NZer to keep a hand on mission

By HELEN TUNNAH

New Zealand will send a top civil servant to take a senior role in Australian-led attempts to restore law and order in the ailing Solomon Islands.

Australia has already appointed its ambassador for counter-terrorism, Nick Warner, to co-ordinate the police and military tactics to disarm rival criminal gangs and bring order to the islands.

Foreign Affairs Minister Phil Goff is expected to name the New Zealander who will be Mr Warner's deputy very soon, amid some anxiety that no appointment has been made as the military deployment begins.

The likely appointee is the Ministry of Defence's director of strategic reviews, Peter Noble. He served in a peace monitoring team in the Solomons three years ago.

The appointment is seen as critical to the political success of the sensitive intervention, which involves more than 2000 troops and police from Australia, New Zealand and other South Pacific nations.

Although for diplomatic reasons the Solomon Islands Government appears to have full authority, the reality is that Mr Warner will wield considerable influence.

Exactly what his role will be and whom he will need to consult remains unclear.

Mr Warner is a former Australian High Commissioner to Papua New Guinea, and has worked in the Middle East. He was appointed counter-terrorism ambassador in March.

New Zealand is understood to be anxious to install a deputy, partly because of worries about Australian Prime Minister John Howard's policies towards the Pacific following global security concerns.

He was to meet Prime Minister Helen Clark in Townsville last night, just a day after he publicly questioned the economic viability of many Pacific states and urged greater regional co-operation in some areas, such as policing.

New Zealand is contributing 105 soldiers and 35 police to the deployment, with the first troops flying from Ohakea air base yesterday for Townsville. They leave for Honiara today.

Major General Martyn Dunne, the Joint Forces Commander, said the military command structures were in place.

He told the Herald a Coalition Joint Task Force would be headed by an Australian, with Major Vern Bennett, from Linton, as his deputy.

Air, maritime and land forces would be under the taskforce command, and would include Fiji, Tonga and Papua New Guinea troops.

The air component would be headed by Wing Commander Ron Thacker, from Ohakea, who will direct not only the New Zealand Iroquois helicopters, but also Australian aircraft.

A senior national officer, Wing Commander Shaun Clarke, would be appointed to check that tasks met New Zealand's military interests.

"He has what we say is the 'red card' option," said General Dunne. "He can pull the red card out and say, 'No, that is not something we are going to do'. We don't envisage that happening."

Any deployment carried risks, but there was no comparison between the Solomons mission and the deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan, said General Dunne.

The New Zealand military deployment might last about three months, he said. Australia would assess its commitments after 30 days.