NZ forces on alert amidst looming Solomons crisis

Infern0

Banned
NZ forces on alert amidst looming Solomons crisis

By MICHAEL FIELD - Stuff.co.nz | Thursday, 13 December 2007

690001.jpg
MICHAEL FIELD/Fairfax Media
STAND BY: NZ forces in the Solomon Islands have been told to expect trouble as a no-confidence vote against the government may take place when Parliament opens.






New Zealand police and soldiers in the Solomon Islands are on alert today amidst a deepening political crisis and worries violence may break out again.
Forty soldiers and 35 police officers from New Zealand are part of the Regional Assistance Mission to Solomon Islands (RAMSI) which in 2003 ended a nasty ethnic conflict on Guadalcanal.
The government of Prime Minister Manesseh Sogavare is facing a no-confidence vote when Parliament opens later today.
There are widespread fears that violence could break out, similar to that on April 18 last year when the rioters destroyed a large part of Honiara's China Town.
Sogavare looks to lack the numbers to retain the confidence of the 48-seat parliament. The opposition appear to have 25 members.
Former prime minister Allan Kemakeza, who has stayed neutral, earlier this week joined forces with the opposition.
The Solomon Islands Police Force and RAMSI have increased patrols and surveillance in Honiara.
Parliament, which sits on a ridge overlooking Honiara, will be out of bound to the public during the meeting, except for members of the media and local and overseas dignitaries.
The military have a strong presence at the Honiara Hotel where the Opposition group is based.

This has prompted criticism the security forces are supporting the opposition because of Sogavare's stated intentions of getting RAMSI out of the Solomons.
Police Force deputy commissioner Peter Marshall told local media yesterday they were not supporting any side in the political crisis.
"We want to be fair and balance and utterly reject any suggestion that RAMSI ... is involved in partisan security operations," Marshall told the Solomon Star.
 
Back
Top