Solomons villagers beheaded

HONIARA - Accounts of a fresh atrocity have emerged from Solomon Islands as Australia tries to widen participation in a peacekeeping force for the lawless nation.

Survivors say that followers of notorious warlord Harold Keke tortured then beheaded at least three men and razed a village on the Weathercoast south of the capital, Honiara.

Augustine Manakako, a former senior Government official, said every house in Marasa, a village of about 500 people, was burned to the ground.

"It was on a Sunday afternoon ... when the militants came, grabbed three men and took them to the beach, took their clothes off and started parading them in front of the rest of the villagers," Manakako said.

"Bit by bit they broke their bones and finally cut their necks off."

Manakako said he and hundreds of other villagers fled after the attack and trekked 50km to refugee camps outside Honiara.

Those who stayed had nothing but water contaminated by human waste to drink, he said.

"People are left with nothing ... the only thing that is left is the clothes they were wearing when the militants came through."

Manakako said villagers feared Keke's forces would use them as human shields to block any advance of the Anzac-led force.

News of the attack comes as Australia has approached France to discuss the possibility of participation in a multinational peacekeeping force.

New Zealand and Australia plan to lead about 2000 troops and police to restore order to the Solomons.

A spokeswoman for Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said: "Some preliminary discussions have taken place. No decision has been made."

France has sizeable forces in its two South Pacific territories, New Caledonia and French Polynesia. Officials in Paris did not rule out joining the intervention force.

Australia was also seeking French help in winning some financial contribution from the European Union towards what would be the biggest military deployment in the South Pacific since World War II.

The planned police and troop deployment, likely to take place by the end of next month once the Solomon Islands' Parliament has authorised it, marks a shift in Australia's previously hands-off policy to its immediate neighbourhood.

Phillip Walker, Australian Red Cross regional co-ordinator for the Pacific, said there were 991 internally displaced people, including 191 families, in camps outside Honiara.

Aid agencies were providing food and shelter but medical treatment stopped when hospital staff and health department workers, who have not been paid since September, went on strike.

New Zealand and Australia have said Keke, a mysterious figure who rose to prominence after a 2000 coup, would have to be dealt with by the intervention force.

Keke refused to sign an Australian-brokered peace deal that stemmed some of the violence between rival ethnic militias from Guadalcanal and neighbouring Malaita islands.

Leader of the Guadalcanal Liberation Front, Keke is accused of killing dozens of people, including Government minister Father Augustine Geve last year.

His militia began fighting Malaitan rivals in 1998 in land disputes around Honiara. Hundreds died in the fighting and 30,000 people were driven from their homes.

Armed gangs roam Honiara's streets at will. Prime Minister Allan Kemakeza's Cabinet has to meet in hiding and militants have used his residence for target practice.

- REUTERS