International human rights groups have called on Fiji to launch an independent investigation into the commissioner of the Fiji Corrections Service, Commander Francis Kean, after former officers alleged that he routinely ordered the beating and mistreatment of prisoners.
The reports are based on detailed accounts from four former officers who have since gone to Australia and claimed asylum.
The men say that Kean, the brother-in-law of Fijian Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama, waged a brutal campaign of intimidation, coercion, bullying and violence on prisoners and staff that human rights campaigners say could amount to torture.
“These allegations are very disturbing,” said Elaine Pearson, the Australia director at Human Rights Watch. “The Fijian government should order a full independent investigation into these allegations and if Kean committed these crimes he should be held accountable, because those events described involve cruel and inhumane treatment.”
The former officers say that Kean instructed them to mistreat inmates by keeping them in isolation in cells with no bedding and only a bucket for a toilet that was emptied once a day, and spraying them with a hose throughout the night to keep them from sleeping.
The officers also allege that Kean ordered prison guards to get a fellow officer drunk and “beat his arse up” as punishment for supposed failure to do his job and that they themselves were subject to harsh punishments from the commissioner, including being forced to jump into a pond of sewage, having their wages docked for weeks and being ordered to walk 20km before and after work each day.
Kean and the Fiji Corrections Service did not respond to requests for comment about the claims.
“On the face of it, these allegations are sufficient to warrant an independent, impartial and effective investigation,” said Kate Schuetze, Pacific researcher at Amnesty International. “It needs to be a separate body with sufficient powers, sufficient resources to look into that and make clear findings into whether there should be any prosecutions.”
However, Schuetze expressed concern about whether Kean would be held to account, given his connections.
“I’m not overly optimistic of accountability of someone as senior as Francis Kean,” she said, citing the fact that he was made commissioner of corrections in 2016, despite having been convicted of manslaughter in 2007.
Kean pleaded guilty to manslaughter after he beat a man at the wedding of his niece, Bainimarama’s daughter.
The man died of a brain haemorrhage.
Kean was convicted for manslaughter and sentenced to 18 months in prison, although he was released after just a few months.
The Fijian government and opposition have not commented on the allegations.
“For many years there’s been a culture of intimidation and silencing not just of media, but also of civil society speaking out on abuses of power in Fiji,” Schuetze said. “We’ve seen journalists and human rights activists arrested for peaceful protests, for publishing articles that the government doesn’t like.”
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