The ‘Qiliho’ mode
THE “Qiliho” mode has not gone away from the Fiji Police Force.
Fiji Women’s Crisis Centre (FWCC) co-ordinator and human rights activist Shamima Ali said this in response to attempts by police on Wednesday to halt the Reclaim the Night march as part of International Women’s Day celebrations in the country.
Home Affairs Minister Pio Tikoduadua was called in to intervene after 600-plus participants were told they could not don any pro-West Papua apparel or brandish placards in support of Iranian women and girls during the march.
After addressing the situation, he took to Twitter and said “It should never have happened”.
“Your human rights are paramount and I’ve been making that clear,” Mr Tikoduadua tweeted.
“We are working together with police to undo the mentality that has been the norm over the past 16 years — it’s slow but it will happen!”
Ms Ali said police were still operating “in that old mind-set”.
“I don’t like appealing to ministers,” she said.
“I believe in due process. “You know, there is a law, there is a system in place but last night (Wednesday) we would’ve called off the march because everybody decided not to do it.”
Police chief operations officer Acting Assistant Commissioner of Police Livai Driu apologised for the “miscommunication” that led to the incident.
He said police were “simply following the conditions of the permit issued”.
“However, this was sorted and officers were directed to allow the march procession to continue and provide necessary security measures for those in attendance,” he said.
Ms Ali refuted the miscommunication claim and said they as activists were used to such incidents over the past few years.
“You know, the Qiliho mode hasn’t gone away yet,” she said.
“The police are still behaving like they used to behave before. And it was not a miscommunication because I spoke to the person there, and then I spoke to the divisional commander and he just said ‘no’.
“We explained because we have marched before with West Papua. So there was no miscommunication. They were just behaving a la Qiliho, like how they have been behaving before.
“Police have an aversion to human rights activism. Even when we were getting the permit, which took us about a month to get, I was asked a whole lot of questions.”
Ms Ali said they were questioned about whether the march would be political and whether any political parties would participate in the event.
“I was told by the police officer, ‘no police commissioner, no minister can change this decision’. And he told me to my face. It shouldn’t be like that.
“But that’s what we had to do yesterday because those 600 to 700 people would have gone disappointed.”
She said liaising with the police on sensitisation and recognising the work carried out by human rights activists was a work in progress. However, FWCC stood ready to assist in any way they could.