Warlord Harold Keke, accused in the deaths of 50 villagers and hostages, has surrendered to an Australian-led peacekeepers trying to end a civil war in the Solomon Islands, Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said yesterday.
Downer said that Keke was under arrest and would face a murder investigation.
Last week in talks with a senior Australian diplomat, Keke allegedly admitted that six local missionaries kidnapped by his forces this year had been killed.
Officials say Keke's forces have razed about 15 villages, killed people, and taken hostages for four years. Keke is allegedly responsible for the deaths of up to 50 people this year, and last year boasted of killing a government minister.
"The Guadalcanal militant leader Harold Keke surrendered ... on the Weather Coast of the island of Guadalcanal earlier today," Downer told Australia's Parliament. "A full investigation of crimes including murder allegedly committed by Harold Keke and his group can now proceed."
Keke's surrender sends a "very clear message to other militants" that they now could also hand in their weapons before a three-week gun amnesty ends on Aug. 21, Downer said
Downer said Keke was now on his way to the capital Honiara on an Australian navy ship HMAS Manoora. Keke would be kept in protective custody by the intervention force and receive all the rights accorded under Solomon Islands law. His arrest was made on an outstanding warrant for robbery.
The Australian-led force of 2,000 troops and 300 police arrived in the Solomon Islands in late July to help end widespread lawlessness and corruption that has paralyzed and nearly bankrupted the South Pacific nation in the aftermath of a coup in 2000.
Although a peace deal was brokered late in 2000 and elections restored democracy, Keke had refused to sign the pact.
"For the first time in a long time the Weather Coast can return to peace and stability free from the fear of executions and the village burnings," New Zealand Foreign Minister Phil Goff said. "It is of huge symbolic importance that the rule of law can be restored and Keke and his lieutenants face appropriate charges."
Solomon Islands Prime Minister Allan Kemakeza was on a plane heading for New Zealand when news broke of Keke's capture.
LANDMARK CASE: ‘Every night we were dragged to US soldiers and sexually abused. Every week we were forced to undergo venereal disease tests,’ a victim said More than 100 South Korean women who were forced to work as prostitutes for US soldiers stationed in the country have filed a landmark lawsuit accusing Washington of abuse, their lawyers said yesterday. Historians and activists say tens of thousands of South Korean women worked for state-sanctioned brothels from the 1950s to 1980s, serving US troops stationed in country to protect the South from North Korea. In 2022, South Korea’s top court ruled that the government had illegally “established, managed and operated” such brothels for the US military, ordering it to pay about 120 plaintiffs compensation. Last week, 117 victims
‘HYANGDO’: A South Korean lawmaker said there was no credible evidence to support rumors that Kim Jong-un has a son with a disability or who is studying abroad South Korea’s spy agency yesterday said that North Korean leader Kim Jong-un’s daughter, Kim Ju-ae, who last week accompanied him on a high-profile visit to Beijing, is understood to be his recognized successor. The teenager drew global attention when she made her first official overseas trip with her father, as he met with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) and Russian President Vladimir Putin. Analysts have long seen her as Kim’s likely successor, although some have suggested she has an older brother who is being secretly groomed as the next leader. The South Korean National Intelligence Service (NIS) “assesses that she [Kim Ju-ae]
In the week before his fatal shooting, right-wing US political activist Charlie Kirk cheered the boom of conservative young men in South Korea and warned about a “globalist menace” in Tokyo on his first speaking tour of Asia. Kirk, 31, who helped amplify US President Donald Trump’s agenda to young voters with often inflammatory rhetoric focused on issues such as gender and immigration, was shot in the neck on Wednesday at a speaking event at a Utah university. In Seoul on Friday last week, he spoke about how he “brought Trump to victory,” while addressing Build Up Korea 2025, a conservative conference
China has approved the creation of a national nature reserve at the disputed Scarborough Shoal (Huangyan Island, 黃岩島), claimed by Taiwan and the Philippines, the government said yesterday, as Beijing moves to reinforce its territorial claims in the contested region. A notice posted online by the Chinese State Council said that details about the area and size of the project would be released separately by the Chinese National Forestry and Grassland Administration. “The building of the Huangyan Island National Nature Reserve is an important guarantee for maintaining the diversity, stability and sustainability of the natural ecosystem of Huangyan Island,” the notice said. Scarborough
RSS