Commission. It is a warning Grubsheet has chosen to ignore in line with our duty as a journalist to our readers and the truth.
That statement was in response to a wave of Facebook postings during yesterday afternoon and evening.
Note the number of “shares” on just this one posting by New Zealand-based lawyer Rajendra Chaudhry.
A Facebook posting yesterday from someone identifying herself as Isabelle “Vakarise”, Jone Vakarisi’s daughter.
Finally, the Amnesty International statement that was ignored by much of the Fijian mainstream media, though not the Fiji Times.
The silence from foreign governments – and especially Australia and New Zealand – has been deafening. Is keeping Fiji out of the clutches of the Chinese more important than human rights?
THIS HAPPENED UNDER A CIVILIAN GOVERNMENT RULE.
LET THAT SINK IN.
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A civilian dying in military custody is not merely a tragedy; it is a damning indictment of a system that has forgotten the most basic boundaries of lawful authority. A civilian is not a battlefield captive, not an enemy combatant, and not a trophy to be passed through the hands of soldiers. If the deceased was suspected of wrongdoing, the lawful destination should have been clear: police custody, formal arrest procedures, access to due process, and the protection of civilian law. Instead, the person ended up under military control — a place where no civilian should be casually deposited — and now a life has been lost in circumstances that demand more than sympathy. They demand accountability.
What makes this even more intolerable is that this did not happen under a declared state of emergency, martial law, or some extraordinary suspension of normal civilian order. This happened under ordinary civilian rule, where the Constitution, the courts, the police, and the civilian justice system are supposed to function. That distinction matters. In a democracy, the military is not a substitute police force. Its role is not to detain civilians as a matter of convenience, intimidation, or administrative laziness. When civilians can be taken into military custody during normal times and later turn up dead, the line between lawful governance and coercive rule begins to rot from the inside.
The death of this civilian must not be buried beneath official language, procedural excuses, or vague promises of an “internal inquiry.” Internal inquiries are not enough when a civilian dies in the hands of an institution that should never have held them in the first place. The public deserves to know who authorised the detention, why the police were bypassed, what happened while the deceased was in custody, who was present, and what chain of command allowed this failure to unfold. Anything less would be a performance of accountability, not accountability itself.
This is not just about one death. It is about the dangerous normalisation of military involvement in civilian life. When military custody becomes an option for civilians outside a state of emergency, the rule of law is weakened, police authority is undermined, and citizens are left wondering whether their rights depend on the mood of the uniformed officer standing in front of them. A civilian government that allows this to happen must answer for it. Not with slogans. Not with condolences. Not with silence. With names, evidence, prosecutions where warranted, and a firm guarantee that no civilian will again be swallowed by a military process where only the dead can testify to what went wrong.