PACIFIC ISLANDS REPORT

Pacific Islands Development Program/East-West Center
With Support From Center for Pacific Islands Studies/University of Hawai‘i

By Frank Short

QUEENSLAND, Australia (Sept. 6) - The people of the United States will shortly pause, reflect, and solemnly remember the terrible loss of life that occurred during the 9/11 terrorist attack on the World Trade Centre in New York City and the Pentagon in Washington. A day said by many to have been the "Day that Changed the World."

How many I wonder will stop to reflect on the happenings that occurred in September 1998 in the Solomon’s National Parliament? A time, it could be argued, which changed the Happy Isles forever.

It was then that the Solomon Islands Alliance for Change Government (SIAC) led by Prime Minister Bartholomew Ulufa’alu faced a third (and final) motion of no confidence brought on by the opposition despite SIAC’s early success in reforming the sick economy, tackling the budget deficit and introducing a much needed re-structuring and downsizing programme for the top-heavy civil service.

In the event the Government scraped through by a slender majority and a source close to the police alleged that to destabilize the government a decision was then made to play the ethnic card and to intensify demands by the Guadalcanal Provincial Administration for compensation for loss of land and for those allegedly murdered by Malaitans.

It was never completely clarified who instigated the underhand tactics in urging the then Guadalcanal Premier, Ezekiel Alebua, to press his demands but the former Prime Minister, Solomon Mamaloni, was alleged to have had a hand in the plot.

It might be recalled that in a leaked Australian document left by chance at a venue in Cairns a year before, a top Australian official had singled out Solomon Mamaloni as potentially troublesome and the then incoming Australian High Commissioner, James Batley, now the Regional Assistance Mission to Solomon Islands (RAMSI) Special Co-coordinator, spent the first week of his new posting sorting out ruffled feathers in the Mamaloni camp.

The events and atrocities that followed the incitement of ethnic conflict are well documented and still horribly vivid in the minds of those who suffered on both sides. But still there has been no Commission of Inquiry as called for by many, including myself, and by the Pacific Islands Forum Eminent Persons Group. In a report produced following its review of the Regional Assistance Mission to Solomon Islands (RAMSI), the group reported that the underlying causes of the conflict needed to be investigated. It also recommended that the Solomon Islands Government consider establishing a Commission of Inquiry with an independent chair to investigate the causes of the conflict and suggest ways forward. I believe that those responsible for plotting, conspiring and instigating the conflict, the so-called "big-fish," should also be quickly identified and prosecuted. I am at a loss to understand why following the arrest and conviction of many of the "foot soldiers," including Harold Keke and Joseph Sangu who, presumably were fully interrogated by their RAMSI investigators during the course of their initial arrest and afterwards, no arrests have yet taken place of the main culprits.

I am seemingly not alone in voicing such an opinion and many at the grass roots level and in the professional fields seem to echo the same sentiments. It was noted that in March this year the local leaders in the northern region of Malaita called on the government and RAMSI to establish the root causes of the conflict. Speaking to a high level delegation led by the RAMSI Special Coordinator, James Batley, one of the local chiefs said although RAMSI and the government were trying to rehabilitate the country and had held a number of peace reconciliation (ceremonies) in the country, without tracing the root cause of the crisis nothing would be achieved. The chief described the situation as a wound, which had been dressed several times but had never healed. He added that, "For the victims of the social turmoil the situation is still haunting them."

The Solomon Star article which covered this story, submitted by Arthur Wate on 29th March contained a rather alarming sentence. James Batley in responding to the chief highlighted that during the visit of the Eminent Persons Group from the South Pacific Forum last year similar calls were part of the group’s recommendation to set up a Commission of Inquiry into the issue. The article then went on to say, "However it is unclear whether the inquiry was set because of its likely implication should the investigation is carried out." It isn’t so much the faulty grammar that concerns me but rather whether Mr. Batley was hinting there would not be an Inquiry because of the likely implications of such an investigation. I consider clarification of the sentence is needed.

In his widely circulated paper entitled 5th June 2000 in Perspective," lawyer Andrew Nori, the self-styled Malaita Eagle Force spokesperson claimed that, in mid July 1998 a meeting had been held at the Tambea Resort in West Guadalcanal, at which several key Guadalcanal leaders had been present, including Ezekiel Alebua, Sethuel Kelly, two Guadalcanal police officers, and many young men, including Harold Keke and Joseph Sangu. Nori further alleged that "a decision was made then to forcefully evict Malaitans from Guadalcanal. Not long afterwards, armed men raided the Yandina Police armoury. The GRA was born and the burning, looting, raping, chasing and murdering started." (Actually the armoury raid took place in the early hours of 9th December 1998 but the forced evictions and attacks on the Malaitan plantation workers and their families had begun earlier in September).

In a letter that I wrote in April 2002 entitled, "The Truth is Critical to Lasting Peace and Reconciliation in the Solomon Islands," (published in the Pacific Islands Report on 1 April 2002), I commented that Nori, an experienced lawyer, and an ex-President of the Solomon Islands Bar, and one who was well aware of the law of defamation, must have calculated the risks he faced by way of possible legal proceedings in releasing the names he claimed were involved in the birth of the GRA. Whether or not Nori was ever asked to substantiate his claims has not been made public knowledge.

While Harold Keke recently convicted and sentenced to life for the murder of Father Augustine Geve defiantly declared only last week, when appearing in court as a witness in the trial of five other members of the GLF, that he is still the supreme commander of the Guadalcanal Liberation Front, his half-brother, Joseph Sangu, also a former commander of the Isatabu Freedom Movement (IFM) has said that he has learned his lesson. He is reported to want to dedicate his life "for the peace of the country" and asked for forgiveness. If Sangu is genuine in his desire for peace he should be pressed to disclose the names of the main ring leaders of the ethnic conflict. He is already reported to have said, "I believe the problems that the nation encountered should be blamed on our leaders. They are not genuine and honest in their conduct of the nation’s affairs. They are not serving the interest of the people."

In his review of Jon Fraenkel’s book – The Manipulation of Custom: From Uprising to Intervention in the Solomon Islands, published by the Victoria University Press in Wellington in 2004, Michael Field, a Pacific journalist and writer, recorded what could be interpreted as some support for Sangu’s own observations. He said, "The insurgent movements might have attracted a groundswell of under-employed youth in Guadalcanal and Malaita, but both were initiated by ex-national politicians who found in them convenient new weapons to deploy in their challenges to the government of the day."

Both Keke and Sangu were arrested on Bungana Island following the raid on the Yandina Police armoury and despite facing serious charges at the time, including the theft of weapons, attempted murder and armed robbery they were released prematurely on bail put up by Ezekiel Alebua. It is ironic to reflect that both of these militants were in custody following their arrest by RAMSI personnel for 18 months before being brought to trial. Sangu pleaded guilty to the amended charges. It is ironic, too, that Keke and Sangu ignored my appeals to them in early 1999 to lay down their arms, to abandon their militancy and to pursue their grievances through peaceful channels in support of the claims then being addressed by the SIAC Government with the Guadalcanal Provincial Administration.

The Bungana Island incident led to the death of one of the militants, Ishmael Panda, and I reported fully on the circumstances of this tragic incident in several reports I wrote to the Pacific Islands Report, including the one entitled, "The Truth is Critical to Lasting Peace and Reconciliation in the Solomon Islands." Now that Keke and Sangu have had their cases decided in the courts arising from the Bungana incident, I believe it is timely, in the interest of transparency, for the Solomon Islands Government to release the full details of the police report into the incident which was professionally conducted by the New Zealand Police, aided by the Forensic specialists of the Australian Federal Police (AFP).

I was clearly applying the law during my term in office by applying minimum force to those who had committed very serious criminal offences but despite this I faced unfair criticism, especially by certain members of the Opposition. The New Zealand Police report recorded that all the documents seen by the investigators vindicated my actions by recording that all such documents (relating to Police Policy, Practice and Procedures), "clearly and succinctly confirms the Commissioner’s determination to ensure the use of minimum force when dealing with incidents. The Commissioner has a particular vision and commitment to ensuring accountability in the Police Service; equally the Commissioner espouses the principle of fairness and equity of a commitment to human rights."

I faced unfair criticism too over my remarks about Major General Sitaveni Rabuka’s handling of the peace negotiations at the onset. I was initially alarmed when I briefed him at the Mendana Hotel following his arrival. His first question to me was, "Are the Malaitans indigenous to the islands?" When I replied in the affirmative, he retorted, "That’s a pity."

I subsequently considered that he was not entirely impartial in his handling of the peace brokering negotiations. I nonetheless worked closely with him and gave him all the assistance I could prior to my leaving the Solomons.

Whether the Solomon Islands Government aided by RAMSI will get down to tackling and meeting the challenges of investigating and prosecuting those who instigated the ethnic tensions remains to be seen, but I believe that it is not enough to simply prosecute the senior figures who have been arrested for alleged corruption, or for allegedly instigating violence relating to the riots which occurred in April. Justice needs to be done, wounds need to be healed and the process of reconciliation and nation building needs to be vigorously pursued and consolidated.