The widow of a deceased Fijian farmer is claiming that her husband was beaten by police during a raid – and told to lie about it.
Ane Vakararawa’s husband, Iveri Tuimasi, died two weeks ago – yet another in a string of deaths this year where law enforcement is alleged to have played a role.
Police have acknowledged that there was a raid on the couple’s property on Beqa Island, and in a statement last week, said they would interview the officers involved.
Vakararawa has alleged that Tuimasi was severely beaten during the raid, suffering a blow to the head, and a liver rupture that required surgery. It is also alleged the officers – including a soldier – coerced Tuimasi into saying that he had sustained his injuries from a fall.
Sharing her story with RNZ Pacific, Vakararawa said that her husband asked her to get the word out before he died.
“One week prior, he somehow knew it, and he was telling me that if anything happens, I need to be strong,” Vakararawa said.
“He kept telling me, I need to post it, I need to post the things that the officers did to him.”
Three weeks ago, RNZ Pacific reported on the death of another Fijian, Sakiasi Ose Radravu, who had been raided in uptown Suva.
Radravu’s family said he had been beaten, tortured and sodomised by officers, which Amnesty International [https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/pacific/597884/amnesty-international-calls-out-historic-patterns-of-brutality-after-fiji-man-s-death
described as typical of Fijian authorities].
Less than a week before Radravu’s raid, Jone Vakarisi, widely reported by local media as a known drug peddler, was found dead in a military prison.
Tuimasi and Radravu both have sepsis listed as their primary cause of death. Both of their death certificates listed a variety of other factors, but both families insist that their loved ones were totally fine before their encounters with the police.
Tuimasi’s certificate noted that a liver abscess had caused the sepsis, as well as a cerebral edema, a dangerous buildup of fluid in the brain. It also noted a “history of abdominal severe blunt force trauma.”
Both the Police and Military have been approached for a response.
‘I knew my husband didn’t jump’
Vakararawa couldn’t recall how many police officers were there – but she insisted that there was at least one military officer.
She said they came to their home on 27 March at around 6am local time, on a tip that Tuimasi was growing marijuana on their farm, which was 30 minutes away.
“They didn’t show me any search warrant, they went inside, they started raiding our property from the living room, right to the kitchen, in our rooms and our compound. One of the officers said that he found some marijuana seedlings on our shelves.”
She said they left and boated around parts of the island were the family would grow cassava. They returned three hours later.
“My husband didn’t come back with them. One police officer asked me ‘did you know where your husband left earlier that night’ and I told him ‘no, why?’, and he said because he ran away.
“When they were talking, I heard one police officer say ‘when we catch him, we have to punish him.”
By 2pm, police officers had left and returned again, with Tuimasi in custody, clearly injured. Vakararawa was told Tuimasi had thrown a stone at one of them, and as they pursued him, he stumbled and fell off of a nearby cliff.
The officers took him to Navua Hospital, and Vakararawa visited the following morning.
“When I went to the hospital… he wasn’t able to sit properly, we could see how much pain he was in,” Vakararawa told RNZ Pacific.
With the officers still there, Vakararawa asked her husband quietly whether the story was true.
“He looked, and I asked him: ‘did you jump’, not loudly, I just signalled to him … and he shook his head.”
“I knew that my husband didn’t jump, because we used to farm up the hill, but now we don’t farm anymore there.”
She said he had a boot mark on his chest, a dark bruise on the back of his head, and cuts on his hand.
‘He wouldn’t be able to tell the truth’
Tuimasi was transferred to CWM Hospital in Suva shortly after his arrival at Navua, where he had surgery.
“He slept for about a week, they put him on sleeping medications … so, when he was sleeping, I went and filed a report against the officers (on) March 30th.”
“He got discharged on May 10th, and he was telling me to tell the officer in charge that he’s okay, he’s ready to for his statement to be taken. But the officer in charge, she just called once … she said that she was busy with other cases.”
Over the next month, Tuimasi rapidly lost weight and became weaker by the day. His death certificate would later note that he had “severe protein calorie malnutritions.”
He was in and out of hospital, with “multiple surgical interventions” and a “recent history of hospitalisation for septic shock due to septicaemia.” As he declined, Vakararawa described him as “traumatised.”
“He was eating, he was drinking, but somehow he kept dropping his weight, he was shrinking.”
Two days before he died, Vakararawa made a long Facebook post sharing their story, at Tuimasi’s insistence. She noted that despite his best efforts to talk to the Police, they never returned his calls. Tuimasi died on June 19th, in the afternoon – it would be the following morning that Vakararawa heard from them.
“An officer called … she told me that in Navua, (Tuimasi) admitted that he fell from a cliff before they transferred him to CWM [in Suva].”
“I told her ‘ma’am, you have to understand that when they brought my husband to the hospital, he was coming with the very people that assaulted him. They could have threatened him along the way to tell the doctor that he really fell.’ He wouldn’t be able to tell the truth.”
The Fiji Police Force said on 23 June that Tuimasi’s autopsy had been completed, and that Vakararawa’s complaints were with the CID.
“The next course of action is to interview all those involved in Mr Tuimasi’s arrest following a drug raid in Dakuni in Beqa.”
“Following the interview process, all statements, evidentiary documents and reports will be submitted to the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (ODPP) for independent legal review.”
