Peace mission starts with wedding

The first contingent of New Zealand troops has set up camp just outside the Solomon Islands capital, Honiara, as others including a hastily married soldier prepare to deploy.

Corporal Gregg Fagg married Elizabeth Mitchell in Dunedin yesterday after he learned he would be flying to the Solomon Islands early next week to serve as part of the Australian-led intervention force.

The wedding took place in the Dunedin courthouse.

The couple had been planning to marry next year, but decided to fast-track it on Monday night after Corporal Fagg learned that his Solomons deployment might stretch to six months.

The Army has given him three days' leave so he and Mrs Fagg can experience a taste of married life.

Corporal Fagg, who has served in East Timor and Bougainville, said the tough part would be saying goodbye to his new wife. "I'll just write lots of letters."

Meanwhile, the streets of Honiara were last night calm but full of curious locals out to catch a glimpse of the first foreign troops to land on the island, said New Zealand's High Commissioner, Heather Riddell.

Ms Riddell said that so far the first wave of 16 New Zealand troops had kept to themselves in an area just outside of Honiara.

More visible in the capital was a large contingent of foreign media.

She said that a 10-strong contingent of police, strengthened by the arrival of two more officers on Thursday, had been in the Solomons for months providing on-the-job training to local police.

A total of 35 New Zealand police officers are expected in the Solomons within three weeks.

The New Zealand forces are also set to be bolstered further over the weekend as the first of eight flights from Ohakea Air Base take more troops, machinery and supplies to Australia and on to Honiara.

Australia's senior policeman in the Solomons said yesterday that militant rebels were rapidly losing power following the arrival of the regional intervention force.

Ben McDavitt said the destruction of 25 weapons signified a change in the balance of power which would swing quite rapidly towards law-abiding citizens.

A local police officer was stabbed yesterday as he tried to break up a fight among suspected militants.

- NZPA, REUTERS