Fiji police believe that Aukuso, who was from Tokelau, died of self-inflicted wounds at his home on Thursday, and was only found when he failed to turn up to work.
“This will be a great loss for us,” Rodgers told Pacnews here in Nuku’alofa, Tonga.
“He has been a champion for small islands states,” he said. “He is a very cultural, friendly oriented person. So he brings in a cultural diversity to the executives of the SPC.”
Rodgers said it would be very hard to replace the late Aukuso, given his tremendous contribution to the region.
“The replacement of someone who had a good clear vision of developing the Pacific, small island countries are going to be a difficult one for us to replace,” he said. “He’s only been with us for about two years, already his contribution to the region and the organization was very substantial in that short period. It’s a very sad loss for us and also for the region.”
Rodgers said the appointment of the next deputy director general would be known later this year or the beginning of next year
“Normally our advertisement takes about 2- 3 months. So if we lucky, we will probably be looking at later this year, beginning of next year,” he said.
Aukuso served as Tokelau’s director of education from 1990 to 1994 before working as a diplomatic officer with New Zealand’s Ministry of External Relations and Trade.
He returned to Tokelau to become head of the office of Faipule, the island groups cabinet in 2004, before he was appointed deputy director general for SPC.
