Speight claims injury in military beating

Speight claims injury in military beating
AGENCE FRANCE PRESSE

SUVA, AUGUST 4: Speight, and fellow conspirators Ilisoni Ligairi, Joe Nata, Timoci Silatolu and Tevita Bukarau, are among a group of eight being held in Nukulau Island near here in connection with events following their failed May 19 coup. They are expected to appear in the Suva Magistrate's Court Saturday, although authorities have given no indication of when it will happen.

The Post said Speight wrote to his lawyers saying he was first assaulted after he stepped onto the gangplank of the patrol boat which took him out to the island. He said he got a sharp blow to the back of his head from what he believed was a rifle butt, and was abused in Fijian.

One of those who assaulted him, he said, was from Lau, the home island of the President Speight succeeded in deposing, Ratu Sir Kamisese Mara. "Four armed men were involved in carrying out the physical abuse with one, a Lauan, who was particularly vocal and physically abusive," he was quoted as saying.

"The abuse included slapping, punching, kicking and the use of rifle butts to the head, face, neck, back, chest and stomach." He said the officer leading the assault "went through us one by one many Times." "At Times the abuse on us was carried out simultaneously by two, three and four soldiers.

"One soldier took pleasure in holding my head down with his boot from behind me on numerous occasions. "Throughout the whole time we were being assaulted the vessel ploughed through the sea causing us to be drenched by wave after wave, made worse by the strong wind," he said.

"We cannot describe adequately how we felt other than to say that as time passed by all of us accepted that this would be our last day." Ligairi, a former member of Britain's Special Air Service (SAS), was beaten after being captured at the school they were occupying. "(Soldiers) told me to lie on the ground with my face to the ground and hands behind my back. They strapped my hands. At the same time they were kicking and stomping on me. It was when I was lying that I was kicked several Times on the side of my head and my face for over a period of time by several soldiers." Meanwhile military spokesman Howard Politini told Fiji Broadcasting Commission that a rebel was shot near a Dreketi village that had become the centre of activities against Indian farmers. "One of the armed rebels fired at the soldiers and then in the return of fire he was injured," he said. "He died in the ambulance on the way to Labasa hospital," Politini said. A cane farmer injured by rebel gunfire was also taken to hospital. Themilitary captured the rebels responsible for the shooting.