Military plans to hit Solomon Islands thugs hard

By GREG ANSLEY Herald correspondent

CANBERRA - Military planners expect a short, sharp campaign to overcome heavily armed thugs and militiamen who might oppose a Pacific police force sent to bring order to the chaotic Solomon Islands.

"I think we should be able to deal with it relatively quickly, I would think within a couple of months, maybe a couple of weeks," Australian Defence Minister Senator Robert Hill said yesterday.

"But the force that remained after an initial intervention may grow as police move outside the capital of Honiara and further throughout the troubled islands," he said after talks with his New Zealand counterpart, Mark Burton.

Details of the size and composition of the force proposed in response to the Solomons' plea for help - including the scale of New Zealand participation - have still to be determined, and the final go-ahead has yet to be given.

But the pace of planning is accelerating. Talks were held in Canberra yesterday between Mr Burton and Senator Hill, New Zealand Police Minister George Hawkins, Police Commissioner Rob Robinson and Australian and Solomon Island counterparts, and senior transtasman military and defence officials.

Foreign Minister Phil Goff will meet Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer over the weekend, before a Pacific Islands foreign ministers' summit in Sydney on Monday that is expected to approve intervention.

Although Wellington continues to be cautious in its commitment - Mr Burton said Wellington would be "sympathetic" to a request for help from Honiara - Australia has no doubts of New Zealand participation.

"We need to keep working with New Zealand, of course, because New Zealand's very enthusiastic to be part of this process and we enormously appreciate that," Mr Downer said.

Last night, Mr Downer told ABC radio that up to 2000 military personnel could go to the Solomons.

Of 200 police, 150 would come from Australia, and the other 50 from the rest of the Pacific.

They would be supported by 200 infantry soldiers.

The balance would be made up of support troops, including the crews of naval ships and logistics staff.

They will help restore order for a Government that has lost control of the country and has become hostage to corruption and intimidation.

But New Zealand and Australia will not move without a specific request from the Solomons Government, a supporting resolution in the Parliament, and legislation to legalise the presence of foreign police and soldiers.

Both countries also want the backing of other Pacific nations - preferably with a police or military commitment from countries such as Papua New Guinea and Fiji.

The legal and political processes yet to be finalised mean a final decision to send an international force is almost certainly still some time away.

Mr Burton and Senator Hill said the proposed operation was a police action rather than a military campaign, and that the combat commitment would be limited.

Senator Hill said a police, rather than military, response was needed to the breakdown of law and order on the islands, but because of the weapons held by those likely to oppose the police, and their history of violence, Army protection was needed.