KEY POINTS:
The South Pacific took a hammering in 2006 and next year could turn out to be just as turbulent.
Rioting, gang warfare and a military coup shattered the tourist brochure image of the region as a tranquil holidaymakers' paradise of coconut palms and coral reefs.
The trouble began in April, when the Solomon Islands descended into riots which left parts of Honiara trashed. A month later East Timor erupted into a frenzy of arson and communal hatred. It may not strictly be in the South Pacific but Canberra counts it as part of the "arc of instability" stretching to Australia's north and east.
In Tonga, frustration with the royal family and the slow pace of democratic reform led to arson and riots in November, destroying the business centre of Nuku'alofa.
Fiji's military attracted worldwide condemnation this month when its commander, Frank Bainimarama, announced that he was dismissing the Government in the nation's fourth coup in less than two decades.
The deployment of Australian and New Zealand troops and police to the Solomons, East Timor and Tonga reflected anxiety in Canberra and Wellington about the prospect of failing states in their backyards. But sending in Anzac forces can only be a stop-gap measure. Countries will need to sort out their own problems for long-term stability. Unfortunately none of the crises which arose this year looks close to being resolved.
The riots in the Solomons were fuelled by a perception that cheque-book diplomacy between China and Taiwan was fuelling rampant Government corruption. Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare has shown no signs of grappling with the problem and remains locked in a bitter dispute with Australia over his appointment of a lawyer accused of child sex abuse as attorney-general.
In East Timor, hopes that the violence would end with the resignation in June of the deeply unpopular Prime Minister, Mari Alkatiri, were dashed. Australian-led forces are struggling to contain street clashes in which gangs wield machetes and home-made darts.
Tonga's new King, Tupou V, will have to chart a difficult course between the conservatism of the nobility and a demand for greater political rights from an emboldened democracy movement.
Papua New Guinea remains the biggest potential nightmare because of its unstable Government, tortuous tribal loyalties and potentially explosive HIV/Aids epidemic.
Fiji's political stalemate will grind on, with Bainimarama threatening to keep his regime in place for "up to 50 years" if the Great Council of Chiefs refuses to cooperate.
Behind the crises are deep-seated social and economic problems which will continue to simmer.
"One thing that is shared between a lot of these countries is that the institutions of democracy were not allowed to develop deep roots after independence," said Brij Lal from the University of the South Pacific in Suva. "There are also deep levels of corruption in all these places. It's not a polite thing to say among regional leaders but it's the truth."
Of course not all the region is blighted by instability. Samoa, Vanuatu and the micro-states of Niue, Tokelau and Tuvalu are trouble-free. But elsewhere the long-suffering people of the Pacific will be hoping that the region begins to live up to its name in 2007.
