Hercules heads for Solomons after breakdown delays flight

11.45am

An Air Force Hercules transport aircraft which broke down as it was about to leave for the Solomons Islands got off the ground shortly before daylight today.

It left Ohakea airbase near Palmerston North shortly after 6am laden with troops and equipment as part of New Zealand's contribution to the Australian-led peacekeeping force to the troubled Pacific nation.

New Zealand is sending 35 police and 105 military staff to be part of the intervention force.

A second Hercules aircraft which has also broken down in the last few days is expected to be back in the air tomorrow on the seven-hour supply run to the Solomons.

The aircraft are landing at Henderson Field near Honiara on the main island of Guadalcanal.

New Zealand has a long association with Henderson Field. During World War 2 the air force's No 3 Squadron was based there with Hudson reconnaissance bombers.

No 3 squadron is returning as part of the latest peacekeeping force but this time is equipped with four Iroquois helicopters.

Henderson Field was built by the Japanese invading forces and named after Major Lofton Henderson, an American marine pilot killed at the Battle of Midway.

Henderson Field soon became known as the "Cactus Air Force". Cactus was the Allied code name for the island of Guadalcanal. More than seven thousand Solomon Islanders, Americans, New Zealanders, Fijians and Australians died during World War 2 fighting for Henderson Field and Guadalcanal.

NZ Foreign Minister Phil Goff yesterday visited the New Zealand police and military who are part of a 2225-strong Australian-led peacekeeping force trying to restore law and order in the Solomons.

At meetings with Prime Minister Sir Allan Kemakeza and his cabinet yesterday, Mr Goff stressed New Zealand was trying to give the Solomons the chance to solve its own problems.

He warned it was too early for optimism that the woes of the strife-torn nation would be quickly cured.

The intervention force is said to have quickly restored law and order around the capital since arriving last week.

A 21-day amnesty for the return of weapons held by militias has been declared, and has resulted in high-powered weapons being handed in.

Sir Allan has come out of hiding and no longer lives in fear of his life.

But Mr Goff told NZPA he remained wary. It was too soon to say how long the intervention force might have to remain.

"All you can say at the end of the first week is that there are strong grounds for optimism," he said.

"My greatest concern is the level of expectations that could be raised and the potential of people to think somebody could come from the outside and solve their problems."

The multi-national intervention force was the result of pleas for help to end years of fighting and a breakdown of Government services in the near-bankrupt country.

Hundreds have died in fighting between ethnic militia from Malaita and Guadalcanal islands over land disputes.

The Solomons are teetering on the brink of bankruptcy after years of extortion by armed gangs.

The intervention force is the largest military deployment in the South Pacific since World War 2.

Today, Mr Goff will met intervention force co-ordinator Nick Warner, the Solomon Islands government task force and the police commissioner.

He will also talk to the civil society network, opposition leader John Garo, judges, and members of Australian and New Zealand expatriate communities.

- NZPA