SUVA: Fiji's Citizens Constitutional Forum today welcomed the call by President Ratu Josefa Iloilo for a board of
inquiry to investigate the May insurrection, but warned against any "cosmetic gesture".
The timing of the President's call coincided with a three-day fact-finding mission to Fiji by the European Union which
began yesterday.
The forum had earlier called for an investigation into interim Information Minister Ratu Inoke Kubuabola's alleged role
in the overthrow of the elected government.
Kubuabola described the claims of his involvement as a "baseless personal attack" in a letter published today in the
Fiji Times.
The Fiji Times reported that the President would appoint a board of inquiry into the crisis which would investigate why
the country's security forces allowed the coup to happen.
According to the newspaper, the board "will establish the real motives behind the coup and ensure that a strategy for
better security and intelligence is implemented to avoid any such occurrence in future".
In a statement today by the citizens forum's executive director, Rev Akuila Yabaki said: "The inquiry will depend for
its international credibility on its independence and in-built measures of transparency.
"An independent inquiry cannot be achieved if the membership is made up of institutions such as the military and the
police, since senior members of these institutions were themselves implicated in the events leading up to the May 19
coup and its aftermath.
"You can't have the 'poacher turned game-keeper', carrying out investigation and expect the outcome to pass the test of
transparency."
Rev Yabaki suggested that the Ombudsman, Justice Sailosi Kepa, could be a member - or even head the investigation.
Justice Kepa's statement was one of the first denouncing the coup.
One or two local and international lawyers should be invited to be members, said Rev Yabaki.
A civil society representative should also be invited.
"The investigation must be independent and also transparent for all to believe that it is an authentic attempt to deal
with the national tragedy," said Rev Yabaki.
In a submission to the fact-finding mission yesterday, the Fiji Council of Social Services director Hasan Khan said the
takeover of government by armed rebels was an act on behalf of "defeated politicians, failed business people and the
corrupt rich".
He asked the delegation to recommend to the EU that assistance be directed through civil society organisations and its
umbrella group FCSS.
"To date there has been no announcement by the government or anyone on how victims of violence and terror would be
helped or compensated," Khan said.
He added that the 1997 constitution was the ideal framework for future economic, social and general wellbeing of all
Fiji citizens.
Ends