Australian police yesterday began taking control of the Solomon Islands capital, Honiara, after days of violent protests in the South Pacific island nation, witnesses said.
Tear gas was deployed in Chinatown where looting and the burning of buildings continued yesterday morning, and a new curfew was expected to be imposed later in the day, a resident told Reuters.
Solomon Islands Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare, who requested help from Australia, blamed foreign countries for stoking the violent protests, but did not name any.
Photo: AP
Many of the protesters come from the most populous province of Malaita, saying that they feel overlooked by the central government’s institutions in Guadalcanal Province and oppose its 2019 decision to end diplomatic ties with Taiwan and establish formal links with China.
“I feel sorry for my people in Malaita because they are fed with false and deliberate lies about the switch,” Sogavare told the Australian Broadcasting Corp. “These very countries that are now influencing Malaita are the countries that don’t want ties with the People’s Republic of China, and they are discouraging Solomon Islands to enter into diplomatic relations and to comply with international law and the United Nations resolution.”
Taiwan and China have been rivals in the South Pacific region for decades, with some island nations switching allegiances.
The last two to ditch Taipei in favor of Beijing were the Solomon Islands and Kiribati in September 2019.
In Taipei, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Joanne Ou (歐江安) said in a statement: “We have nothing to do with the unrest.”
Solomon Islands resident Transform Aqorau said that more than 100 people were looting shops before Australian Federal Police officers arrived.
“The scenes here are really chaotic. It is like a war zone,” Aqorau told reporters by telephone yesterday morning. “There is no public transport and it is a struggle with the heat and the smoke. Buildings are still burning.”
He said later that Australian police were “taking control of Chinatown.”
A statement on the Solomon Islands government Web site said that public servants with the exception of essential workers should stay at home “due to the current unrest in Honiara City.”
Australian Minister of Foreign Affairs Marise Payne said that Australia was sending 100 police personnel and was “clearly focused on stability in our region.”
Australian police were previously deployed to the Solomon Islands in 2003 under a peacekeeping mission authorized by the Pacific Island Forum.
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