JOURNEY FOR JUSTICE: FIJILEAKS Journey with the late Professor Brij Lal resulted in our exposing identity of "COLONEL" who interrogated, assaulted, covered Lal's face with his SPIT: Police Compol Sitiveni Qiliho

Fijileaks:
GONE BUT NOT FORGOTTEN:
"We have come to bury Ceasar, not to praise him"
Sadly, BIMAN PRASAD has hijacked the late Brij Lal's death and has turned it into a "Naatak". He is setting the stage for Sitiveni Rabuka to announce a coalition between PAP and NFP in 2022. Yes, lets celebrate Brij Lal's life and writings on the girmitiyas but to exaggerate his political activism against the FFP is a shame and gross insult to his memory and legacy (1952-2021).
RIP.

From 2009 to 2015, while pursuing his academic interests, he kept a very low profile politically, hoping that through quite diplomacy the ban on him and his wife will be lifted by this callous regime. I kept reminding him that the present lot learnt their art of persecution, deportation, and exiling, from his misguided HERO Sitiveni Rabuka and the 1987 coups. Every decree is basically a photocopy of decrees that was promulgated by Rabuka. In 2015 he found out that his ban was permanent. Finally, in May 2019, Biman Prasad and Aiyaz Khaiyum exchanged bitter words in Parliament over the ban on Brij Lal. It was during the debate to commemorate the 140th anniversary of the arrival of indentured labourers. A year later, in 2020, after  persuasion and prodding from us, the late Brij Lal revealed the identity of the "Colonel" in his "Torture Affidavit" against Sitiveni Qiliho.

He was no longer lecturing us to let go "Rabuka's rape, political disenfranchisement, robbery, beatings and exiling" of the descendants of the Girmitiyas. We had told him you can't churn out millions of words on the "Violence of Indenture" and that painful study, 'Kunti's Cry: Indentured Women on Fiji's Plantations", and let us FORGET the rapes and beatings of our Indo-Fijian mothers, wives, daughters, cousins and sisters at the hands of Sitiveni Rabuka and his racist thugs. If you want us to wipe Rabuka's crimes from Fijian history, then, surely, you should wipe out all your historical writings on the violence and brutality of the indenture system. In February 2019, Brij Lal seemed to have given up the fight: "Dear Victor. Just to say hello and to wish you well. What are you up to these days? Fiji is now waning from my horizon. What do you do when people you want to help keep inflicting wounds on themselves? I am re-doubling my efforts into writing, preserving the fragments in early dotage. (the period of life in which a person is old and weak)." Best, Brij.
His health was beginning to deteriorate and his e-mails were full of typo errors; he put it down to failing eyesight. We informed him that Qilio was travelling up to London for  studies, and that we were planning to get him (Qiliho) arrested and charged with crimes of torture in Fiji following the 2006 Bainimmarama Coup.

In 2020 Brij Lal agreed to fight on, for all he now wanted was JUSTICE for what Police Commissioner Sitiveni Qiliho had subjected him to in 2009, in that confined military cell. He began repeating with us what the late Martin Luther King, Jr., reminded us that “the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.”  We feel privileged to have played our part in that journey. Of course, in the process, making more enemies in Fiji, especially in the FijiFirst Party government. But, then, we have been fighting for justice, human rights, and democracy since 1987, and have refused to embrace coupists - from Sitiveni Rabuka to Frank Bainimarama. Let Prasad continue his "naatak" with RABUKA. He (Biman Prasad) has shamelessly hijacked Brij Lal's death. Condolence service in Fiji  should have been a multi-party affair (even inviting FFP) but NO, he made sure it was Prasad-Rabuka "Naatak".

Where is that other "nachaniya" ASHWIN RAJ, so-called human rights activist and former student of the late Brij Lal? Coming soon: Why Professor Lal kicked him out of the ANU?

CENSORED: The Fiji Times, while running a series of articles on the late Brij Lal could not summon courage and reveal what his "Torture Affidavit" revealed, including the identity of the Colonel who cowardly thumped him in a confined military cell in 2009. Instead, we read this censored version in the Fiji Times, 28 December 2021, accompanied by a photograph of gleaming BIMAN PRASAD, the NFP leader and Sitiveni Rabuka's political chambermaid, with Brij and Padma Lal. The NFP has shamelessly and politically hijacked his death.
According to IVA TORA, a Melbourne based writer and communications specialist:
"In all my discussions with him, Brij Lal was not one to indulge in any kind of self-pity or to talk in any great detail about his treatment — or mistreatment — at the hands of the military of which he was a vocal critic. This was a dark period of his life which I appreciated had taken an enormous psychological, mental and physical toll on his life. The little material I have of the abuse he suffered comes from snippets, personal accounts and anecdotes from friends and colleagues. In one such account, we are told that “a senior military officer in the Republic of Fiji Military Forces [ RFMF ] had detained Lal in 2009, slapped him and spat on him. A soldier also smashed his spectacles without which he could barely see. Lal was told to catch the next flight out of Fiji or his family would have to retrieve his dead body from the mortuary”. Oi Lei, it looks like Prasad didn't bring to her attention our revelations in the  Fijileaks. We are sure the Girmitiyas will be turning in their graveyards when they hear SITIVENI RABUKA speaking alongside Prasad at the condolence service. But, then, this slippery political snake charmer is forming a coalition with Rabuka's Peoples Alliance Party in 2022, hoping to complete the JOURNEY that Rabuka-Reddy embarked on in 1999.
Like many others, for years Prasad had remained silent on Lal's treatment and exile. He is also silent on Brij Lal's claim to us about Rabuka and that 'Petition to Parliament'.
We looked up an old coolie word - DOGLA - that was widely used by the indentured labourers against the sirdars. The word, according to Brij Lal in his writings on the Girmitiyas and the Indian indentured system, was used against the Indian sirdars (physical abusers of the coolies) who collaborated with the plantation owners from 1879-1920. In the last months Brij Lal finally accepted that Sitiveni Rabuka had liu muried him in concert with
Ratu Epeli Nailatikau, prompting us to respond,"Bhai, Liu Muri is in Rabuka's DNA'. Many who despise the Bainimarama-Khaiyum FFP government but who are charmed by Rabuka's
re-incarnation keep pleading with us to forget his violent criminal past, for they need him to disloge FFP at the next election. Just imagine if we had the same twisted mentality and logic, and had told Brij Lal: 'Bro, just forget about Qiliho, for he tortured you over 11 years ago, in 2009'.  But, NO, Brij Lal wanted justice, to hold Qiliho to account for his crimes.
Because of Covid restrictions in the UK and in Fiji, some of his victims were not able to obtain their medical records etc.. Some caught fright and disappeared from us altogether. The delays saw Qiliho escape to Fiji. However, the late Brij Lal's dogged insistence that we pursue Qiliho to the very end, has enabled us to expose SITIVENI QILIHO as the "Colonel" who tortured Brij Lal in that military cell in 2009. We thank over 1,500 Fijians of all races, inside and outside the country, who signed that initial petition to "Keep Torturer out of the UK". Sadly, those in the NFP organizing his condolence service, and those who will be singing his praise at the service, chose NOT to sign that "Torture Petition" - petition that was sent to the Royal Defence Academy in London, and a copy to the British High Commission in Suva who colluded in secreting Qiliho to London

BEAM HIS FACE ON NFP SCREEN AT THE CONDOLENCE GATHERING

Mr. Tulsi's Store is Brij Lal's personal account of his voyage from childhood in a remote and poor cane-growing region of Fiji to a distinguished international career as a historian, and as an actor in the political developments of modern Fiji.

IN pursuit of the Master Torturer Sitiveni Qiliho: Our Journey with Brij Lal

Fijileaks to MELANIE HOPKINS, then recently departed British High Commissioner to Fiji, who we strongly suspected assisted Sitiveni Qiliho in securing the study scholarship to the Royal College of Defence Studies in London:
7 August 2020
Dear Melaine
Greetings.
"I hope you received my previous e-mail.
As we pointed out on our news site, this Qiliho is a violent thug who beat his way to power, and every institution turned him down because of his violent past...Our primary concern is his history of violence against those who opposed the coup. And six of his victims, who never made their accounts public, have come forward with affidavits, to assist Amnesty and anti-torture Redress in London to get him arrested under United Kingdom's Torture universal jurisdiction act."

24 June 2020: The outgoing British High Commissioner Melanie Hopkins (left photo) was accorded a quarter guard ceremony as she paid her last courtesy visit to the Commissioner of Police Sitiveni Qiliho at the Fiji Police Headquarters in Nasinu.

We also wrote to Paul Welsh, the Deputy High Commissioner to Fiji
7 August 2020
Dear Paul
We are still waiting for answers:
Who selected him?
Who is paying for his trip, fees, accommodation?
Was his violent past brought to the notice of the British Government and the Royal College of Defence Studies?

Most of his victims are academics, lawyers, etc, including the prominent Suva lawyer __________

Most Fijians are horrified of his selection but also c as blessing in disguise, as we mount attempts to get this thug arrested in London, and subject him to accountability

Why is a POLICE Commissioner doing at a military academy - militarization of the Fiji Police Force?

Amnesty International to Fijileaks Editor, 28 July 2020

"I've checked with a colleague. If he did arrive in the UK, the UK provides universal jurisdiction for torture, which means UK police would need to investigate allegations of torture if a complaint were made.

I'm sure you know of the accusations as well as I do, but I'd be interested to know if you think any witnesses might come forward? 

Is there any other evidence (written statements etc) that you've received for your blog that could also be used to support such claims? It might be the only shot at accountability.".

Fijileaks: We had agreed, without disclosing personal reasons, that I was at liberty to reveal the late Professor Brij Lal's collaboration in our pursuit to arrest Sitiveni Qiliho in London

20 July 2020
To Whom It May Concern

Bhai, I plan to move against him.
Looks like this Academy has turned a blind eye but the coward kept everything in utter secrecy
I need a proper statement on a separate document as an attachment from you to pass it to Amnesty and others, explaining your background involvement in Fiji Constitution, arrival in Fiji, arrest, beating and spitting at barrack etc
And explain why you are coming forward now
Maybe state you were still busy with academic stuff
Also mention how Australia denied him visa etc
Look forward to your cooperation
He can’t get away just like this
I will be approaching my constituency MP to write to the Home Secretary Priti Patel and Foreign Secretary and also Defence Minister now he is definitely arriving in London
Regards

22 April 2021

Bula Brij

I m having a zoom meeting with the lawyers on Friday and they have sent me a few questions. There are some I can fill in but others are for you.
Loloma

Witness evidence
2.1 Brij Vilash Lal: 
• How long was Brij in detention and subjected to this treatment? 
• Were there any injuries sustained as a result of the slapping? If so: 
(a) were any photos taken? 
(b) is there any medical evidence available from this time? 
• What is Brij’s immigration history? Did he claim asylum in Australia? If so, are the papers relating to this claim/decision available?
• Can we be provided with a copy of the account given to the UNHRC. What was the outcome of this submission? 
• Does Brij have any previous convictions?

Brij Lal, 23 April 2021

Bula,
Have been under the weather a bit with winter approaching. To your questions:
Interrogation lasted 3-4 hours.
Slapping and spitting in my face, breaking my glasses in the provess.
No photos taken though I have my broken glasses.
I am an Australian citizen and had proper visa to do research in Fiji
I have no previous convictions anywhere.
I wrote to UNHRC both to Nazhat Shameem Khan as well as to the Australian ambassador to Geneva but did not receive even an acknowledgement of my letters.

After a series of further e-mails, he sent to us his "Torture Affidavit".
"Here it is. It will be great if Qiliho is prevented from returning to Fiji
and becoming commander RFMF."
Dear Victor
"By separate email from my computer, I will send you something I have cobbled together.  I am not used to this sort of writing so please make any changes to it you see fit. There may be some extraneous matter in it that may have to go. I am very grateful to you for your interest in this case and for bringing this fellow's
vile and vicious behaviour into the public domain. But I also have a deep sense of foreboding that other concerns might drown out our call for justice. I have had a few enquiries from friends from Fiji, but a feeling of fatigue is palpable there,
the spirit to fight injustice quashed...Thanks. I had not seen this news item [Qiliho going up to the Royal Defence Academy in London]. It is shocking. When he was slated to come to Australia, I wrote to Julie Bishop and he was refuseed a visa to study here. Qiliho was a Bainimarama protege who was groomed to succeed him. He was his chief enforcer, assisted by Ben Naliva and Asaeri [Aseri] Rokoura, both viciious thugs.Qiliho interrogated me at QEB. He covered my face with his spitting and slapped me around to the point of breaking my gkasses, He told me that if I did not leave by the first flight the next day, my family would have to fetch my body from the morgue. 
He led a group of arsonists to burn down Justice Gordon Ward's Deuba villa. There are stories around of him stomping on the bodies of women taken to the camp for their various protests. It is deeply saddening to see him being welcomed in London. After the Canberra hiccup, he will now realize his ambition. Such are the ways of the world. Keep safe in these strange times, my friend."

May 19, 2000. Fiji's democratically elected multiracial government is hijacked by a group of armed gunmen led by George Speight, and held hostage for fifty days. Suva, the capital, is torched and looted as Speight's supporters gather on the lawns of the parliamentary complex, dancing, cooking food, celebrating the purported abrogation of the constitution that brought the Peoples' Coalition government to power. The country is plunged into darkness yet again, enduring the pain of three coups in a period of just thirteen years.

Editors: Brij V Lal and Michael Pretes

This book gathers together a handful of memoirs of those tragic events in Fiji. They were written while the gun was still smoking; personal, anguished reactions of people from all walks of life, concerned about a country they all love but deeply distressed by the developments there. They are first reactions. They will in time become essential building blocks for a larger interpretive framework of academic analysis about origins, processes, and impacts. Straight from the heart, these memoirs will be remembered as the people from Fiji and their friends elsewhere contemplate the wreckage and ruin brought about by that act of madness in the month of May.

DIPLOMATIC IMMUNITY? We spent weeks with our London human rights lawyers and concluded that even if Qiliho had travelled on a Diplomatic Passport (like the convicted murderer and Prison Commissioner Francis Kean did), under the "Pinochet Precedent" Qiliho had no protection in UK. To our good fortune, one of the leading lawyers specialising in torture cases on the team happened to have also looked into arresting Sitiveni Rabuka several years ago - another group seeking JUSTICE.
As for Qiliho, the late Brij Lal's affidavit is still valid for another day

"The world is what it is; men who are nothing, who allow themselves to become nothing, have no place in it." -
The Indo-Trinidanian novelist and Nobel laureate
V. S. Naipaul in A Bend In The River.