Unarmed Solomon jungle mission for Kiwis

By EUGENE BINGHAM political reporter

Unarmed New Zealand soldiers and police will be sent into one of the Pacific's most dangerous hotspots to monitor a newborn peace agreement.

Warring militia armies in the Solomon Islands, where at least 70 people have been slaughtered in the past 18 months, yesterday agreed to lay down their weapons.

And they asked for New Zealand and Australian help in keeping the peace.

Unlike the heavily armed Anzac force sent to restore security in East Timor last year, the Solomons contingent will not have weapons.

The militia groups have asked that the monitors be unarmed, and in return have agreed to hand over their weapons - ranging from automatic weapons to machetes - and send soldiers back to their villages.

Foreign Affairs Minister Phil Goff will today ask the cabinet to approve the request in principle, and the monitors could be in the Solomons within 30 days.

Details of the make-up and size of the New Zealand contribution are still being worked out, but Mr Goff said last night that he expected New Zealand's input would be much smaller than in East Timor.

"It will be measured in the tens rather than the hundreds," he said.

Ethnic conflict between the Malaitan Eagle Force and the Isatabu Freedom Movement exploded on June 5 when the MEF overthrew the Government.

Fierce jungle battles followed, and lawlessness spread throughout the capital, Honiara, which Mr Goff said last week was "sinking further into anarchy."

Last night, Mr Goff said that while he was mindful of the danger, he believed it appropriate for the peace monitoring group to be unarmed.

"The benefit of that was shown in Bougainville, where, notwithstanding years of bloody fighting, people respected the peace monitoring as being there to help."

But the Government would not send people into the area recklessly.

Yesterday's agreement is not the first peace deal reached in the Solomons, and breakaway groups have said they do not recognise it.

"Obviously we will play things carefully ... There will be contingencies in place so that if things go wrong, we will not leave our people in a position of unacceptable risk," said Mr Goff.

The 20-page agreement, reached at the Garbutt Air Force Base in Townsville, northern Australia, includes a weapons amnesty.

Weapons will have to be handed in to designated police commanders in the next 30 days and be made available for inspection by the international monitoring team.

In a curious aspect of the deal, members of the MEF who joined the police at the time of the coup will be allowed to stay on.

More than 130 representatives of the factions and the Solomons Government spent six days working out the agreement, building on talks held in August on board the New Zealand navy frigate Te Kaha at Honiara.

The 12 militia commanders and their entourages were brought to Townsville on New Zealand and Australian Air Force Hercules transport aircraft.

Senior officials from both countries and the Commonwealth Secretariat sat in on the talks.

New Zealand's representative was Vince McBride, a Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade official who was also sent to Fiji at the time of its May coup.

Mr Goff said Mr McBride's role was simply to observe.

"Our focus was on allowing talks to happen, rather than determining what happened, because the solution needed to be owned by the parties," he said.

Other details of the deal include setting up demilitarised zones and using former militia fighters in a public works programme.

A commission of inquiry will also look at the land grievances of 20,000 Malaitans driven out of Guadalcanal during the conflict.