Australia readying security forces to send to Solomons

Australia preparing to send police and troops to the violence-wracked Solomon Islands to restore law and order to the Pacific nation, Prime Minister John Howard said yesterday.

The Solomons have been overrun with ethnic violence since 1998 and the government has little control outside of the capital Honiara. The country's prime minister has said he is seeking intervention, although it has not yet formally delivered its request.

"The assistance that is being contemplated includes substantial policing, law and justice and economic assistance, backed up by significant operational support from the Australian Defense Force," Howard told Parliament yesterday.

He did not give further details of the planned deployment.

Howard the decision to offer help was made by his government yesterday, and would hinge on a formal request from the Solomon Islands government and cooperation with close neighbor New Zealand and other Pacific island nations.

Solomon Islands Prime Minister Alan Kemakeza made a plea for help during talks in Canberra earlier this month with Howard.

Solomons Minister Laurie Chan, speaking in his country's capital, Honiara, said yesterday that he expected his country's parliament to approve the Australian deployment, Solomon Islands Broadcasting Corporation reported.

Rival militia gangs have run riot in the Solomon Islands since 1998, when long simmering ethnic tensions erupted into armed conflict between inhabitants of the main island of Guadalcanal and settlers from neighboring islands.

Hundreds died in the violence and another 20,000 fled Guadalcanal. A peace deal signed in 2000 failed to rein in the militias and armed gangs.

Howard Australia was now looking to the Solomon Islands government for a "properly backed and properly issued legal request" so that the intervention would comply with international law.

"I stress ... that no final decisions have been taken but there is a very strong disposition on the part of the government to act," he said.

Howard he had discussed the decision with New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark after top Australian security officials met yesterday.

He did not detail Clark's response, but New Zealand in recent weeks has indicated it was willing to contribute to a police operation.

The planned intervention will be discussed at a meeting of foreign ministers from 14 South Pacific nations on Monday in Sydney, to be chaired by Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer.

A delegation of Australian and New Zealand military, police, aid and foreign ministry officials spent three days in Honiara earlier this month to assess what support was needed.

The Australian foreign ministry says lawlessness and endemic corruption have shattered the Solomons' economy, estimating that annual per capita income has gone from US$1,000 in 1996 to US$500 last year.