Slain diplomat had three security guards

11.45am

Existing security precautions should have been enough to prevent the killing of diplomat Bridget Nichols in the Solomon Islands yesterday, the New Zealand high commissioner to that country says.

Ms Nichols, 50, the deputy high commissioner, died after being stabbed in the chest with a knife. She had been in the driveway outside her house when she was attacked, and should have been safe there, high commissioner Heather Riddell said today.

"We have 24-hour security on all the homes of high commission staff, usually at least three guards on at any one time," she told National Radio today.

"We would have expected that security to have sufficed."

Solomon Islands police have held two of those security guards for questioning. Honiara police Superintendent Charles Lemoa said they had not been arrested and were not being treated as suspects.

Ms Riddell said the high commission would now be putting heightened security precautions in place.

"The situation in the Solomons has been somewhat turbulent," she said

"There has been no violence or threats involving NZ High Commission staff, and this is the first incident of such a threat ... All we know is that Bridget received a knife wound to her chest and she died later of that wound. We don't have any further details: it's not clear what actually happened.

"It's been a very big shock and a very sad event. We're very saddened by the death of Bridget."

Ms Riddell said she had been in contact with Ms Nichols' family, who are English. Ms Nichols' body would be returned to New Zealand.

Prime Minister Helen Clark told NZPA last night the killing was "very, very tragic".

"We do our best to protect. But as of tonight the Solomon Islands police were putting on extra patrols around the homes."

The New Zealand peace monitoring team stationed in the area would also be offering support and staying with High Commission staff. These included police officers.

Miss Clark and Foreign Affairs Minister Phil Goff said they had both met Ms Nichols once when she was serving with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade in Turkey.

Ms Nichols had been in the Solomons for just one month with MFAT, but had been to the islands before with Volunteer Service Abroad in 1989-1991. She had been working with the ministry for about 10 years and had last served in its legal division.

Ms Nichols was part of a team investigating law and order in the Solomons and preparing a report which recommends greater New Zealand involvement in assisting the Solomons police force.

"The key requirement in the Solomon Islands, if the country is to get back to some sort of social and economic stability, is to do more in the area of law and order," Mr Goff told National Radio today.

"Not to do it for them, but provide assistance working alongside the Solomon Islands police force."

He had received the report last week and various options were being worked through, Mr Goff said.

"Tragically, this incident highlights the degree of problem which exists in the Solomon Islands," Mr Goff said.

"We can help, but it does require the absolute determination and political will of the Solomon Islands government if we're to be able to turn that terrible situation around."

The New Zealand Government advises citizens not to travel to the Solomon Islands, which has been wracked by racial violence. A three-year civil war was now officially under a truce, but has recently seen an escalation of violence.

On February 11, a New Zealand construction worker was stabbed to death.

Ms Nichols is only the second New Zealand diplomat killed on the job; the country's high commissioner to Niue, Hector Larsen, was hacked to death in 1953.

- NZPA