* Witness Jioje Konrote who had been a career soldier for 25 years in the RFMF from 1966 to 1999 testified to the existence of a Unit of the RFMF, (the SOSU - Special Operations Secuirty Unit) a Unit that had been set up after the events of 1987. He also spoke in regard to the reasons for the setting up of such a unit, succinctly recorded by the learned trial Judge in his Judgment. (vide: paragraphs [29] and [30] of the learned High Court Judge's Judgment at page 12 of the RHC.
* [13] Witness Sakiusa Raivoce who had been a Lt. Colonel in the Army had also been aware of the existence of the said SOSU, though he deposed that he was not aware when it had been set up.
*[14] Sitiveni Rabuka, on the other hand, who had been a Major General and Commander of the RFMF pleaded ignorance of the existence of the SOSU at the material time and seemed to take exception to the existence of such a Unit on the basis that, the creation of such a Unit had not been gazetted.
This in my view, was a technical exception whereas the issue for consideration was whether de facto such 'a unit' was in existence, in as much as the 1st to 5th defendants were admittedly members of the RFMF.
*[15] In their written records of interview at the material time the third defendant had accepted that he was a member of the SOSU and so did the fifth defendant although he was heard to say that he did not know what it stood for. Then there was the evidence of the 4th defendant who admitted to being a member of the SOSU and furthermore the evidence of the 1st defendant who said he was in charge and even gave orders.
*[16] The learned High Court Judge accepted the evidence of Konrote and Raivoce and rejected the evidence of Sitiveni Rabuka as recapitulated above. That evidence stands exemplified by further evidence as revealed in the RHC which the learned Judge referred to in paragraphs (33) to (34) of the Judgment.
*[17] I am convinced that the said SOSU was a Unit of the RFMF and the 1st to 5th defendants being members of the said SOSU were employees of the RFMF who committed the impugned acts as such. Attorney General of Fiji v Singh [2015] FJCA 161; ABU69.2007 (3 December 2015), Fiji Court of Appeal
Rabuka also says that there should be more tighter screening of applicants to ensure those who don the uniform, do not break the law they are tasked to uphold
One of the 18 after being released from custody, Aiyaz Khaiyum, betrayed us and fled to Australia to study "drama" and is today exploiting the debris of Rabuka's racism to "torture" his opponents; the 1987 coup protestor became 2006 coup collaborator!The others detained with him included Wadan Narsey, Radha Krishna, Kenneth Zinck, Larry Thomas and Vijay Naidu. Thomas and Naidu joined Khaiyum's Electoral Commission as members to conduct the 2014 election
