February 24, 2007

Our Condolences...

Intelligentsiya extends its sincerest and heartfelt condolences to the Rabaka family who tonight lost their son, Sakiusa Rabaka.

Sakiusa, 19, was recovering from surgery at home after he was detained along with his friends and brutally assaulted by soldiers on January 28.

He had returned to Nadi after an operation in Suva and was with friends when he collapsed. He was taken to the Nadi hospital but died from what his mother said was brain haemorrhage.


Intelligentsiya first reported Sakiusa’s case on Friday, February 16, but it was not reported in the mainstream media (as far as we know), although Fijilive did a follow-up report on Monday in which they named Sakiusa and quoted his mother.

Intelligentsiya also sought comments from interim Labour Minister Bernadette Rounds-Ganilau who visited Sakiusa while he was in Suva's Colonial War Memorial Hospital for brain surgery.

Sakiusa's mother Ala had asked Rounds-Ganilau to visit them and the interim minister later filed a report on his case with army spokesman Major Neumi Leweni.

SUNDAY UPDATE: Fijilive has followed up the story of Sakiusa's death quoting his mother as saying "soldiers killed my son" .

"He was just having a good time with some of his friends when he suddenly collapsed and started having convulsions. His wound opened. He began bleeding again. We rushed him to hospital where doctors tried to revive him, but nothing could be done...we lost our beloved son," Fijilive quoted his mother as saying.

Fiji TV carried still images of Sakiusa's injuries after he was released from the Nadi military barracks and a heartfelt plea from his mother, Alanieta, for the military to stop brutalising the nation's youth.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Yet another murder ... the killing continues... No prizes to what bernadette will now say when 'sorry' was all she could manage when responding to the senseless beatings this young man endured at the hands of RFMF rogue thugs who dare still call themselves soldiers. Your manicured hands are stained with his blood as with those who have died and suffered at the hands of the military regime of which you're a very big part of.

Anonymous said...

this puts at 3 the number of people who had died at the hands of a greedy, unprincipled, self-serving few.
How many more must die before the people of this nation stand up and be counted.
How many more mothers must watch their sons die before their eyes before we learn to stand up for what is right instead of letting the horrors continue whilst we cow in the comfort of our own homes.
We can not let these injustices go on.
What kind of legacy are we leaving our children?

Anonymous said...

I feel for the young man's death in Nadi.

Now the number of civilian deaths has increase to 3 in the hands of the Military ....and hopefully there will be no more reports of such incident as events continue to unfold.

The more negative things we hear about the Military the more frustration and anger grows inside us

This continuous unnecessary behavior only demonstrate madness of the Fiji Military Force and how it operates..... People hurting, People have died and Children crying

What happens to the peaceful transition?

What happens to the values of humanity?

What happens to the fairness and equality?

Our individual rights is compromise .

How can we look up to the Interim Administration appointed by the Military without people been victimize and pull out from their home without any search warrant.

People have lost their jobs.
And more burden and hard time for the poor people.

This continuous act by the Military will only lose people's confidence

And everyday on our local news there will always be something up about the Military and sometimes it could be shocking and disturbing.

I thought its about building bridges and not destroying bridges.

Thats why, there is a reason why sometime people hate.

They must learn to take criticism

And 3 years is too bloody long for the next election.