Will the people in Samoa be held accountable for their involvement with the American Samoan pleasure boat Kite Runner?

The boat which entered Samoa illegally was allowed to berth, offload cargo and then miraculously had proper documents from authorities.

The infamous pleasure boat is back in the limelight but this time there is action being taken for breaches that happened in Pago Pago, however to date no one in Samoa has been held accountable.

Hats off to the Department of Homeland Security in American Samoa whose investigation into a cross-border trip by the Kite Runner has recommended the charging of three officials.

The investigation confirmed the certificate of clearance (C.O.C.) for the Kite Runner in the territory was on hold at that time, but the boat left for Samoan waters in April this year without proper clearance.

A copy of the report authored by the D.H.S. was obtained by the Samoa Observer and revealed there were three people on the boat when it left American Samoa for Samoa, and when it returned to the U.S. territory it took an extra passenger confirming four people returned.

A permit granted by Samoa's Immigration Division, which comes under the Ministry of the Prime Minister and Cabinet, for the “clearance for sailing Yacht Kite Runner” reaffirmed that the vessel was only permitted to “cruise the island” for 10 days, according to the D.H.S. investigation.

The Kite Runner vessel was a pleasure craft owned by Tish Peau, who is also the Acting Director for the American Samoa Historic Preservation Office (A.S.H.P.O.) with additional information listing a Laulii Alofa as the primary 24-hour emergency contact, the D.H.S. investigation concluded.

It was also recommended that two senior officials with the U.S. territory's Department of Ports Administration be charged with forgery, with the D.H.S. report saying that they are suspected of forging the signature of the territory’s Chief of Customs, who was off-island on the day that the C.O.C. was issued.

The Kite Runner was caught by police in waters of Savaii and it was discovered that the crew and the boat did not have proper documents and therefore it had entered Samoa illegally. Hours after this, proper papers were issued for the vessel and crew. How was this even possible?

This is not an issue of a meagre breach of border security but a deeper one which highlights the lack of accountability and the possible abuse of power within the government if a proper investigation is carried out.

This is also the issue which led to the unlawful detainment of a Samoa Observer journalist by the Minister for Communications and Information Technology Toelupe Poumulinuku Onesemo in his office for almost two hours.

The minister admitted that the owner of Kite Runner Tish Peau was his cousin when he was questioned by the journalist. This saga just won’t quit yet and it should not until people involved in this are held accountable.

Speaking of accountability, there are question marks on whether the Cabinet has dealt with the minister for his conduct towards the journalist who was only doing her work.

It is just amazing that a vessel which departed its home in an illegal manner, enters Samoan waters illegally and then within a matter of hours gets its paperwork done. It is really hard not to imagine that there were people in power who facilitated this.

And if there was not any involvement by the upper echelons of the government machinery, then why have not the public servants involved in this brought to task.

If anything, this is abuse of power and people need to be held accountable and face the full brunt of the law. This is just one incident that has been brought under the spotlight, there is probability that similar abuse of power has taken place.

An initial investigation was carried out by the Samoa Police but no one has been taken to task.

There are so many loose ends in this Kite Runner fiasco, which needs to be unpacked in order for the country to address any security lapse in the State’s security apparatus, which got exposed in this saga.

Key questions include what role did Cabinet Ministers have exactly in the processing of paperwork that enabled the Kite Runner to continue on its way to Savai’i?

Why did officials on the ground organise the paperwork for a vessel that had already breached Samoa’s immigration laws and should have been seized and its crew detained?

Following the incident Prime Minister Fiame Naomi Mataafa held a press conference and mentioned that the crew of this boat should have been detained.

And how can Samoa and its people be assured that how this matter was handled by local Samoan authorities will not set a precedent for the future that will make our maritime borders more vulnerable, for example, to elements of an international crime syndicate?

The Samoa Observer in a previous editorial has backed the call for a Commission of Inquiry into the events surrounding the illegal entry of the Kite Runner.

The Commission of Inquiry will make sense and is logical for the Government to undertake in order to identify what needs to be rectified in the system and hold people accountable for what appears to be abuse of power by those involved in this controversy.

Some things are forgotten when kept out of sight and discussions, this is not one of those. This is a matter which demands answers and the authorities have a duty to explain this to the people.

After all, we live in a democracy.