NZ set to reduce troop numbers in Solomons

4.00pm - By IAN LLEWELLYN

New Zealand is set to reduce its military commitment to the Solomon Islands despite lingering concerns that the strife-torn islands could easily slip into chaos again.

Cabinet will decide tomorrow how many troops should remain as part of Regional Assistance Mission Solomon Islands (RAMSI) after a successful year that has seen militia disarmed and many murderous warlords put behind bars.

A year ago an Australian led peace-keeping force arrived in the Solomons to disarm militia and criminals and sort out a police force that had become dominated by gangsters holding the government to ransom.

Since then thousands have been arrested and many more thousands of guns have been seized or handed in. Not one shot was fired in anger and many of the leading warlords are now awaiting trial charged with murder.

There is peace in the capital Honiara, but locals fear that strife and violence is just below the surface and want the soldiers to remain.

Both New Zealand and Australia have said they are in for the long haul.

Police, aid workers and others are set to be in the Solomons for months if not years as the Solomons deals with the crimes of the past, rebuilds a battered infrastructure and restores the rule of law.

Australia recently decided to drastically reduce its military commitment. Once where there were 1600 soldiers ready to fight, soon there will be 100.

New Zealand committed 120 troops and two helicopters and Cabinet is certain to reduce that tomorrow.

Defence Minister Mark Burton said that New Zealand is likely to maintain a presence of some sort for years - the Solomon Islands is New Zealand's single largest aid beneficiary - but there appears to be little need for armed troops to remain.

"There is no doubt that there are still issues there, but we have a much higher level of confidence now than a year ago that order will be maintained," Mr Burtoon said.

Foreign Minister Phil Goff grabbed the front pages of the Solomon Island papers recently when he mused that there was little need for New Zealand troops to remain.

Some Solomon Islanders live in fear that when the troops go, those with vendettas will rise to the surface again.

"Lots a bad people in jail, lots a bad people hiding in hills. They go, who knows who come back," one local said

The military bosses in the Solomons are confident that the strife is under control.

"There is no militant threat in the Solomons islands, because there is no one to coordinate it, no support base. We have done a fantastic job getting ride of the facilitators -- the top may still be there and their supporters but no on in the middle," one senior Australian officer told NZPA.

The head of RAMSI Nick Warner agrees:"It is now a different type of problem. We were dealing with four or five militant groups people with high powered weapons who could use them --- a couple of hundred people killed in the conflicts --- removing those weapons, arresting those individuals was a potentially dangerous thing to do."

That was easy in some ways but now comes sorting out the real problems, land ownership, unemployment and faith in the government.

These problems can not be sorted out by New Zealand, they take local solutions, Mr Warner said.

All New Zealand and Australia can do is form a base and it could take a while.

"It is going to take a long time to end up with a a professional and disciplined police force and we can't leave until such a police force has been established," Mr Warner said.

Locals spoken to by NZPA are more worried about the problems than the solutions.

They fear a return to the old arguments over land and jobs bubbling back to the surface. Old and new vendettas are never far away either.

Many of the problems arose when Malaitan arrived in Guadalcanal and more specifically Honiara to seek work.

They also wanted land and slowly the locals found themselves sidelined by the hard working Malaitans.

As a result the Guadalcanal militants rose to persecute the Malaitans. The Malaitans in turn formed their own militia and ultimately launched the coup that toppled the Government in 2000.

Since then and until the arrival of the Regional Assistance Mission Solomon Islands arrived in July 2000 there was a series of atrocities, assassinations and persecutions.

The Solomon Island police became little more than another criminal gang. There has been a huge cull of corrupt officers but few believe it is credible force yet.

Many fear the end of RAMSI would bring a wave of violence to equal that of the past.

"Until Keke (one of the Guadalcanal warlords) is put away for the rest of his life, there will be danger for me and my family," One Malaitan woman said.

"I hope they (the police and military)can go in a year, but not until then. Now I can work and sell my goods now, I couldn't a year ago.

"Life is still hard, but it is better than it was."

- NZPA