Chief Registrar, Major Ana Rokomokoti defiant yet panic-stricken

If you had the chance to get a peep at the Fiji Times of 26 May 2009 you would have seen the 2 full-page ad spread of the Chief Registrar, Major Ana Rokomokoti Daucakacaka advertising the "legal" justification of her treasonous deeds. It is a clear attempt to show defiance.

Yet the fact that they chose the Fiji Times to run their ad is an indication of the "panic attack". They too are only aware that their favourite propaganda machine, the Fiji Sun does not have the circulation to get their views out, thus their running back into Fiji Times' arms.

The recent bomb scare is also a panic-stricken move.

Media Coverage: Fiji Democracy March, Sydney, 24th May 2009

• Pro-democracy marchers bring Sydney traffic to a standstill
• SBS news coverage
• Island Mode Magazine coverage
  
• The Age online - Fijians march in Sydney in democracy
• Sydney Morning Herald - Fijians march in Sydney for democracy
• The West Australian - Fijians march in Sydney for democracy
• Yahoo 7 News - Fijians march in Sydney for democracy
  
• Nine MSN - Fijians march in Sydney for democracy
• AAP image
  

The recent protest march by Fiji democracy lovers has now apparently triggered movement by Fijians in the United States of America, with similar intentions:

A group of us will be staging a peaceful protest march with petitions to be given to the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights and the United Nations Department for Peacekeeping Operations, New York, next month. The date is tentative (Friday, June 5) and will be confirmed once the rest of the Steering Committee confirms their availability.

The purpose of this march is to present a petition to this high office concerning:
- abuse of human rights;
- unwarranted arrest of innocent civilians;
- murder;
- torture of innocent civilians;
- no rule of Law; and
- to stop the employment of Fiji soldiers in all peacekeeping missions.

Email: maisawana@yahoo.com for more information.

Warrant to Arrest: Fiji

May 24, 2009
By Michael Field

Perhaps unwittingly, one Ana Rokomokoti has thrown the entire Bainimarama dictatorship into international peril.

At the very least, the Commodore will now find his travel options severely limited – somewhat like the Burmese generals and Zimbabwe’s Robert Mugabe.

Bainimarama may well have to reflect on the fate of Augusto Pinochet, the Chilean dictator who ended up with international arrest warrants in many countries. He had to slowly decay at home in the end, his medical conditions untreated in foreign hospitals.

Bainimarama, who suffers a heart condition that cannot be treated in Fiji, had best hope that one of his goons does not whack a foreigner – or a Fijian citizen with family outside the country.

For to do so now, will be to make him subject of an Interpol arrest warrant.

The problem is very simple; the world no long accepts anarchy. As romantic as it might seem, dictators are becoming globally accountable for their human rights abuses.

At the very pinnacle of things is the International Criminal Court for major crimes against humanity. Fortunately, the People’s Republic of Voreqe has yet to intrude into the area of its jurisdiction.

That does not mean, though, that he is off the hook.

Fiji, along with most other nations, has signed onto a range of international human rights conventions. They were not empty words, although perhaps Suva might have thought so at the time.

Now, of course, the world’s leaders can and do wonder the world without fear of arrest. It is called sovereign immunity to prosecution.

Its based on the central assumption, made by the United Nations and the human rights treaties, that each member nation can and will fairly prosecute its own crimes.

But what happens, as has happened increasingly of late, when international human rights organisations caste their lights on nations and see inadequacies and corruption. It is no long possible for an individual state to prosecute crime, especially that committed by those in power.

This is where Rokomokoti comes in and may well have committed the blunder that will get Bainimarama into deep trouble.

She raided the offices of the Fiji Law Society without a valid search warrant. She seized files and is apparently preparing to act against individual lawyers, without due process.

She does this, nominally at least, as Registrar of the High Court. But no one is overlooking the fact that she is a Major in the Fiji Military and is subservient to its head, the self appointed dictator of Fiji.

He has removed the courts and stacked them with supporters; no international tribunal will ever accept the notion that the aging president acted spontaneously on this.

Bainimarama has even closed the Human Rights Commission that so actively supported him.

It is Rokomokoti though, with her single act, who has so explicitly and clearly demonstrated the corruption and failure of the Fiji judicial system.

When the military are raiding lawyers, there is no justice left.

Sadly, the people of Fiji have no recourse to ending this. Bainimarama can do what he likes now, and sending some major into lawyers’ offices is military routine.

But, it is being noticed.

Fiji is being watched much more closely.

Names are being collected.

It is no long merely a case of Australia and New Zealand creating an immigration black list.

As Pinochet found it, his travel plans suddenly hit the brick wall when people he had never heard of, filed human rights complaints in their own countries against him. In Britain and Spain, in his case.

That he was not, ultimately prosecuted, in those countries is not the point; what is important to note though is that there are a growing list of powerful countries, with active human rights goals and a lively judiciary, where sovereign immunity is a point of debate, not a bedrock point of law.

Someday soon, Bainimarama could find himself sliding his passport across a desk – in Delhi or Hong Kong or Los Angeles – only to be told, there is an Interpol warrant to arrest over you.

Here is a 2004 quote from the United Nations Secretary General that is relevant to the People’s Republic of Voreqe:

"For the United Nations, the rule of law refers to a principle of governance in which all persons, institutions and entities, public and private, including the State itself, are accountable to laws that are publicly promulgated, equally enforced and independently adjudicated, and which are consistent with international human rights norms and standards. It requires, as well, measures to ensure adherence to the principles of supremacy of law, equality before the law, accountability to the law, fairness in the application of the law, separation of powers, participation in decision-making, legal certainty, avoidance of arbitrariness and procedural and legal transparency."

Breaking: Lawyer's illegal muzzle now in force

Thanks to blog commentator Semi Meo, we have just received this breaking news.

It appears the shredderous and treasonous illegal Chief Registrar, Major Ana Rokomokoti-Daucakacaka, who melodramatically refuted our shredding allegations earlier, is no longer bashful about her key role in the military regime and is furthermore proud to be able to now control other lawyers via the new illegal decree.

This plan was broken by the coup4.5 blog on 6 May.

1. As of two hours ago, six High Court Administration Staff, led by the Regime’s Chief Registrar Ana Rokomokoti, forcely removed the keys to the Fiji Law Society secretariat, from the custody of Secretariat Staff Ms. Afrana Nisha, and attended the Secretariat. Afrana Nisha was then taken to the Secretariat where she was told to hand over all complaint files.

2. According to the Chief Registrar, the complaint files were being removed pursuant to a new Decree issued as of yesterday which provided her with all the powers pursuant to the Legal Practitioners Act. When we asked to sight the Decree, we were informed that the Decree could be obtained from the Government Printery. The Chief Registrar also notified us that she will be issuing the Practising Certificates and that the Fiji Law Society will be but a voluntary body henceforth.

3. The President requested that they wait at least until Monday so that proper records could be made available to them, however, his request went unheeded as the files were forcefully removed.

4. This latest development is of grave concern to the President and the Council, given its dire implications, as this effectively terminates the core functions of the Fiji Law Society and all its members’ years of hard work since 1956.

To add salt to the already festering legal wounds, yesterday Injustice Anthony Gates offered a feeble and wimpy justification for his return to the bench.

However. Being the "Major Lewzer's" that they are, their timing could not have been more impeccable. Australia now drop's the gauntlet and readies itself for a long, hard, fight to help bring Fiji back to democracy while Fiji democracy lover's prepare to take to the streets of Sydney tomorrow to protest their opposition to the military regime.