Posted on 06/25/2003 10:23:32 PM PDT by Brian_Baldwin
More than 200 refugees were sheltering at Tamboko Village just outside Honiara, the capital of this Pacific island nation about 1,000 km east of Papua New Guinea, Red Cross coordinator Rex Para told.
Hundreds more refugees were expected to arrive over the weekend, Para said.
The refugees were making the three-day trek through rugged territory to flee armed supporters of warlord Harold Keke, who razed two villages in the remote Marasa district on the Solomons' main island, Guadalcanal.
Keke, wanted for a series of murders, attacked the villages because he believed some inhabitants were informing police of his activities, said Police Assistant Commissioner Wilfred Akao.
Authorities have received reports of villages being burned, and of Keke's militants lining up to 1,200 villagers along beaches as human shields, Akao said.
"They kept villagers at gunpoint on the beaches" to keep police from landing on a 30-km stretch of coast, he said.
Australia plans to send a 400-strong peacekeeping force to the Solomon Islands in its first unilateral mission to impose law and order in the Pacific region.
The deployment, agreed yesterday by the government, will comprise a police contingent supported by an army unit. The Solomons, once known in the South Pacific as the "happy isles", have been shattered by civil unrest and violence.
John Howard, the Australian prime minister, said that if his country did not intervene the islands were in danger of becoming the region's first "failed state", making them a target for international drug deals, money launderers and terrorist groups.
"We will pay dearly for our indifference if we adopt that course now," he said.
In Australia this month, Sir Allan Kemakeza, the prime minister of the Solomon Islands, made a plea for a peacekeeping force to be sent to his country, now one of the poorest nations on earth.
Over the past five years hundreds of people have been killed in fighting between militia from Guadalcanal and Malaita islands.
A coup in 2000 destroyed much of the capital, Honiara. Today, the country is virtually bankrupt, unable to pay civil servants, teachers and the police, or electricity and fuel bills.
While the force's mandate has yet to be defined, an invitation by the Solomon Islands government would suggest that they will be authorised to disarm the militia and impose peace by force.
A new wave of killings has broken out in recent weeks, with victims including an Australian missionary who was beheaded and the country's police commissioner, Sir Fred Soaki, who was shot dead in a restaurant by an off-duty policeman.
The demoralised, poorly equipped police force is currently being led by an officer from Manchester, Chief Commissioner William Morrell, whose salary is being paid by the European Union.
Careful not to alarm its Pacific and Asian neighbours - some of which have expressed concern over Australia's support for the war in Iraq - Canberra has approached both Papua New Guinea and New Zealand to contribute personnel to the mission.
Alexander Downer, the Australian foreign minister, has indicated that a peacekeeping force will be dispatched only with the full backing of the Solomon Islands parliament, which is to meet shortly.
Mr Downer will host a meeting of foreign ministers from Pacific island countries next week to calm fears that Australia plans a neo-colonial takeover.
Analysts said Australia's intervention would demonstrate that the Howard government is prepared to confront the "arc of instability" which takes in Aceh, Bougainville, West Papua and the Solomon Islands.
JOHN Howard's plan to restore peace to the Solomon Islands could cost taxpayers $2 billion over a decade.
Federal government agencies contacted yesterday by The Australian estimate the annual price tag of the rescue plan at close to $150 million.
Details of the wide-ranging strategy to restore the South Pacific nation are being finalised, but they include a commitment to provide substantial financial and technical support throughout the Solomons administration for up to 10 years.
Foreign Minister Alexander Downer yesterday confirmed plans to deploy 2000 police and troops drawn primarily from Australia, but also New Zealand, with the hope other countries in the region, such as Fiji, PNG and even Samoa and Tonga, will also participate.
"We want to find a balance here of making sure that the problem is fixed up, but not fixed up in a way that is going to cause massive diplomatic fallout in the region," Mr Downer said.
Australia hoped to create a sense of "co-operative intervention" that was not "something to recoil from".
"This is something about mates in the Pacific getting together and helping each other out when something really goes wrong," Mr Downer said. He also indicated that while the number of military personnel to be deployed to the Solomons could exceed 1000, there would be only about 200 combat troops.
"The military component will be on the ground for as long as it is needed but for as short as time as possible," one defence official said yesterday, confirming the initial posting of up to 1200 was likely to be for three months.
Added to this will be the cost of holding a warship, most likely HMAS Manoora, offshore at a cost close to $1 million for a three-month deployment.
The cost of posting and supporting up to 300 police alone is estimated to range from $60 million to $120 million.
Solomon Islands authorities have asked that police be placed in positions within the Royal Solomon Islands Police.
These police would protect "key institutions, such as the Finance Ministry, courts and their personnel from intimidation", confidential government documents say.
"A new effort to locate and confiscate illegal weapons would also be launched and the RSIP provided with the resources to 'vigorously' investigate and prosecute criminal offences."
The intervention police officers are likely to be granted the legal right to use lethal force in the course of their duties.
Elements of the local police armed a civilian militia in June 2000 and joined them in a coup that deposed the elected government of prime minister Bart Ulufa'alu.
The ultimate scope of the Solomon plan will have to be approved formally by the islands' authorities. But it is understood the cabinet has already given in-principle approval for the "framework of strengthened assistance" proposed by Mr Howard during his meeting with his Solomon Islands counterpart, Allan Kemakeza, in Canberra earlier this month.
"It will be important to rebuild the essential machinery of government to support stability and the delivery of services," the framework document says.
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