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Soldiers and police from New Zealand and Australia are expected to fly to Nuku'alofa this morning to help restore peace to Tonga after rioting that left six people dead.
Prime Minister Helen Clark and her Australian counterpart, John Howard, held a media conference in Hanoi early this morning NZT, to announce details of the peace peace mission.
Helen Clark said about 60 New Zealand defence personnel would help provide security at Nuku'alofa's airport, while eight to 10 New Zealand police would provide security at the New Zealand High Commission.
It's understood an RNZAF Hercules carrying the NZ contingent was due to leave Whenuapai at 8am today.
Some 50 Australian military personnel and 35 Federal police - including forensic experts - are also being deployed.
A spokesman for Tongan Prime Minister Feleti Sevele earlier said his Government had approved Australian and New Zealand troops and police to fly to the kingdom to help ensure security for key national infrastructure.
The requests for help from Australia and NZ were "to ensure peace and security" was maintained and "an acknowledgment our security apparatus is ... short of manpower", spokesman Lopeti Senituli said.
New Zealand is expected to lead the force because its relationship with Polynesia is stronger than Australia's.
The six victims of rioting were killed in Nuku'alofa when they were trapped by an explosion inside a building they were trying to torch.
More than half the central city was destroyed by rampaging drunken youths who set buildings on fire, broke windows and stole liquor.
The downtown district was left a disaster zone of razed buildings, twisted metal and upturned vehicles.
Helen Clark said last night that the riots were "very grave and very distressing".
NZ Defence Minister Phil Goff told reporters at the Apec summit in Hanoi the Tongan Defence Force had been on the streets of Nuku'alofa yesterday "asserting its authority".
The uprising followed angry protests by pro-democracy supporters outside the Prime Minister's offices despite an agreement by the Cabinet that day to meet their demands.
The Chinese Embassy says it is trying to protect hundreds of people after 30 Chinese-owned stores were hit in the riots.
"More than 25 per cent of Chinese stores were looted or burned, causing big losses to the owners," said Ambassador Hu Yeshun.
The Tonga Now news agency said: "Chinese stores were smashed and empty, save for mobs to carry booty of everything from toilet paper to boxes of chicken."
New Zealand's High Commissioner, Michael McBryde, told the Weekend Herald from Nuku'alofa yesterday he had heard from police that six rioters died after being trapped by an explosion inside a building to which they were setting fire.
He understood the building was the Molisi supermarket owned by the family of the Prime Minister.
Apart from the deaths, the hospital in Nuku'alofa had reported only five cases of minor burns.
Dr McBryde said the centre of Nuku'alofa was under military guard yesterday and was "completely quiet".
"It's like a Sunday afternoon magnified - there's absolutely no traffic or pedestrians. They have the centre of the city district so thoroughly locked down that nobody comes in."
On Thursday afternoon the view from the high commission had been of a "seething mass of humanity".
"The thin grey line of police was hopelessly outnumbered."
Dr McBryde said the crowd had suddenly turned ugly and rocks, branches and clods of earth were thrown at the Prime Minister's offices before smaller groups set off through the main streets of Nuku'alofa, setting fire to buildings of people they saw as enemies, including Chinese shopkeepers.
"The fire quickly spread to adjacent buildings ... Entire blocks were on fire end to end," said Dr McBryde.
"It was a scary spectacle. When we looked out the window of the high commission as it was getting dark there were fires in both directions."
Dr McBryde said the uprising took everyone by surprise.
Protesters had been peacefully meeting at a nearby reserve for about 10 days and had not attracted much attention.
But the crowd had swelled and its behaviour quickly got out of hand, the aggression fuelled by alcohol.
Dr McBryde described the Tongan Government as coming out of a state of shock.
During the earlier dirt throwing, but before the riots, the Cabinet had agreed to a new political structure where 21 MPs - instead of nine - would be elected by the people and nine nobles would continue to be elected by the nobles.
The changes would take effect in the 2008 election, sooner than the Government had proposed.
Dr Sevele wanted 14 MPs to be elected by the people, and the National Committee on Political Reform had recommended 17. Another group, headed by outspoken MP 'Akilisi Pohiva, wanted 21.
"There was not a huge gulf between those positions ... hardly something you burn half a city to make your point about," Dr McBryde said.
It would take years for Nuku'alofa to recover from the destruction.
Destroyed buildings included the Pacific Royal Hotel, owned by two Indian brothers who were business partners of King Siaosi Tupou V who has not yet made any public statements on the uprising.
The hotel fire had spread to destroy a new cinema building.
A shopping arcade, two supermarkets, and two restaurants were destroyed, and two department stores were damaged by fire and looted.
Lopeti Senituli, political adviser to Dr Sevele, said Nuku'alofa resembled a war zone and would remain cordoned off.
The priority now was to restore peace and normality.
Mr Senituli said dozens of arrests had been made.
"From what I have heard the prisons are virtually full."
He said there was a sense of deep anguish and disbelief at what had happened.
People were amazed at the behaviour of those they thought they knew as the crowd mentality took over.
