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Taiwan cash keeps Solomons afloat

Despite rising chaos in the troubled Solomon Islands, ties between Taipei and Honiara remain stable, said a foreign ministry official after confirming that Taipei issued a US$1 million check to the country's prime minister yesterday.

"The political situation is very stable there and it won't affect our bilateral ties," Peter Cheng (鄭博久), director-general of the foreign ministry's department of East Asian and Pacific affairs, told the Taipei Times.

Cheng's remarks came in the wake of the recent escalation of tension in the capital of the Pacific country. Police on Wednesday erected razor wire barricades around the prime minister's office and the nation's finance department.

The finance department has been unable to pay civil servants for more than a month.

Cheng also confirmed an AFP report filed from Honiara yesterday that said Taiwan ambassador Teng Pei-yin (鄧備殷) handed a check for five million Solomon Island dollars to Sir Allan Kemakeza, the prime minister of the troubled Pacific country.

"The amount was in Solomon Island dollars," Cheng clarified, which is roughly US$1 million.

State-run Solomon Islands Broadcasting (SIBC) said some of the money would be used for the razor wire fencing and 500,000 Solomon Island dollars would be sent to Fiji to pay school fees for Solomon Islands students at the University of the South Pacific.

Cheng said the latest financial aid package from Taiwan was "long term" in nature and would pay for "a man-power training program" and "a security program."

Solomon Islands is one of five remaining diplomatic allies Taiwan has in the Pacific region, after Nauru, switched recognition from Taipei to Beijing last month. Taipei currently has 27 diplomatic allies.

When contacted yesterday evening, a Honiara-based Taiwanese diplomat confirmed that Taiwan last year promised to lend the troubled state US$25 million.

"But so far we've only given out US$20 million," said the diplomat, who declined to be named.

The diplomat also said disorder in the capital of the Pacific nation was worsening.

"The government has surrounded the prime minister's office and the finance office with razor wire barricades" to keep out angry crowds, he said.

The war-torn Solomon Islands sank into deeper confusion yesterday after Kemakeza sacked his foreign minister and then promptly said he had made a mistake.

Foreign Minister Alex Bartlett, who was a key member of an illegal militant group, was bitterly critical of his sacking and threatened to pull out of the ruling coalition.

"You will hear more discussion over the coming days over this issue because the man is not right, the actions he has taken are completely outrageous and are not in the interests of healing the nation," he told the Radio New Zealand International.

The Solomons has been facing bankruptcy after a war provoked by militants destabilized the country.

The militants, currently known as the Isatambu Freedom movement, live on the main island of Guadalcanal.

The war began when the militants attempted to drive out migrants from the neighboring island Malatia.

In the war around 100 people have been killed in a country, once known as "The Happy Isles," of just 300,000 while 20,000 people have lost their homes.

Malaita responded with the formation of the Malaita Eagle Force, whose leadership included Bartlett, which counter-attacked and staged a coup in 2000, taking over Honiara.

Following democratic elections last December, peace slowly returned but a Guadalcanal warlord, Harold Keke, killed 10 Malaita men last month.

On Monday, Kemakeza reshuffled his Cabinet, downgrading Bartlett to the tourism portfolio and moving eight others down. Kemakeza announced yesterday he was sacking Bartlett altogether.

But later Robert Goh, an official in Kemakeza's department, issued a statement saying the sacking was an error and had been rescinded.
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