Tongan Police were investigating after a brutal attack on a peace corps woman in Sopu this morning Saturday 16.
This has been confirmed by the Nukuʻalofa Police Superintendent Tevita Fifita to Kaniva News.
Fifita released no further information as Police investigation continued.
Kaniva understands the victim is a Peace Corps Voulnteer.
Taimi ʻo Tonga correspondent Tevita Motulalo reported on Facebook the volunteer received serious injuries to her face.
A salesman has been acquitted of charges of theft and embezzlement in the Supreme Court.
Appearing before Lord Chief Justice Paulsen, Kevini Vaifo’ou was acquitted by Lord Chief Justice Paulsen after the charges were unproven.
Vaifo’ou was part of a group of three employees of Leiola Group Ltd who were accused of being engaged in a joint criminal enterprise to steal from the company. The other accused were Katalau Vea’ilu and Lupi Fonua.
The indictment alleged that in 2013 Vaifo’ou, together with Vea’ilu and Fonua embezzled $TP81,401 from Leiola. They were charged with theft of the same amount. The prosecution alleged the money had been taken from 32 cash sales to 23 Chinese stores. The amount involved was later reduced to $TP48,382 and the number of sales and stores involved. A third charge of falsification of accounts was dropped.
Vaifo’ou and Vea’ilu were employed to sell cigarettes and phone cards, mainly to Chinese retail stores. They would visit stores and if the store needed cigarettes or phone cards they would hand over the goods along with an invoice. In most cases they were paid immediately in cash.
In his report on the case, Lord Chief Justice Paulsen said the money and a copy of the invoice were returned to Leiola’s office and given to Fonua. She would fraudulently enter the transaction in Leiola’s database as a credit sale and distribute the money to herself, Vea’ilu, Vaifo’ou and another employee, Paea Savou.
Fonua, Veaiilu and Savou have already been dealt with by the court.
As far as Leiola was concerned the retail stores owed a debt but in fact they had paid.
Fonua, Vea’ily and Savou had already been dealt with by the court.
Because the company accounts appeared to be balanced out at the end of each month, the losses were not noticed for a long time. Eventually, however, the company’s accountant, Arleen Talavera, began to suspect something was wrong. When she approached retail stores they claimed they had made payments not shown in Leiola’s records. They had also been issued invoices with numbers that did not match Leiola’s records.
Vea’ilu told the court that at the end of each day it was usually Fonua who would prepare the summary of the day’s sales. After it became apparent that the thefts were being investigated, Vea’ilu met with the managing director of Leiola’s parent company, John Paul Chapman and told him that he had lost the money.
Following this the general manager of Leiola, Mr. Viliami Takau, was informed and Vea’ilu was dismissed. Vea’ilu said Chapman was financially supporting Vaifo’ou, who is his cousin. He denied that he had told Chapman that Vaifo’ou was involved because he hoped the managing director would cover up the theft if he thought his relative was involved.
The prosecution relied on proving that a number of sales had involved the theft of cash paid by shop keepers and faked receipts and financial records being kept.
However, Lord Chief Justice Paulsen said Talavara’s analysis was intended for internal company purposes and not a criminal prosecution.
“Her enquires were not as thorough as one would expect in a criminal case, but she cannot be criticised for that,” the judge said.
“There should have been independent expert analysis of the accounts.”
Mr Justice Paulsen found that the evidence gathered from store owners was insufficient and that the evidence from the shopkeepers who testified in court was not adequate to support the prosecution’s case.
In his summing up, the judge said he did not accept the evidence presented by Vea’ilu and said the prosecution had failed to prove that Vaifo’ou had been involved in or took any money from the company.
The main points
Uto ʻEnosi Tuipulotu died after fighting a rare form of cancer in Christchurch Hospital, a source close to the family has confirmed.
The cancer was “an unexpected diagnosis after his heart started racing at rugby training a couple of months ago”, Fairfax Media reported.
According to “Akaroa Area School teacher Garry Brittenden, who helped bring Tuipulotu from Tonga to Akaroa in 2012, the rare form of cancer was a soft tissue sarcoma”.
“It’s so rare they [doctors] are saying it’s a new thing for them”, Brittenden told Fairfax.
It was understood ‘Uto’s two brothers arrived in Christchurch with mother Lapulou Hola ʻEnosi this week, while his father, Siaosi, has already been in the city.
Tonga’s Department of Quarantine has sent animal remains believed to be one of the two mongooses still missing in Tonga to New Zealand for analysis and confirmation.
Six mongooses made their way into the kingdom through a container of paints that was shipped from Fiji, Graham Malaʻefoʻou from Quarantine said.
Three of the mammals were found dead and the other three escaped when the container was opened on June 8.
One of the escapees was eventually cornered and recaptured while the other two were still missing.
Malaʻefoʻou said a report from Kolofoʻou led quarantine staff to a spot in the area where they collected an animal’s “lower jaw” and fur. The staff also took photos, he said.
They sent the remains to experts in New Zealand for scientific analysis and to confirm whether or not they belonged to one of the missing mongooses, he said.
Mongoose
Mongooses are not native to Tonga. The mammals were first introduced into the kingdom’s neighbouring country Fiji in 1883 to control rats in sugar cane fields.
According to the National Geographic website mongooses are primarily found in Africa.
They are generally terrestrial mammals, but some are semi-aquatic, and others are at home in the treetops.
Ranging in size from the 7-inch-long (18-centimeter-long) dwarf mongoose to the 2-foot-long (60-centimeter-long) Egyptian mongoose; these sleek mammals have long bodies with short legs and tapered snouts.
They normally have brown or gray grizzled fur, and a number of species sport striped coats or ringed tails.
Mongooses live in burrows and are non discriminatory predators, feeding on small animals such as rodents, birds, reptiles, frogs, insects, and worms. Some species supplement their diet with fruits, nuts, and seeds. Creative hunters, they are known to break open bird eggs by throwing them with their forepaws toward a solid object.
Kaniva News and other Tongan online media helped make New Zealand Tongans important players in the 2014 elections, even though they could not vote.
An article in the latest edition of Pacific Journalism Review, which is published by the Pacific Media Centre at AUT, says that digital media allowed Tongans in Auckland to try to influence the election.
It says Tongan politicians recognised the power and influence of the New Zealand community. Tongan politicians used the Tongan diasporic media to carry their messages to Tongans living outside the kingdom during the election.
Stories and documents were leaked and statements released to the Auckland-based Tongan media were targeted as much as the domestic Tongan media.
The New Zealand Tongan Development Society proposed its own Democratic Party candidates for the election, saying it would support those MPs who were loyal to the Party.
Based on interviews with leading Auckland-based Tongan journalists, including Kaniva News editor Kalino Latu, Sandra Kailahi and John Pulu, the article says that Tongans living in Auckland had a very strong interest in and affect on politics in the kingdom.
The article quotes Pulu as saying social media had become a powerful tool among the dispersed Tongan community. It allowed families to maintain their links to people in Tonga and influence families. He said Tongan politicians were aware of its influence and most politicians were on Facebook.
Kailahi said politicians knew that with the amount of money sent to Tonga from New Zealand, families in New Zealand would probably have an influence on their kainga in Tonga.
Under the Tongan electoral system non-resident Tongans cannot vote. However, if they have maintained a presence on the Tongan electoral role and have lived in the kingdom for three months prior to an election, they may stand for Parliament.
Many Auckland Tongans would like to vote in the Tongan elections and have suggested that they be able to do this either online or by voting at the official Tongan residence in Auckland, ‘Atalanga.
Latu said Tongans in New Zealand had been actively interested in Tonga’s politics since 1990s especially in supporting ‘Akilisi Pohiva and the democrats. That support had grown significantly during the last election. This had led to a growing influence from Tongans in Auckland and attempts to influence their family in Tonga in the way they voted in 2014.
According to the article, Tongans in Auckland felt they had a right to have a say in what was happening in the kingdom. Kaniva News editor Kalino Latu said this was because Tongans in Auckland thought differently about politics to their families in Tonga.
“Tonga’s democracy is still in its early stages while New Zealand had it many decades ago,” Latu said.
“Tongans in Auckland look at politics as one of the avenues that brings them fortune and greater opportunities in New Zealand. In Tonga people look at politics as something that could bring good governance, transparency and accountability to the nation.”
Digital and social media also played an important part in recent elections in the Cook Islands and Fiji. Politicians in those countries also paid attention to overseas populations in the run-up to voting.
In 2014 Fijian coup leader Commodore Bainimarama came to Auckland to speak to Fijians living in Auckland, who are able to vote.
The article, ‘A foreign flower no more: Tongan diasporic media and the 2014 Tongan election,’ was written by Dr Philip Cass, a senior lecturer at Unitec who is a regular contributor to Kaniva News.
The main points
For more information
Lisiate Prescott Sikulu has been named by Police as the driver of the car they believed it hit ʻUnaloto ʻEli, 22, of Haʻateiho on July 9 in Pea.
The driver from Fasimoeafi was released on bail to appear in court for one charge of reckless driving causing death.
Police Communication Officer Telesia Adams said the car headed westbound on Taufaʻāhau Rd when it allegedly hit the victim at about 4am.
Corruption in Tonga was even worse than ever, pioneering publisher Kalafi Moala said yesterday.
Speaking at forum on corruption in New Zeaand and the Pacific organised by Transparency International, Moala said his news organisation, which began with the newspaper Taimi ʻO Tonga, had been exposing corruption for 30 years.
The urge to expose corruption in Tonga had driven the news through its first 10 years.
Moala told the forum that the newspaper wanted to expose “every dirty thing.”
Among the key scandals exposed by Taimi ʻO Tonga was the passport scandal in which the Tongan government made US$35 million selling Tongan passports to Hong Kong Chinese.
“Tongans are very good opportunists and that’s why they decided to cash in on the Hong Kong crisis and sell the passports,” Moala said.
“They just forgot it was illegal.”
Tonga’s Parliament held a special meeting in 1991 to legitimise the passport trade.
Moala recalled that he once met a wealthy Chinese in Tonga who showed him a map and asked him where the land was that he had bought. Moala said the land turned out to be a portion of reef that was underwater at high tide.
“Somebody had sub-divided this reef and sold it for a huge amount of money,” Moala told the forum.
The publisher, who was once jailed alongside current Prime Minister ‘Akilisi Pohiva, for his activities, said that in the second decade of the paper’s existence the staff thought they would be able to move on to new topics, but corruption stories just kept coming.
However, after three decades the situation appeared to be worse.
“We thought that all we had to do was to change leaders and the system and then there would be no more corruption,” he said.
After the Democratic movement won government in 2014 Moala was asked to become Prime Minister Pohiva’s communications adviser, but left after a year.
“I left because it was a waste of time,” he told the forum.
“In that period corruption continued to spread and nobody did anything.”
“We have the most democratic government we’ve ever had and we have a population that is broken-hearted because the hoped-for changes haven’t happened,” he said.
He said the Tongan government had become involved with the Global Organisation of Parliamentarians Against Corruption.
He said it was amusing that Tonga had a Parliamentary anti-corruption committee when Parliament was where corruption was taught.
He said corruption affected Tonga at all levels and questions needed to be asked about corruption across the Pacific.
He said the theft of trillions of dollars in aid and development money around the world was criminal. It had been estimated that only $US481 billion was needed to meet all of the United Nation’s global development goals, but countries like Tonga continued to suffer because the money that could solve their problems had been stolen.
The forum was part of the a conference on journalism education in the Pacific at AUT organised by the Journalism Education and Research Association of Australia, the Pacific Media Centre and Media Educators Pacific.
Other speakers at the Transparency International forum included the head of journalism at the University of the South Pacific, Dr Shailendra Singh and the editor of the Papua New Guinea Post-Courier, Alex Rheeney.
The main points
For more information
Transparency International (New Zealand)
Akosita Lavulavu has defeated three other contenders to win the by-election for Vavaʻu 16.
The Vavaʻu vacancy on Parliament was created by the bribery conviction and subsequent disqualification of Akosita’s husband, the former government Minister and MP ‘Etuate Lavulavu in February this year.
Akosita received 754 votes, 218 votes clear of her nearest rival.
Akosita is the director of the ‘Unuaki ‘o Tonga Royal Institute (UTRI).
Dr Viliami Latu became second with 536 votes.
The second runner up was ‘Atalasa Pouvalu with 343 votes while ‘Ipeni Siale became the third runner up with 280 votes.
Tongan Police have released the name of a man whose decomposed body was found yesterday in a bush area in Tongatapu.
He is identified as ‘Alekisio Taufatahi Kautai, 55, of Lapaha.
Police said: “An inquest rules for the remains of Mr. Kautai to be buried immediately due to the state of decomposition of his body.
“His remains have been released to the family today, Thursday 14th July 2016.
“Our thoughts and condolences are with his family and friends at this time”.
Tatafu Moeaki, CEO for the Ministry of Finance and National Planning has resigned from the Civil Service.
Kaniva has learnt this morning Moeaki resigned before his contract expires.
A reliable source from the Ministry confirmed that Moeaki is set to take up a staff position with the Asian Development Bank based in Nuku’alofa to commence soon (July 2016).
