LEST WE FORGET!

Tevita Malasebe’s last night on earth.

"When Tevita’s mother called her son’s to dinner on that last evening, Tevita said to go ahead : “au se wilivola mada”.His mother peaked into the room to see Tevita reading his bible.

Tevita nodded off to sleep reading his bible whilst the rest of the family had dinner. At midnight, the family was awoken by knocking on the door and policemen asking to see Tevita.

In fijian the request was that they only wanted to talk to Tevita about a “small matter from long ago”: “dua ga na ka lailai”. The policemen led Tevita out of his room already handcuffed.

Tevita’s protective mother protested that he hadn’t had dinner to which the police replied: “keitou na sega ni dede”, “we won’t be long”.

Tevita’s mother requested that she come with them to the Valelevu police station and her and Tevita can walk back from Valelevu Police Station to New Town where they lived. The Police declined her a car ride saying they’d return Tevita shortly.

Tevita’s younger brother counted 8 policemen in total who came to take Tevita away. He knew something was wrong when he saw the police throw Tevita into the truck like a sack. He quickly told his mother for them to follow, I belive his own words were “au kila sa na lei vaculaki o Tevita”, “I know Tevita’s going to be beaten up”.

The already distraught mother quickly got her family ready and as the family could not hail a taxi at that time of the night, they had no choice but to walk to Valelevu Police Station. They got there an hour after Tevita was taken from home only to find the Police Station in darkness with a single policeman manning the post.

They asked him if there was anyone brought in from Newtown and the man denied it saying no one was brough in. He referred the family to check with Suva police station. If you’ve been past the Police station in Valelevu you’d see that there is a compound surrounding the station, if you go now you’ll prob still see the police barrier set up around the place.

Tevita’s distraught mother waited at the Police station with her sons and the single policeman not knowing that in the darkness behind the police station her son was being beaten to death. In the very compound behind the police station.

Some maternal instinct must’ve kicked in because she started calling out her son’s name in the hope that she’d hear a reply from the police cell maybe, only to be told off by the policeman “oi, sega ni mai na koro qo!” “Oi! This is not the village”.While his mother and two brothers waited for two hours in the police station, Tevita was being beaten up outside in the darkness behind the very same police station.

Did he hear his mother’s cries for him? One can only conclude that his mouth may have been taped so no one could hear his own painfull cries.With no one showing up at Valelevu and the policeman there not being cooperative at all, Tevita’s mother and her two sons walked back home 2 hours later, worried if they’d see Tevita again; the two sons comforting their mother that Tevita was all right, he was fit and healthy and would survive whatever beating these people gave him.

The two sons were already planning vengance on whoever was responsible.A friend of Tevita’s went for his usual early morning jog and happened to jog past the Valelevu Police station that fateful morning and he noticed three policeman outside the back of Police Station loading a body into a body bag.

Little did he know at that time that it was his friend Tevita’s body that was being loaded. He report this to the police when the death of Tevita was made known.For all we know, Tevita was beaten up from when he was loaded into the truck (8 policemen remember), then instead of being accorded a proper procedural detainment that required his presence at Valelevu Police Station recorded in the books, Tevita was taken outback in the dark outside, stripped naked or possibly down to his underwear and beaten to his death.

What he was beaten with, we may know when the trial comes to light. Whether his mouth was taped or not, only those responsible can tell us. Did he hear his mother calling for him? Did he fight back?To date 8 policeman have been questioned, including the single night watchman policeman that denied Tevita being brought to Valelevu. Did he truely not know that Tevita was outback, or was he lying through his teeth staring at the mother while he knew her son was being beaten up.

No one knows the torment Tevita’s mother went through that night, or the suffering her and her family are going through now.

I pray and hope for the Police not to ruin this investigation like the previous two cases of Nimilote Verebasaga and Sakiusa Rabaka.

I pray that this does not happen to me or a member of my family."

Source (hydenceek)