Cops incite post election violence

Australian police, in the Solomon Islands to help quell ethnic and political violence have been accused of overreacting to protesters at the opening of parliament earlier this week.

Protests became noisy, outside the parliament, when the crowd heard that former deputy Prime Minister, Snyder Rini, was chosen to be the new prime minister.

Seventeen federal police were injured in the rioting on Tuesday, two seriously. The two will be sent back to Australia, while the other 15 were released from hospital.

Officers from the Regional Assistance Mission to Solomon Islands, which includes police from Australia and other pacific nations, fired tear gas on demonstrators who were blocking a driveway at the Parliament to prevent Rini's escape.

One witness, an aid worker Luke Johnston, said: "It appears that that's when things got out of hand, when there were some more aggressive approach to the crowd while they were still negotiating through their own local representatives. When they brought a riot squad in and a lot of riot gear there was a noticeable change in tone."

"In Melanesian culture, you can shout as much as you want, but once you start shoving somebody... physical confrontation is a whole new level," he said.

Johnston said, "A lot of officers were fairly young, and seemed quite nervous... many of the officers that I asked claimed that they weren't sure of the command and control procedure for the day,"

Full coverage: Melbourne Age

A bit of Background on the Solomons, an arc of more than 1000 islands stretching east of Papua New Guinea.

Population: 524,000. Most are involved in subsistence, cash-crop agriculture. The economy is reliant on unsustainable levels of logging.

World War II: Occupied by Japanese forces, the islands experienced some of the bloodiest battles of the war. British rule was restored by war’s end. New economic development attracted an influx of villagers seeking work from other islands, sowing the seeds of future discord.
Inedependence: Britain cast the territory loose in 1978, but it was ill-prepared for self-government. Tension grew, with men from two islands, Guadalcanal and Malaita, forming militias, and local police split along ethnic lines.

Pacific Peace Force: In April 2000, the Solomons Government asked Australia to send police or troops to help restore order. Australia refused. A coup followed on June 5 when militants from the Malaita Eagle Force and disaffected police seized control of the capital and took prime minister Bartholomew Ulufa’alu hostage. Ulufa’alu formally resigned a week later and his finance minister, Manassah Sogavare, was elected PM.

Peace Talks: There followed talks on HMAS Tobruk in July 2000 and the brokering of the Townsville Peace Agreement in October. Sir Allan Kemakeza was elected Prime Minister in December 2001 in alliance with the Association of Independent Members led by former finance minister Snyder Rini, who became his deputy.

Chaos: Then followed a gradual increase in gang violence, not helped by senior police links to criminal gangs, official corruption or economic collapse. Further afield, thousands of villagers fled into the jungles of the main island, Guadalcanal, as warlord Harold Keke and his gang rampaged down the remote Weather Coast.

Intervention: In July, Australia led Operation Helpem Fren (pidgin for Helping Friend). The force local people came to know as RAMSI (the Regional Assistance Mission to the Solomon Islands) moved in to disarm the militants.

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