Anglican Communion News Service

(Received at Melanesian Mission Office, England, 9th June, 2000)

I am writing from Brisbane, Australia, where my return home from the International Anglican Liturgical Commission meeting in Toronto, Canada, was prevented by the recent events in Solomon Islands causing a cessation of flights into Honiara. Nevertheless, I have been able to monitor the situation closely.

For the past 18 months there has been a concerted effort by people from Guadalcanal to chase from that island people from other islands (mainly Malaita) who have taken up residence on Guadalcanal. Some of these Malaitan residents have been there for several generations and many have not followed the customary procedures for acquiring land ownership. In my (Melanesian) culture, issues of land ownership are the greatest single cause of conflict.

During the past 18 months, the problems have simmered and sometimes come to the boil. Quite a large number of people in rural parts of Guadalcanal have died in the fighting. Probably the actual number will never be known.

The prolonged and unsuccessful attempts by the Solomon Islands Government to deal with the issues and to bring about a truce has lead to the recent spate of unrest. The inactivity on the part of the Government has compounded the issues and created even more confusion so that panic has overtaken some of our people.

Let me be very clear that, in spite of the various news media reports claiming there to have been some kind of coup, as in Fiji, there has been no coup. The events of Sunday, 4 June, were carried out by the Malaita Eagle Force and a substantial element of the Police Field Force. They were aimed at securing the capital, Honiara, and seeking the resignation of the Prime Minister.

When it was pointed out that nobody had the right to demand the resignation of the Prime Minister, except the Governor-General on the recommendation of the Parliament, the demands were withdrawn and the matter was left to the National Parliament to decide by a vote of no confidence to be held on 16 June.

Later again, this ‘amalgam’ of Malaita Eagle Force and Police Field Force withdrew from Honiara, handing back the responsibility for its security to the Royal Solomon Islands Police Force. It then turned its attention to the Guadalcanal militant group, the Isatabu Freedom Movement, and there was a major show of force to the east of Honiara at a point where tempers have boiled over quite frequently.

The situation has been grossly exaggerated by the news media. The reporting internationally has seemed almost as if it related to another country, not to Solomon Islands. The news media have tended to ‘package’ the situation in Solomon Islands with that of Fiji and the Secretary-General of the United Nations has referred to the Solomons incident as a “copy cat coup”. It has not been a copy cat, nor a coup, nor even an attempted coup, but what has happened just expresses the frustration of those who have seen the problems on Guadalcanal continue for so long. Fiji or no Fiji, what has occurred in Solomon Islands was bound to have happened sooner or later.

One of our problems is that Solomon Islands has only one city - Honiara, the capital, on the island of Guadalcanal. If anything were to happen to Honiara, it would have a grave effect on the whole nation. Only in Honiara is there a major hospital; only there are the broadcasting stations located; only there is the international airport and shipping container terminal, etc. If Honiara were to fall into the hands of any single faction, chaos would truly reign. But Honiara can be protected and needs to be secured.

The international community (particularly New Zealand and Australia) have been asked to provide military and/or police forces to help bring about peace. Understandably, both have said that they do not want to come between two opposing forces from the same country: they do not want to be in the middle of a civil war.

That attitude is understandable but I would ask both countries to read the situation more carefully and to be more imaginative about what they can do to help. I can see that if they were to come and maintain order in Honiara by securing all key services, our people would have greater peace of mind, the morale of our Police Force would receive a huge boost and we would be enabled to turn out whole attention to the problems occurring in the rural areas east of the capital.

The international community has been most unhelpful in constantly referring to their preparedness to evacuate their own nationals, etc., and now having done so on an Australian Navy frigate. This was not necessary. Many expatriates cannot understand why they are being asked to leave. This evacuation only belittles our nation and increases the sense of panic.

We need the international community, and particularly our near neighbours - Australia and New Zealand, to help us at this time of our need. To say, “their’s is an internal problem”, and turn their backs on us, is not helping.

I believe that the solution to the root problems lies within the Churches - a point which the Solomon Islands Government has, by and large, not recognised. Perhaps if the Archbishop of Canterbury (who is due to visit us next month) should send a delegation to Honiara if may spark a new light leading to a brighter dawn.

It goes without saying that we need your prayers and we know that we have them from our brothers and sisters in many parts of the world. Thank you for that. But I hope the news media will be less sensational and show even a little bit of truth in their reporting. And I hope that our cries for assistance from our near neighbours will not go unheeded for too much longer.

Sincerely in Christ,

+Ellison Pogo
Archbishop of Melanesia