FIJI: INCEST AND SEXUAL VIOLENCE CRIMES STIR FIJI SOUL-SEARCHING

A recent spate of incest and violent sexual crime cases in Fiji has sparked unprecedented national soul-searching over the issue. But community bodies are undecided about whether there has been an actual increase in such crimes since the 2000 coup or women's non-government groups have become more effective in highlighting them along with pressure to reform Fiji's archaic laws.

By DAVID ROBIE in Suva

OUTDATED and archaic laws in Fiji based on the 1944 Indian penal code have come under fire as this Pacific nation has been soul-searching over a recent spate of incest and violent sexual crimes.

The apparent surge in such cases since the attempted coup by renegade businessman George Speight two years ago has alarmed authorities and the churches.

But community bodies are undecided about whether there has been an actual increase in crimes of this nature or whether women's non-government groups have become more effective in highlighting them.

In one case, a 14-year-old girl was repeatedly raped by her soldier father, aged 44, at their family home and was seven months pregnant before the crime was reported.

The nine-year jail term imposed on him by the Suva Magistrates Court was condemned by the Fiji Women's Crisis Centre as too lenient.

The centre argued such offenders deserved longer jail sentences.

Two weeks later, a similar case was heard in the same court after a 42-year-old taxi driver was also jailed for nine years for raping his step daughter, aged 22, who became pregnant.

And some indecent assault cases have involved girls younger than 10.

A group of Fiji women and their daughters presented a petition with 3000 signatures to the President, Ratu Josefa Iloilo, at Government House calling for stricter legislation and penalties for rape and other sexual crimes.

Newspapers, church groups, and government agencies have described the cases as a national shame.

One newspaper, The Sun, published a black panel in its usual editorial space and declared under the headline "Shame on us":

"This is The Sun's way of registering its utmost disgust and loathing for all the perpetrators of crimes against children."

Concern has focused on archaic laws that make it difficult for courts to hand out tougher sentences.

"Open a newspaper, switch on your television or the radio and without fail, there are daily reports of acts such as paedophilia, defilement, incest, rape, sexual abuse, molestation and instances of sexually transmitted infections, including HIV/AIDS, passed on to the victims," lamented a National Reconciliation and Information Ministry statement.

"The survivors of such atrocities feel they are being short-changed by the limitations of the penal code.

"As society sinks deeper into the quagmire of moral decay, the need to rectify this growing anomaly becomes all the more urgent."

Pressure to amend the laws is not new, but civic leaders have questioned a recent rush to change the treason law to abolish the death penalty coinciding with cases involving alleged ringleaders of the May 2000 coup bid.

At the same time, draft legislation ushering in reforms over crimes against women and children has been left to languish.

In 1996, the Fiji Law Reform Commission initiated a review of the Penal Code and Criminal Procedure Code relating to sexual offences.

The review was generally guided by the basic principles of the 1997 Constitution and Fiji's obligations under the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) and the Convention of the Rights of the Child.

Heading the review was British-born lawyer Anthony Gates, who recently featured as a crucial judge in post-coup constitutional cases.

Gates spent a year consulting various groups before drafting his Sexual Offences Report 2000, which was tabled in Parliament two weeks before the Mahendra Chaudhry government was seized hostage by Speight and overthrown in May 2000.

The draft legislation is currently before Attorney-General Qoriniasi Bale and justice authorities have established a taskforce to advise the government on the proposed changes.

Among key recommendations by the Gates report:

* Rape would cease to be a gender specific sexual offence against females only, and would also include rape by using objects such bottles and sticks.

Legal sources pointed out that such an amendment would cover a crime such as in 1999 when a young man was reportedly gang-raped in Nadi and penetrated with a cassava stick. He later died.

REDEFINING "non-consent" to sex based on the behaviour of the accused rather than the victim.

INTRODUCING the crime of rape within marriage, which does not exist at present.

ENABLING rape cases to be heard in the High Court instead of the present elective system that enables the accused to opt for a Magistrates Court hearing where a sentence is limited to a maximum of five years.

TOUGHER sentences, including raising the penalty for indecent assault from five to 10 years, attempted rape from seven to 10 years, and a new maximum sentence of life imprisonment for rape.

According to the Fiji Women's Crisis Centre, 92 per cent of the 156 sexual abuse cases against children reported between 1985 to January 2002 were known to the victim, six per cent were unknown and two per cent were never recorded.

Of these figures, 17 percent of the offenders were fathers of their victims, 12 percent were stepfathers, three percent grandfathers, 15 percent uncles and 19 percent friends.

Centre coordinator Shamima Ali said there was an urgent need for child psychologists to deal with incest cases in Fiji.

"There are no child psychologists available for the rehabilitation of victims and in any case not all victims come to us," said Ms Ali.

Ms Ali added it was difficult for mothers to counsel their children in such cases as the issue was sensitive.

The coordinator of another agency, Virisila Buadromo of the Fiji Women's Rights Movement, said Fiji's laws on sexual offences were "archaic and discriminatory" towards women.

Gang rapes have also become a growing concern for authorities.

In one recent case, six youths aged between 12 and 18 raped a 10-year-old girl.

"Cases of rape and other sexual offences have now taken a drastic turn where very young girls are targeted and, worse still, the victims go through an ordeal of being gang-raped by offenders who are sometimes twice their age," police senior superintendent Eroni Antonio said.

He said lack of harsh penalties posed a problem.

DAVID ROBIE is publisher of Café Pacific