Fiji authorities rule on New Zealander's death but questions remain

THURSDAY, JULY 28, 2011

Could Coup 4 and a half come up with solutions and don't be negative about situations please! Such as; 

Could Hotels in the West link up with Crown Aviation to help in SAR missions at times like this? 

They could even come together and help Police?

Secondly, give both side of the story on your Blog Site!

TONY GROOM

Fiji police have decided to stop investigating the death of a 55 year old New Zealand man earlier believed to have died after a beating in the rough part of Nadi.

FBC is this morning quoting Inspector Atunaisa Sokomuri as saying Tony Groom died from liver complications and not from the injuries of an alleged beating. 

DON NICHOLAS

Sokomouri says there were visible signs of injury to Groom’s body but any investigation into his death "will now cease as the post mortem has revealed his true cause of death" and that what matters in court is the results of the post mortem examination".

The verdict, however, may not be enough for the family and friends of the charter business operator, who have been asking questions about how he died.

The family of an American CEO, Don Nicholas, are also still looking for answers from Fiji authorities about the circumstances of his death.

Mr Nicholas was surfing at Nadi and didn't emerge from the water with the instructor.

His sister has been in Fiji for more than a week now, trying to piece together how the tragedy happened and what efforts were made to recover his body but has had little co-operation from authorities.

A source told Coupfourpointfive on Monday that media and police had been told to play down the two deaths for fear of spooking tourists. 

Fiji's military dictatorship has long been sensitive about what it sees as negative reporting and has been particularly uptight about coverage that could put tourists off from visting the country and reinforcing international community impressions Fiji is unsafe.

A source has since told Coupfourpointfive that lack of police resourcing could certainly have been an issue in the rescue efforts of Don Nicholas.

And he says there was never any question of retrieving Nicholas' body because 'we are ill-equipped."

Senior officers have been saying for some time Fiji's police force is in a dire situation with officers forced to pay for basic things like paper for police reports and uniform, like footwear.

They say they work with no standard or protective equipment and have been ignoring crime because they don't have vehicles or fuel to respond to call outs - claims which Fiji locals have backed up, via blogs.