RFMF accepts legal risk as it backs removal of coup immunity: Commander
Ro Jone Kalouniwai says the military recommended removing the constitutional protection despite the potential legal consequences for its members.
Friday 25 September 2026 | 05:00
Updated 25 September 2026 | 07:30 FJT
RFMF Commander Major-General Jone Kalouniwai (far right) says the military is prepared to accept the legal risk of removing immunity as part of a broader truth-telling process.
Photo: Ministry of Defence and Veterans Affairs
The removal of constitutional immunity recommended by the Constitution Review Commission (CRC) could expose members of the military to legal action.
Republic of Fiji Military Forces (RFMF) Commander Major-General Ro Jone Kalouniwai acknowledging the risk.
Major-General Kalouniwai said the RFMF had itself recommended removing the immunity clause, despite the potential legal consequences for its members.
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Chapter 10 of the 2013 Constitution grants “absolute and unconditional immunity” for the 1987 and 2006 coups and carries over immunity from the 1990 and 1997 Constitutions.
The CRC has recommended three options in its report:
- Repeal Chapter 10 outright;
- Ask the Supreme Court to reconsider its position; or
- If both fail, retain Chapter 10 but require immunity beneficiaries to swear an Oath of Reconciliation and Allegiance renouncing past actions.
On the recommendation to repeal the clause, Major-General Kalouniwai said the RFMF accepted the legal risk while backing a truth-telling process for those involved in Fiji’s coups.
“That’s Government. That’s politics,” he told this masthead.
“We had put in our submission. I mean, we threw ourselves into the fire. We said we’ll put our legal parameters that were protecting us for so long, we’ll put that away.
“So, we’re taking a risk when we’re walking out now. There’s a legal risk now for us because if the Immunity Clause is taken away, then that includes members of the RFMF as well.”
Truth and reconciliation
Major-General Kalouniwai said the RFMF’s recommendation was linked to a Truth and Reconciliation mechanism based on United Nations principles.
“What it does, it provides an avenue for those who are part of the coup to actually come up willingly. So, they can come up and provide their story, what happened, whatever they did and then that’s it. It’s all about truth-telling.”
He said those who refused to appear could potentially be summoned, creating a more difficult legal situation.
“But then if they don’t come, then the court or the Truth and Reconciliation Commission should have the powers to summon them.”
Major-General Kalouniwai stressed that the RFMF was not proposing that everyone involved be imprisoned, but that the process should allow Fiji to confront what happened during its political crises and establish what occurred and who was involved.
Minister for Defence Pio Tikoduadua said the issue would ultimately have to go before Parliament.
“It’s an idea that has to go before Parliament. Many views have been uttered, of course, it’s wide and ranging across our society,” he said.
“I think some consensus building around it because it’s a very sensitive matter and it’s something that has really to be left with the people to decide eventually on what form it is going to take in the new Constitution.”
Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka earlier told this masthead that the Supreme Court’s August 2025 opinion, which preserved the immunity chapter as “unamendable” citing stability, must be respected.
