Results for Tonga riots

Five People's Representatives who were charged with seven criminal charges relating to November 16, will now face only one charge of sedition each, Chief Justice Anthony Ford announced at the Nuku'alofa Supreme Court this morning.

I trust your professional journalism can let me offer a dissenting view to yours. For the sake of creating an open discussion and God willing give us all a road for reconciling to the tragic event of 16/11, for at the end, we are all victims. From the teenage boy who picked up the rock that will undoubtedly spend time in jail; the person who sparked the match that will not see him families while in jail; those families who lost loved ones; those families who lost everything and their livelihood; government officials and PR's that were caught up in the cross-fire and indeed the King himself. When all is said and done, we have all lost a part of Tonga and indeed a part of us that we have now to turned on each other. -Thomas Monson Uata

The five People's Representatives who face criminal charges relating to the destruction of Nuku'alofa on November 16, 2006, appeared at the Nuku'alofa Supreme Court for the first time this morning to make their pleas.

Tonga's Prime Minister, Dr Feleti Sevele told Parliament there will be no reconciliation, until there is a confession, and a submission for wrong doing by those who initiated the destruction of November 16. However, 'Akilisi Pohiva expressed his fear that if they confess, "we may all end up in Tolitoli" [prison]. From the House.

Tonga's Minister of Police Hon. Siaosi 'Aho said that he thought 'Akilisi Pohiva was hallucinating when he came into the Cabinet Room on November 16 and demanded for government to endorse a proposal by the people for political change.

A radio broadcast made on the evening of November 16, by five People's Representatives, who have been charged with sedition, called on their supporters to stop destroying properties in central Nuku'alofa because they had achieved their aim.

Tonga's Acting Prime Minister took the witness stand on Day Three of a preliminary inquiry hearing into sedition charges against five People's Representatives and told the Court that the Prime Minister had been asked to write a letter under duress on November 16 while the town burned.

The hearing of a preliminary inquiry for the five People's Representatives continued today, with the prosecution calling three more witnesses to give evidence at the Nuku'alofa Magistrate's Court, on the events leading up to the November 16 riot. The prosecution intends to call another 20 witnesses in the days ahead.

Many thanks to David Tapiaka for his letter on 27/04 "A call for Overseas Tongans to invest in Tonga" publicly supporting my letter published last month calling for Tongans abroad to invest in Tonga and help re-build our little Kingdom. I am pleased to report that the feedback from Tongans at home and abroad has been overall amazingly positive. - Senolita Swan