Transcript
AMAN RAVINDRA-SINGH: Til to date there has been no breakthrough in either of the attacks on Rajneel. The first attack was very brutal. He was tortured by members of the security forces, picked up outside Ba Police Station, taken in a police vehicle into the interior of Viti Levu, very brutally tortured and then taken and left for dead in Sigatoka and the second attack which took place in his own home on Tuesday 30th August 2016 was an attempted murder whereby the persons who attacked him had put a plastic bag around his head and fastened it with industrial tape and also had tied up his hands and legs and left him to suffocate and die, literally, but all we get from the police is that investigations are continuing. Rajneel has no confidence in the investigation. I have no confidence in the investigation. It lacks transparency. There is no accountability. Also it lacks independence. We maintain that there is a cover-up within the police force. The first instance was very simple. Four members of the police force had taken him from outside a police station and yet the police are not able to identify these four persons. If you look at all the instances of torture in the last couple of years, that is the norm. That's how police are able to tone down the public outcry and emotions and all they will say is "investigations are continuing". After the police took his statement nothing else has happened. Perhaps the police may still be continuing with their investigations, but what has happened with the investigations from November last year?. And in fact the police do not even have the courtesy to update Rajneel and his family about what goes on.
SALLY ROUND: Have they done any further scene examinations, come to the house to take any fingerprints, that sort of thing?
AR-S: Nothing. And we must remember that in the second attack, police had not even come to the scene of the crime for almost 48 hours.
SR: We heard from the prime minister last week at a workshop on implementing the UN Convention Against Torture. He admitted there were isolated acts of torture and efforts were being made to overcome these within the disciplined forces. Do you have a reaction to that?
AR-S: Now this is a huge breakthrough. There has been complete denial of torture taking place in Fiji. The prime minister saying that the incidence of torture in Fiji are isolated ... it's completely wrong. The torture which takes place in Fiji is state-sponsored torture.
SR: How do you know that?
AR-S: It's simple. If you look back ... just recently in 2013 when a torture video had been leaked and in that military and police personnel were torturing at least three escaped prisoners, we will all recall that Bainimarama went out of his way and said publicly that " I stand by my men". He also maintained that this is the treatment that will be dished out to criminals.
SR: But perhaps things have changed since then. We've seen people brought to trial, for instance in the case of Vilikesa Soko.
AR-S: I'll give you a better example. In 2011, the prime minister directly ordered the torture of trade unionist, Felix Anthony. Again despite the complaints to police no one has been apprehended. No one has been questioned, no one has been charged and no one has been brought before the courts of law and we have even identified the persons in Felix Anthony's statement . All the names of the persons are there. Five years later investigations are still continuing.
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In 2012, the interim Fiji government dismissed Mr Anthony's claims saying he had no evidence, but police later said they were investigating.
The Fiji police told RNZ International this week its investigations into recent cases of alleged police abuse are still underway.
