Cooks Islands police investigating role of adviser to chiefs
Updated
Cook Islands police are investigating the role of an advisor to some of the country's traditional chiefs who have announced that they are taking over the running of the country. The statement by eight of the 15 chiefs of the House of Ariki, an advisory body of traditional leaders, is also being examined. Cook Islands police commissioner, Pat Tasker, says his investigators are interesed in the role of a former Sydney funeral director, Bruce Mita, a New Zealand Maori.
Presenter: Bruce Hill
Speaker: Cook Islands police commissioner, Pat Tasker
TASKER: Oh, people have a right to free speech and political speeches and things. We're taking it as a wee bit of a political type announcement rather than any real threat to government.
HILL: Has there been any public response to this statement that they are dissolving the government and taking over?
TASKER: The general public feeling here is it's laughable. In fact they have made fools of themselves. We have investigated their actions and come to the conclusion that under the Constitution of the Cook Islands, people can exercise free speech and they have not done anything that breaks any criminal law at this stage that we can identify.
HILL: Although on the surface of it, announcing that you are dissolving the government seems like a pretty serious thing to say. Is it still basically free speech when you say that sort of thing?
TASKER: We believe it is.
HILL: What about the role of this man whose advising them Bruce Mita, former Sydney funeral director whose talking about acting on behalf of people in New York and using Mangalese nodules to generate billions of dollars on the futures market? Are people sort of investigating his role in advising the Ariki to do this?
TASKER: He certainly is of personal interest to us. We have looked at his background and his continued activities. He may be the subject of further investigation, but I'm not prepared to reveal what type of investigation that is at this point.
HILL: Has he been spoken to by police yet?
TASKER: I am not prepared to say exactly what we are going to do or have done at this point.
HILL: Is he still free to leave the Cook Islands if he wants to?
TASKER: Absolutely. He can hop on a plane tonight if he wishes.
HILL: Would some people want him to do that, do you think?
TASKER: I think there's a large amount of people in this country who want to see the back of Mr Mita. From a police point of view, we're just really investigate whether the criminal code of conduct has been breached by any person. I am reluctant to wade into the area of politics and public announcements and things like that. It's not really the police's domain to get into that.
My advice to people certainly the Cook Islands community in Australia is check the credibility of Mr Mita very closely before engaging in any fundraising activities and that type of thing, although at this stage we haven't found any Cook Islands law that he has breached. I suspect that there's only one beneficiary, one real beneficiary out of the fundraising he did in Sydney.
HILL: Do you have any concerns about people like Mr Mita who raise funds in the Cook Islands communities overseas?
TASKER: Yeah, well I think the Pacific Islands in general have a long history of people coming and taking advantage of them from time to time. My function as the police commissioner is to ensure that people are fairly warned and this could be the case, I'm not saying it definitely is, but I'm saying it could be the case.
If somebody comes offering things that are to good to be true, they are generally to good to be true and it's untrue things. The Cook Islands people are very generous people and they enjoy raising funds to assist other Cook Islanders. Just ensure that those funds that they are raising are going to the people that they are hoping to help, not to someone else's pocket.
