Fijileaks: We have circled in red the colour of the floor and PAP can compare it with her text to Aseri Radrodro that is dated 22/08/2023, where she gives her room number as 233. He later sneaks into her room and they have 'brutal sex' until the early hours of the morning while Mrs Radrodro slept in another room on the same second floor.
In February 2012, the late Russell Hunter and me had written two articles for the New Zealand Herald claiming, based on highly confidential files on us, that the Fiji Police Commissioner Andrew Hughes had tried, and failed, to get dictator Frank Bainimarama arrested in NZ. Like Tabuya, Bainimarama rubbished our claims. He executed his COUP on
5 December 2006

Fiji's chief of police made a private call to his New Zealand counterpart urging him to arrest Commodore Frank Bainimarama a few weeks before the military leader seized power in a coup in December 2006.
It was reported at the time that a request had been made through Interpol and rejected by the New Zealand Government but only now can details from behind the scenes be revealed.
In November 2006 then Police Commissioner Howard Broad took the call from his Fiji counterpart Andrew Hughes, an Australian, who wanted to know if Commodore Bainimarama had committed any offence under New Zealand law for which he could be arrested.
Teams of police officers from both forces worked over a weekend and agreed the future dictator could be charged in New Zealand with perverting the course of justice in a foreign jurisdiction.
The planned charge related to remarks made by Commodore Bainimarama in New Zealand regarding an investigation into his alleged sedition in Fiji.
Mr Hughes sent two senior officers - an assistant commissioner and a senior detective - to New Zealand to liaise in the planned arrest.
"Then Howard Broad had a change of heart," said Mr Hughes. "He said New Zealand Foreign Affairs preferred a political solution.
"I argued it was his decision as Police Commissioner as to who should be charged in New Zealand."
At the time Commodore Bainimarama was in New Zealand for his granddaughter's christening and the Foreign Minister at the time, Winston Peters, had taken the opportunity to broker talks between him and elected Prime Minister Laisenia Qarase aimed at diverting Fiji's lurch towards a military takeover.
A day later, Mr Hughes received a call from Mr Broad.
"He sought my assurance that no NZ citizen would be endangered in Fiji as result of an arrest," said Mr Hughes.
"Of course I would do all in my power to protect all the people in Fiji but a blanket assurance of that kind was not possible. It would be like me asking him for a similar assurance covering all Fiji people in New Zealand. It wasn't possible to give him that.
"In the end, Mr Broad told me, 'Well, we're not going to arrest him."'
Mr Broad, now retired, told the Weekend Herald yesterday in a written statement that he remembered the call well.
"I remember it as a highly unusual request to consider an allegation against the Chief of Defence Force of a neighbouring country's properly constituted Government.
"I remember giving this decision a lot of consideration because it contained complex operational, legal and policy issues. I made the decision but I took a lot of advice. I remain comfortable with it."
He said some aspects of Mr Hughes' explanation did not accord with his recollection but he did not specify what they were.
In Suva, the Fiji police force had been awaiting an opportunity to arrest the commodore on the sedition charge but were unable to penetrate his heavily armed personal security detail - rarely less than 12-strong at any given time.
"I had earlier taken a brief of evidence to the DPP," said Mr Hughes, "and it was agreed that there was a case to answer on a sedition charge.
"We wanted to arrest and charge Commodore Bainimarama but he was permanently covered by heavy security. I was very keen to avoid an armed confrontation between the police and the military. So we waited."
As Prime Minister Qarase waited at Suva's Nausori airport to board a New Zealand Air Force VIP jet to take him to the Peters-brokered talks in Wellington, he was surprised to be joined by Mr Hughes, who then explained that the arrest plan was unlikely to come to fruition. Mr Qarase was shocked.
The Fiji Police Commissioner boarded the flight and in Wellington he met a deputy secretary for foreign affairs but was again told the New Zealand Government's position was that a political or diplomatic solution was preferred.
Aware that the police were ready to arrest him in Suva, Commodore Bainimarama had made it one of his many conditions for any settlement that the police commissioner would have to go.
Mr Hughes had, a week previously, sent his wife and sons to Australia having received credible information that they could be targeted by a military snatch squad.
In Wellington, he sought consular advice which was that he should not return to Fiji. He never did.
Mr Hughes also considered the safety of his own loyal officers who would try to protect him from military arrest.
The 2006 coup was the commodore's fourth attempt.
In 2000 during the negotiations that ended the Speight hostage crisis he suggested that the military should run the country for up to 50 years but Speight - and the president - would have none of it. In 2004 and again in 2005 he planned to take over the Government but his senior officers refused to commit treason.
All were sacked.
By December 2006 it was now or never for Commodore Bainimarama. It was widely agreed amongst informed observers of the events of 2006 in Fiji, including the diplomatic community, that without Commodore Bainimarama the RFMF would be rudderless.
Had Commodore Bainimarama been arrested in New Zealand the Fiji military would have been unable and unwilling to proceed with the removal of the Qarase Government.
The then US ambassador to Fiji, Larry Dinger, summed it up when he told his masters in Washington in a cable leaked by WikiLeaks regarding the New Zealand arrest plan.
"Being passive with bullies only encourages them. An arrest abroad might be the only way to enforce a criminal charge and remove the Bainimarama thorn," he reported.
Labour's foreign affairs spokesman Phil Goff, who did not deal with the issue, could not confirm Mr Hughes' account.
However, he could understand why no arrest was made, saying such a course of action would mean a country lost its credibility as a mediator for dealing with crises.
"I scarcely think you were going to lure a person here under false pretences only to arrest him. That would be seen as an ambush and bad faith and it wouldn't have resolved the situation within Fiji. "
It was reported at the time that a request had been made through Interpol and rejected by the New Zealand Government but only now can details from behind the scenes be revealed.
In November 2006 then Police Commissioner Howard Broad took the call from his Fiji counterpart Andrew Hughes, an Australian, who wanted to know if Commodore Bainimarama had committed any offence under New Zealand law for which he could be arrested.
Teams of police officers from both forces worked over a weekend and agreed the future dictator could be charged in New Zealand with perverting the course of justice in a foreign jurisdiction.
The planned charge related to remarks made by Commodore Bainimarama in New Zealand regarding an investigation into his alleged sedition in Fiji.
Mr Hughes sent two senior officers - an assistant commissioner and a senior detective - to New Zealand to liaise in the planned arrest.
"Then Howard Broad had a change of heart," said Mr Hughes. "He said New Zealand Foreign Affairs preferred a political solution.
"I argued it was his decision as Police Commissioner as to who should be charged in New Zealand."
At the time Commodore Bainimarama was in New Zealand for his granddaughter's christening and the Foreign Minister at the time, Winston Peters, had taken the opportunity to broker talks between him and elected Prime Minister Laisenia Qarase aimed at diverting Fiji's lurch towards a military takeover.
A day later, Mr Hughes received a call from Mr Broad.
"He sought my assurance that no NZ citizen would be endangered in Fiji as result of an arrest," said Mr Hughes.
"Of course I would do all in my power to protect all the people in Fiji but a blanket assurance of that kind was not possible. It would be like me asking him for a similar assurance covering all Fiji people in New Zealand. It wasn't possible to give him that.
"In the end, Mr Broad told me, 'Well, we're not going to arrest him."'
Mr Broad, now retired, told the Weekend Herald yesterday in a written statement that he remembered the call well.
"I remember it as a highly unusual request to consider an allegation against the Chief of Defence Force of a neighbouring country's properly constituted Government.
"I remember giving this decision a lot of consideration because it contained complex operational, legal and policy issues. I made the decision but I took a lot of advice. I remain comfortable with it."
He said some aspects of Mr Hughes' explanation did not accord with his recollection but he did not specify what they were.
In Suva, the Fiji police force had been awaiting an opportunity to arrest the commodore on the sedition charge but were unable to penetrate his heavily armed personal security detail - rarely less than 12-strong at any given time.
"I had earlier taken a brief of evidence to the DPP," said Mr Hughes, "and it was agreed that there was a case to answer on a sedition charge.
"We wanted to arrest and charge Commodore Bainimarama but he was permanently covered by heavy security. I was very keen to avoid an armed confrontation between the police and the military. So we waited."
As Prime Minister Qarase waited at Suva's Nausori airport to board a New Zealand Air Force VIP jet to take him to the Peters-brokered talks in Wellington, he was surprised to be joined by Mr Hughes, who then explained that the arrest plan was unlikely to come to fruition. Mr Qarase was shocked.
The Fiji Police Commissioner boarded the flight and in Wellington he met a deputy secretary for foreign affairs but was again told the New Zealand Government's position was that a political or diplomatic solution was preferred.
Aware that the police were ready to arrest him in Suva, Commodore Bainimarama had made it one of his many conditions for any settlement that the police commissioner would have to go.
Mr Hughes had, a week previously, sent his wife and sons to Australia having received credible information that they could be targeted by a military snatch squad.
In Wellington, he sought consular advice which was that he should not return to Fiji. He never did.
Mr Hughes also considered the safety of his own loyal officers who would try to protect him from military arrest.
The 2006 coup was the commodore's fourth attempt.
In 2000 during the negotiations that ended the Speight hostage crisis he suggested that the military should run the country for up to 50 years but Speight - and the president - would have none of it. In 2004 and again in 2005 he planned to take over the Government but his senior officers refused to commit treason.
All were sacked.
By December 2006 it was now or never for Commodore Bainimarama. It was widely agreed amongst informed observers of the events of 2006 in Fiji, including the diplomatic community, that without Commodore Bainimarama the RFMF would be rudderless.
Had Commodore Bainimarama been arrested in New Zealand the Fiji military would have been unable and unwilling to proceed with the removal of the Qarase Government.
The then US ambassador to Fiji, Larry Dinger, summed it up when he told his masters in Washington in a cable leaked by WikiLeaks regarding the New Zealand arrest plan.
"Being passive with bullies only encourages them. An arrest abroad might be the only way to enforce a criminal charge and remove the Bainimarama thorn," he reported.
Labour's foreign affairs spokesman Phil Goff, who did not deal with the issue, could not confirm Mr Hughes' account.
However, he could understand why no arrest was made, saying such a course of action would mean a country lost its credibility as a mediator for dealing with crises.
"I scarcely think you were going to lure a person here under false pretences only to arrest him. That would be seen as an ambush and bad faith and it wouldn't have resolved the situation within Fiji. "
Prime Minister Commodore Voreqe Bainimarama has strongly denied claims made by two former Fiji journalists that he tried to mount three coups before his takeover in December 2006.
In two articles in the New Zealand Herald, the Oxford-based academic and author Victor Lal and Russell Hunter, the expelled former publisher and editor-in-chief of the Fiji Sun, said Commodore Bainimarama had tried to take over the country after the Speight coup in 2000, and then again in 2004 and 2005.
The latest article details what the authors say is leaked correspondence from some of Commodore Bainimarama’s fellow officers urging him not to proceed and warning that they would oppose him.
In an interview in Suva, Commodore Bainimarama said the allegations were “not true”.
In the case of 2000, Mr Lal and Mr Hunter reported that Commodore Bainimarama demanded the military should be given the authority to rule Fiji for 50 years but this was opposed by the then president, Ratu Josefa Iloilo.
ALREADY IN CONTROL
Denying the account, Commodore Bainimarama said he was already in control of Fiji in 2000. “For their information, I was in charge of the nation in 2000, so I took over in 2000. I gave the government to (Laisenia) Qarase”.
The Prime Minister said it was historical fact that he had handed the reins of power to Laisenia Qarase hoping that he would govern for all Fijians and not just the indigenous majority.
“Everyone knows the story of 2000 when I came in, so why they changed this and (have) people believing it, I don’t know”.
Commodore Bainimarama also denied subsequent attempts to seize government before his takeover in 2006.
He said: In 2004 and 2005, there was no intention then to remove the government because I was trying to tell the government to play ball.
“There was a build-up of animosity between us and the government of the day, but there was no intention then to remove them because I was trying to get them to change their stance on the Qoliqoli (coastal resources) Bill and the racism that was rife. I was trying to persuade Qarase that he was wrong but there was no talk of us wanting to do coups then.”
The Prime Minister also responded to the account by Mr Lal and Mr Hunter that the former Australian police chief in Fiji, Andrew Hughes, tried to persuade NZ police to arrest him during a visit there in the lead-up to the 2006 coup.
According to their report, Mr Hughes believed that comments made by Commodore Bainimarama during the visit constituted grounds for a NZ charge of perverting the course justice.
These comments related to an ongoing police investigation in Fiji into whether Commodore Bainimarama could be charged with sedition for threatening to overthrow the government of Laisenia Qarase. In the event, the New Zealanders refused to act, primarily because of fears for the safety of NZ citizens in Fiji if the arrest provoked a backlash in the military.
IGNORED THE HUGHES PLAN
The Fijian leader said he’d been aware at the time of the Hughes plan to have him arrested but had ignored it.
“I didn’t think much of it because I think this guy is a twit. I mean, who would think of getting away with the arrest of a defence force chief in the Pacific, especially an Australian coming to arrest a commander of the Fiji Military Forces”, he said.
Noting that the then NZ Police chief, Howard Broad “had more sense” than Hughes to reject the request, Commodore Bainimarama said the arrest attempt “didn’t surprise him” and he believed that Andrew Hughes was acting on the instructions of the Australian Government.
“I have no doubt about that. The government of the day (Qarase’s SDL) were puppets in the hands of the Australians so Hughes was doing the bidding of both the Qarase government and the Australian Government”, he said.
The Fijian leader said the arrest attempt did not change his behaviour in any way. “We’d already made up our minds on what we were going to do and that was to remove Qarase,” he said.
PERSONAL VENDETTA
He also launched an attack on Mr Lal and Mr Hunter, claiming they were engaged in a personal vendetta against him.
“You should look at the writers. They are not credible people. Victor Lal runs down everyone in Fiji. So does Russell Hunter”.
The prime minister said Mr Hunter was motivated by anger that he’d been expelled from Fiji after 2006.
“He got the kick from here so obviously he will try and retaliate,” Commodore Bainimarama said.
In two articles in the New Zealand Herald, the Oxford-based academic and author Victor Lal and Russell Hunter, the expelled former publisher and editor-in-chief of the Fiji Sun, said Commodore Bainimarama had tried to take over the country after the Speight coup in 2000, and then again in 2004 and 2005.
The latest article details what the authors say is leaked correspondence from some of Commodore Bainimarama’s fellow officers urging him not to proceed and warning that they would oppose him.
In an interview in Suva, Commodore Bainimarama said the allegations were “not true”.
In the case of 2000, Mr Lal and Mr Hunter reported that Commodore Bainimarama demanded the military should be given the authority to rule Fiji for 50 years but this was opposed by the then president, Ratu Josefa Iloilo.
ALREADY IN CONTROL
Denying the account, Commodore Bainimarama said he was already in control of Fiji in 2000. “For their information, I was in charge of the nation in 2000, so I took over in 2000. I gave the government to (Laisenia) Qarase”.
The Prime Minister said it was historical fact that he had handed the reins of power to Laisenia Qarase hoping that he would govern for all Fijians and not just the indigenous majority.
“Everyone knows the story of 2000 when I came in, so why they changed this and (have) people believing it, I don’t know”.
Commodore Bainimarama also denied subsequent attempts to seize government before his takeover in 2006.
He said: In 2004 and 2005, there was no intention then to remove the government because I was trying to tell the government to play ball.
“There was a build-up of animosity between us and the government of the day, but there was no intention then to remove them because I was trying to get them to change their stance on the Qoliqoli (coastal resources) Bill and the racism that was rife. I was trying to persuade Qarase that he was wrong but there was no talk of us wanting to do coups then.”
The Prime Minister also responded to the account by Mr Lal and Mr Hunter that the former Australian police chief in Fiji, Andrew Hughes, tried to persuade NZ police to arrest him during a visit there in the lead-up to the 2006 coup.
According to their report, Mr Hughes believed that comments made by Commodore Bainimarama during the visit constituted grounds for a NZ charge of perverting the course justice.
These comments related to an ongoing police investigation in Fiji into whether Commodore Bainimarama could be charged with sedition for threatening to overthrow the government of Laisenia Qarase. In the event, the New Zealanders refused to act, primarily because of fears for the safety of NZ citizens in Fiji if the arrest provoked a backlash in the military.
IGNORED THE HUGHES PLAN
The Fijian leader said he’d been aware at the time of the Hughes plan to have him arrested but had ignored it.
“I didn’t think much of it because I think this guy is a twit. I mean, who would think of getting away with the arrest of a defence force chief in the Pacific, especially an Australian coming to arrest a commander of the Fiji Military Forces”, he said.
Noting that the then NZ Police chief, Howard Broad “had more sense” than Hughes to reject the request, Commodore Bainimarama said the arrest attempt “didn’t surprise him” and he believed that Andrew Hughes was acting on the instructions of the Australian Government.
“I have no doubt about that. The government of the day (Qarase’s SDL) were puppets in the hands of the Australians so Hughes was doing the bidding of both the Qarase government and the Australian Government”, he said.
The Fijian leader said the arrest attempt did not change his behaviour in any way. “We’d already made up our minds on what we were going to do and that was to remove Qarase,” he said.
PERSONAL VENDETTA
He also launched an attack on Mr Lal and Mr Hunter, claiming they were engaged in a personal vendetta against him.
“You should look at the writers. They are not credible people. Victor Lal runs down everyone in Fiji. So does Russell Hunter”.
The prime minister said Mr Hunter was motivated by anger that he’d been expelled from Fiji after 2006.
“He got the kick from here so obviously he will try and retaliate,” Commodore Bainimarama said.