Police raid on Solomon Islands PM's office fuels bitter row

HONIARA - A police raid on the Solomon Islands Prime Minister's office has plunged the shaky Pacific nation into political chaos on the eve of a critical regional meeting.

Police yesterday executed a search warrant on Manasseh Sogavare's office as part of an investigation into how Australian fugitive Julian Moti was smuggled into the Solomons from Papua New Guinea. Officers from the Australian-led intervention force Ramsi also took part.

Mr Sogavare's Government, meanwhile, moved to sack the Australian who heads the country's police force.

The developments unfolded as regional leaders, including Prime Minister Helen Clark, prepared to meet at the Pacific Forum in Fiji, where the unstable situation in the Solomons and other island nations is expected to be high on the agenda.

Mr Sogavare was on his way to the forum yesterday.

A Solomons police spokesman said the search related to the ongoing investigation into the role of Immigration Minister Peter Shanel in Moti's arrival.

Shanel faced court yesterday on charges including perverting the course of justice.

The Solomons police commissioner, Australian Shane Castles, has accused Shanel of lying about an order that allowed Moti to enter the Solomons without a valid passport.

Mr Sogavare, who is Moti's close friend, has refused demands to give him up so he can face child sex charges allegedly involving a 13-year-old girl in Vanuatu in 1997.

Moti was arrested in Papua New Guinea at Australia's request, but he skipped bail and fled to the Solomons, where he was arrested on illegal entry charges.

As the search warrant on Mr Sogavare's office was being executed, it emerged that the Solomons Government had notified the Australian High Commission that Mr Castle was no longer wanted as police chief.

The row over Moti - an Australian lawyer appointed and then suspended as the Solomons attorney-general - has left relations in tatters. Mr Sogavare insists Canberra is pursuing him for political reasons.

- AAP