Saturday, September 22, 2007

Solomons riot 'orchestrated plan' for regime change

"Certain politicians" planning regime change in the Solomon Islands were among those responsible for the April 2006 rioting which destroyed much of Honiara's Chinatown area and forced hundreds of Chinese to flee, according to the commission of inquiry.
The commission, chaired by former Papua New Guinea National Court judge Brian Brunton, released an interim report but did not name the individuals or political groups involved.
Radio NZ International reported the commission as saying a number of leading politicians, political groups and organisations were involved in executing a preconceived plan for a regime change following Snyder Rini’s election as prime minister.
The commission has also found that the Solomons government could be liable for damages of US$20 million for the loss of businesses destroyed during the riots. The report's executive summary says:
There is evidence that the 18th April 2006 civil unrest in Honiara was not spontaneous as was originally claimed but rather the event has the hallmark of having been orchestrated and planned in a broader sense of that word. There is now some evidence connecting the identity of a number of leading politicians, political groups and organisations who had in one way or another contributed to the execution of the planning for a regime change, should the previous government or elements of it return to power. The commission’s investigation is not at this stage sufficiently convinced it is in a position in which it is proper to name those individuals, political groups and organisations that were responsible for the planning.
In an earlier interim report in July, the inquiry found there had been failures by Australian police commanders of RAMSI leading up to the riots which also left dozens of Australians police injured.

2 comments:

Ana said...

Couple of good articles here by

Marni Cordell
AFP Expansion: Don’t Mention the Riots
http://www.newmatilda.com/home/articledetailmagazine.asp?ArticleID=2462&CategoryID=218

AFP Expansion: Helping Friends or Helping Ourselves?

http://www.newmatilda.com/home/articledetailmagazine.asp?ArticleID=2488&HomepageID=221

Anonymous said...

Wow! A progressive voice in the Pacific?

A perspective that doesn't have a strong undercurrent of a South Seas escape fantasy. Amazing!

I found your sight through a link on laminarflow's blog.

I've created a couple of slideshow presentations visible at:

www.youtube.com/vitimediawatchdog

I'm trying my hardest to spread this clips far and wide on the net.

If you can link or embed the clips in your blog, I'd appreciate it.

Vinaka

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