Intimidation of Court Witnesses by Fiji Military.

 Thirty soldiers, including Chief of Staff Colonel Mohammed Aziz, showed up  yesterday at the Sakiusa Rabaka murder trial.

Military and Government spokesman Major Neumi Leweni said the presence of soldiers in court was nothing new.

Neither is intimidation new for the RFMF.

It is impossible to have fair trial that involves giving evidence about unlawful detention, torture and death by the RFMF while the majority of the seats in the courthouse are taken by the same RFMF soldiers.

The presence of Chief of Staff Colonel Mohammed Aziz is an indication that this intimidation has the full support of the senior officers of the RFMF. The Colonel has been implicated in torture and beatings in the past.

In this environment people who have been tortured by the RFMF must give evidence against the RFMF in front of the RFMF who have a record of violence when they do not get what they want. It is obvious they want an aquital.

Evidence was heard at a previous attempt at a trial of the RFMF forcing tortured witnesses to commit homosexual acts on each other.

This caused the trial to be abandoned as there were no charges laid about these acts. This was a convienient method of making sure that this information was kept hidden but it slipped through anyway.

The Fiji people are paying the wages of these soldiers to sit on their arses and intimidate witnesses. 

Any judge not under pressure to conform to the Interim Governments wishes would have stopped court proceedings while an explanation was sought from the RFMF as to why thirty soldiers were required in court. Surely a representative senior soldier would be enough.

Rabaka died in February 2007, after he was allegedly assaulted at Black Rock, a military training base.

The soldiers and police officer concerned were removed off an aircraft after the Military tried to send them overseas so they could not be prosecuted.

There is no expectation by the general public that anyone will serve a prison sentence for this crime and if they do they will be instantly released under the yellow ribbon program.

The nine accused are Patrick Nayacalagilagi, Taione Lua, Ulaiasi Radike, Etonio Nadura, Ratunaisa Toutou, Joeli Lesavua, Jona Nareki, Ilaisa Kurimavua and Napolioni Naulia.