The new prime minister of the Solomon Islands yesterday defiantly ruled out resigning to ease tensions in his troubled nation, as Australia said it was doubling the number of its troops deployed in a show of "overwhelming force" to head off more rioting in the capital, Honiara.
"I was elected through a democratic process and according to the country's constitution," Prime Minister Snyder Rini told reporters, adding that he would not step down and was confident of beating a no-confidence vote next week in Parliament aimed at unseating him.
Rini also accused opponents of threatening two of his supporters in Parliament to make them vote against him next week.
PHOTO: AP
"The two MPs have been threatened, they are not going to the other side. They are staying with us, the motion will be defeated," Rini said after naming a 21-member Cabinet.
Rini's election as prime minister this week sparked the worst riots to hit Honiara in years, with 90 percent of the city's Chinatown looted and torched and some 20 foreign police on peacekeeping duty injured by a rock-hurling mob. Protesters accuse Rini of rising to power through corruption -- a claim he angrily denied.
"I would like to challenge those who make these allegations, to take them to the police," he said.
Rini's comments came after Australia doubled the 110 armed troops it has patrolling the streets of Honiara in an effort to prevent future protests.
"It is far more desirable to deter troublemakers in a situation like this than to fight a pitched battle," Australian Prime Minister John Howard told the Southern Cross Broadcasting radio network. "If they think there is overwhelming force, they won't try trouble in the first place."
New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark also boosted troop numbers, sending another 53 soldiers, on top of 25 dispatched on Thursday.
"The extra troops are required to help give broader coverage of Honiara, better protection of infrastructure, and greater capacity to investigate and apprehend key offenders," Clark said.
Armed Australian and New Zealand troops and police already in Honiara continued to patrol streets and man roadblocks yesterday as workers returned to their offices after days of unrest and residents began cleaning up neighborhoods razed in the orgy of rioting, looting and arson.
The Solomon Islands has no military and the presence of heavily armed foreign troops on the streets has quickly reined in the rioting that began on Tuesday following Rini's election.
The Solomons' Police Commissioner Shane Castles said 22 people were arrested overnight for looting and breaching the dawn-to-dusk curfew.
Police are monitoring opposition groups and do not believe they are plotting more violence, Castles said in Honiara.
"The situation is relatively calm -- but it's still fragile," said Paul Ashe, a special coordinator with the regional intervention force providing about 650 troops and police to restore law and order.
Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said he would meet Rini in Honiara on Saturday.
"I hope to discuss at length with him what strategies his government will adopt to address deep-seated tensions within Solomon Islands society," Downer said in a statement.
"I will be encouraging him to commit his government to move forward on crucial measures to improve good governance, address corruption and work towards economic prosperity for Solomon Islands," Downer said.
Police also arrested 14 looters in the provincial capital of Auke on the island of Malaita on Thursday -- the first sign that the unrest had spread beyond the Solomons' main island, Guadalcanal.
Some 400 Chinese left homeless by the mob violence were yesterday huddling for shelter at a police club in Honiara where local Red Cross workers gave them food.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese
RIVER TRAGEDY: Local fishers and residents helped rescue people after the vessel capsized, while motorbike taxis evacuated some of the injured At least 58 people going to a funeral died after their overloaded river boat capsized in the Central African Republic’s (CAR) capital, Bangui, the head of civil protection said on Saturday. “We were able to extract 58 lifeless bodies,” Thomas Djimasse told Radio Guira. “We don’t know the total number of people who are underwater. According to witnesses and videos on social media, the wooden boat was carrying more than 300 people — some standing and others perched on wooden structures — when it sank on the Mpoko River on Friday. The vessel was heading to the funeral of a village chief in