Soldiers are not bodyguards, Fiji government says amid security shake-up
Monday, 9 January 2023
Fijian army personnel, who served as ministerial security detail for the former government of Frank Bainimarama, have been instructed to return to their camps, effective immediately.
Home Affairs Minister Pio Tikoduadua said soldiers were not bodyguards and should not be used for carrying ministers’ shoes or to clean their cars.
With less than one month in office, the new head of Fiji’s police, army and immigration said all security requests would be handled by police.
“Soldiers are not bodyguards and should go back to their camps and do soldiering work,” Tikoduadua said, after meeting with both the police and army chiefs.
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Tikoduadua was briefed by military commander Major-General Ro Jone Kalouniwai and police commissioner Brigadier-General Sitiveni Qiliho in Suva last week.
“The only person that is entitled to security is the prime minister,” the minister said.
“I don’t see why anyone should be running with security around this place until somebody can prove to me that you need personal protection.”
Tikoduadua, a former military officer, said the army chief had assured him of the “demilitarisation of the civil service and that all soldiers employed in the civil service have returned to the barracks.
“He has also assured me that all arms used for personal protection of the former prime minister, former ministers and the Chief Justice have been accounted for and are back in the RFMF’s armoury.”
On December 29, Tikoduadua invited Qiliho to resign, citing concerns on matters of confidence in the police commissioner.
The minister said Qiliho’s history and record with Bainimarama had cast doubt over the appropriateness of him keeping his position
“It’s difficult to maintain confidence in Qiliho and that is why I’ve invited him to resign,” Tikoduadua told a media conference.
Qiliho, a former army officer, has declined the minister’s offer and instead asked that they follow the process of the Constitutional Offices Commission.
“I respect that, and we will let the law take its course,” Tikoduadua said, adding he has no issue with military commander Kalouniwai.
Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka’s coalition government ousted Bainimarama and ended Fiji First’s 16-year rule following the general election on December 14.
Rabuka’s People’s Alliance party (PA), Tikoduadua’s National Federation Party (NFP) and former opposition leader Bill Gavoka’s Social Democratic Liberal Party (Sodelpa) secured 29 seats of the 55-member Parliament.
Rabuka said in its first 100 days, the government would find a way to unite Fijians and tackle the challenges of a nation emerging from the Covid-19 pandemic.
Expect policy changes to the economy, rule of law and human rights among other things, he said.
Rabuka also assured Fijians that his government would not be a one-man or two-man decision-making administration.
He promised to be inclusive and adopt a consultative approach to key decisions that affect the people of Fiji.
Rabuka said they would remove laws and decrees that undermined human rights, media freedom, freedom of association, individual and group rights of Fijians.
Fiji’s former attorney-general Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum is being investigated for allegedly “inciting communal antagonism” following the election.
A border alert for the former minister for economy was issued by police who confirmed last week that Sayed-Khaiyum had travelled to Australia on December 26 – two days after the new coalition government was formed.
The alert was sent to border security officials at Nadi Airport on December 29, police said.