Goff, Downer consider troops for Solomons

By IAN LLEWELLYN

New Zealand would be justified in sending armed forces to the Solomon Islands because lawlessness extends to the police force, Foreign Affairs Minister Phil Goff said yesterday.

Officials fly to the Solomon Islands tomorrow to join their Australian counterparts in assessing the crisis in the islands before the governments decide whether to send armed forces to try to restore law and order.

Mr Goff said the Government wanted to be sure there was strong support for the move both in the Solomon Islands and the wider Pacific.

"We would want to make sure that there is support for the higher level of engagement ... that this is not simply a case of two countries at the bottom of the south Pacific imposing their views on another country," Mr Goff said.

By any measure, the collapse of law and order on the Solomons was serious, but restoring the rule of law would need the support of local people, he said.

"Three years ago it was a case of ethnic conflict [in the Solomon Islands]. It has ceased to be that and it has become very much a criminal operation with those criminals infiltrated in quite high positions within the Solomon Islands' police force," Mr Goff said.

Just recently the police had demanded that the Finance Minister go to the bank and pay "compensation" to police.

"The rule of law is not upheld by senior police officers and the [Solomons] Government is unable to operate without intimidation and extortion by armed former militants and other criminal elements," he said.

Sending troops is regarded as a last resort and would almost certainly involve discussions with other members of the Pacific Islands Forum under the Biketawa Declaration, which lays down the rules for dealing with such events.

Intervention would also require a specific invitation and the support of the Solomons Government.

Disintegration began in 1998 when the tiny nation was torn apart by ethnic violence sparked by anger on Guadalcanal at the loss of land to migrants, mainly from the island of Malaita.

Two peace accords, one brokered by Commonwealth special envoy Sitiveni Rabuka in 1999 and another in Townsville in 2000, failed to end the crisis and war between Guadalcanal's Isatabu Freedom Movement and the Malaita Eagle Force.

This February the former Police Commissioner and National Peace Councillor Sir Fred Soaki was assassinated and Australian Seventh Day Adventist missionary Lance Gersbach was beheaded last month.

nteThe Australian delegation will include officials from Defence, the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Australian Federal Police and AusAid.

A spokesman for Australian Foreign Affairs Minister Alexander Downer said the group would spend three days listening to the Solomons.

The Government would then make a decision on what help Australia, and New Zealand, could provide.

The inclusion of police and defence representatives suggests the Government will seriously consider requests for direct intervention in the country.

"The fact there is a spot there for Defence shows the government is going to listen to all requests," Mr Downer's spokesman said.

- NZPA