Please, stop desecrating my mum’s grave. Leave it alone!
That was the desperate plea from Fatafehi Luveni, daughter of the former Speaker of Parliament, the late Dr Jiko Luveni, yesterday. When the family visited the grave at Lovonilase, Suva, it had been desecrated for the third time.
“It is sacriliege,” Ms Luveni said as she expressed the family’s disappointment.
“This is the third time mum’s grave has been tampered with and we are absolutely livid about it.
“We are not sure if it’s politically motivated or just a jealous relative or something else. It’s just hard to believe it has been targeted three times because mum had no bad relationship with anyone.
“We visit her grave every Saturday and when we came in this morning (yesterday) it had been desecrated again.”
She said the family had never missed a Saturday since her burial.
“The first Saturday it was her flowers that were all scattered on the ground.
“Every Saturday we decorate her grave with Garlands ‘Salusalu Sisi’ and today some sisi were gone, last time we had placed them, we later found it scattered on the ground.”
She said the second time it happened was two Saturdays ago.
“The funny thing about it is we staple the flowers and garlands very well but still they are scattered on the ground every Saturday we come.
“So it takes an effort for the person doing it to detach them from the board we staple them against.”
Talks With Fiji Corrections Service
She said the family had contacted Fiji Corrections Service Commissioner Commander Francis Kean and had discussed measures that could be implemented on avoiding such issues from happening.
“So we had asked him if we would be able to pay for services for them to properly maintain the resting ground of our loved ones for their respect and dignity.
“We had been told by Commissioner that there was a CCTV camera installed in the premises and we had also asked if they could review it so we could see who had been doing this.”
She said they had also suggested if the area be privatised so that security could be tightened.
Commissioner Francis Kean could not be reached to comment yesterday.
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