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Why the Pacific nations must all pitch in to help in the Solomon Islands

By Rabbie Namaliu - posted Friday, 1 August 2003


The Solomon Islands is our neighbour. We have a common sea border, and shared membership of the Melanesian Spearhead Group, The Pacific Islands Forum, the Commonwealth and the United Nations. We enjoy excellent relations, and we have a strong interest in the stability, democracy and economic growth of our neighbour - an interest a good neighbour always should hold.

The genesis of the current position is to be found in the formation of a group calling itself the Guadalcanal Revolutionary Army (GRA) in 1998. The group began challenging the authority of the Solomon Islands government.

At the same time the Guadalcanal Provincial government made demands on the national government relating to the sale of customary land, stopping the migration of people from other Islands to Guadalcanal, and, moving the capital, Honiara, away from the province.

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The group acquired from sources that have not been fully identified a large quantity of weapons, and raided police posts seizing guns and ammunition.

It caused disturbances, and targeted people from the Malaita Province, resulting in some 20,000 Malaitas being displaced from their homes and jobs, and forced to move back to their home province. A group of displaced Malaitas, who lost their property as a result of the ethnic tensions formed another militant group, the Malaita Eagle Force. The group also acquired weapons and began attacking the Guadalcanal Group in early 2000.

The law and order and security position, and the Solomons' economy rapidly deteriorated as a result of these ethnic tensions, violence and organised criminal activity.

In June 2000, the democratically elected government, led by the then Prime Minister, Bartholomew Ulufa'alu, was overthrown, and an undemocratic situation continued until national elections in December 2001. These elections were monitored by a Forum Observer Group, including Justice Catherine Davani of the National Court of Papua New Guinea.

Since 2000, there have been a number of attempts to address the problems, including the following specific initiatives:

  • There was an unsuccessful mediation attempt in early 2000 including the involvement of a special envoy of the Commonwealth.
  • A visit by an International Peace Monitoring Team to oversee weapons disposal in June 2000.
  • In October 2000, the Townsville Peace Agreement between the government, and the groups from Guadalcanal and Malaita was signed.
  • At the initiative of the Pacific Islands Forum, three eminent persons from Forum countries visited the Solomons last year to assess the position and reported back to the 2002 Pacific Islands Forum Meeting.
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Despite these initiatives, the law and order position continued to deteriorate, including the killing of innocent people by rebel elements; major foreign owned enterprises closing down; the economy effectively collapsing; and the government reaching a desperate fiscal position.

In April this year the elected Prime Minister of the Solomon Islands, Sir Allan Kemakeza, wrote to the Australian Prime Minister seeking assistance to address the critical, deteriorating position.

The two Prime Ministers met in Canberra in May, resulting in the Australian government changing its long-standing policy not to intervene in the internal affairs of regional nations.

As a result, the Australian and New Zealand governments sent a "scoping mission" to the Solomon Islands from 10 to 13 June to determine the extent of the problems facing the country, and its government.

Earlier, the Solomon Islands' Prime Minister verbally requested Papua New Guinea's assistance when he met with the Prime Minister, Sir Michael Somare, during the Pacific Leaders Meeting in Japan in May. A formal written request was received in June.

A Regional Response

Following the assessment of the report of the scoping mission, the Forum Secretariat in close consultation with the governments of the Solomon Islands, Australia and New Zealand convened a Forum Foreign Ministers Meeting in Sydney on Monday, 30 June.

The objective of the meeting was to agree on a regional response to assist the government of the Solomon Islands address a situation which was well beyond its capacity to resolve on its own.

The Pacific Island Forum Foreign Ministers, including myself, unanimously agreed that the region needed to take immediate steps to assist the democratically elected government of the Solomons, and the long-suffering citizens of the country. It was agreed the most urgent need was to assist restore law and order, and end the tragic loss of life and suffering of the people as a result of organised, brutal lawlessness.

There was also agreement that follow-up and substantial assistance would be needed to re-build the institutions of government, such as the police, the judiciary, the prison system and basic health services. This assistance will need to include the restoration of economic stability, and sound financial management.

The meeting agreed a regional force needed to be assembled to address the immediate law and order and internal security issues.

The force will be co-ordinated by, and led by, Australia. New Zealand, Fiji, Tonga and Papua New Guinea have agreed to contribute to what must be a genuine regional effort with police and defence force personnel. Other countries may join at a later stage.

A Task Force consisting of all participating member countries is being assembled to manage arrangements for the deployment of the police and defence personnel. Papua New Guinea will become a member of the Task Force when our participation is confirmed.

Papua New Guinea's Participation

The Papua New Guinea government has decided to participate in the regional law and order response by providing both police and defence force personnel.

At this stage it has been agreed that we will contribute forty police force personnel, and an estimated 44 defence force personnel. While the task of the police force personnel is clear, that of the defence force personnel is still being discussed with Australia, and the Solomons.

Our existing legislation does not permit the deployment of police personnel to operate outside Papua New Guinea. The House will be asked to approve legislation this week, endorsed by NEC, to facilitate the deployment of police force members to the Solomons initiative.

The deployment of defence force personnel is permitted by the legislation initially passed when a former government sent our defence force to Vanuatu, at the request of the government of Father Walter Lini, to put down a rebellion at the time of Independence. This legislation remains in operation.

The government strongly supports the regional initiative, which began with requests to member countries by the government of the Solomon Islands. We are awaiting the approval of the Solomon Islands Parliament, now is session. The approval will include necessary legal and other protection for regional police and defence force personnel.

We acknowledge the enormous financial commitment being made by the Australian government, as well as the commitment of Australian police and defence force personnel who will provide leadership for the regional force being assembled.

Australia has already increased its aid commitment to the Solomon Islands, and will be meeting the full cost of our commitment, and that of other island nations.

Australia has been strongly supported by New Zealand, and I thank both governments for their commitment, and for working with the Forum, and the Solomons government to ensure maximum regional participation.

It is vital that this be a regional initiative. The greater the contribution by island nations, such as Papua New Guinea, Fiji and Tonga, the better.

It must also have a strong law and order focus. That is why the greatest possible involvement of police force personnel is vital. The role of defence force members from Australia, New Zealand, and other nations, including Papua New Guinea, needs to be planned and managed with great care.

The regional response is entirely consistent with the Biketawa Declaration of Forum Members, which, among other provisions, endorsed the kind of response we have made to a request from the democratic government of a member country. That is why the force will not be formalised until the invitation by the Solomon Islands government is endorsed by the Solomon Islands Parliament.

Significantly, the Forum Foreign Ministers Meeting stressed that any such initiative in the future must be addressed, collectively, by regional member countries, and not by any one country, or small group of countries.

I was particularly keen to ensure the forum process became central to any future requests, and forum nations unanimously endorsed this requirement.

The Pacific Islands Forum, often unfairly criticised in the past, has demonstrated it has an important regional role to play. Our region will be stronger and more secure as it does so.

Despite evidence that the worst elements in the Solomon Islands are talking about peace, it cannot be assumed the regional force will not encounter danger when it is deployed. The situation has been dangerous for some years, and previous peace agreements and peace efforts have been less than successful.

In committing our police and defence force personnel we have been mindful of the dangers involved. We are confident, however, their training and discipline will serve them well, and ensure our contribution is a positive and welcome one.

When they leave, probably before the end of the month, they will do so with our prayers and our support.

The road to recovery for the Solomon Islands will be a long and difficult one. But it must be undertaken because the alternative is the likely break up of the nation, and even worse lawlessness and social and economic hardship.

That would also be against our national interest. We want our close neighbour and friend to return to peace and national unity, and economic stability.

Our government is very much aware of the need to ensure that the arrival of the regional force, and its law and order measures, do not lead to any of the problems being transferred to Papua New Guinea, and to Bougainville in particular.

The peace process on Bougainville, including the weapons disposal programme, is vital. We must not allow any aspect of our neighbour's problem to be transferred to Papua New Guinea.

The events outlined above provide the strongest possible justification for the establishment of a regional peace keeping force, initially proposed some years ago by Sir Julius Chan, and my own proposal for a rapid response natural disaster unit drawn from forum nations.

It has taken between two and three months to fully assemble the regional Solomons response unit. The initial request was made in May, and the team took until late July to be in place. In the future, that amount of time might not be available. It certainly would not be available in the case of a natural disaster in a member country.

The case for a permanent, or readily available, peace keeping and disaster relief response capacity is strong, and most certainly re-enforced by the events in the Solomon Islands, and the response now being developed.

In conclusion, the deployment of our police and defence force personnel as part of a regional initiative is overwhelmingly in the national interest, and most certainly in the best interests of our neighbour and friend - the Solomon Islands.

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Article edited by Jenny Ostini.
If you'd like to be a volunteer editor too, click here.

This article is an extract of an address to the Papua New Guinea National Parliament.



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About the Author

Rt Hon Sir Rabbie Namaliu, KCMG MP is the Papua New Guinea Minister for Foreign Affairs and Immigration.

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