New Zealand to send military, police to crisis-hit Solomon Islands

Gulf Today Reports

New Zealand will send up to 65 military and police personnel to the Solomon Islands in the coming days after rioting and looting broke out there last week over several issues, including concerns about the country’s increasing links with China.

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern on Wednesday ordered police and troops to join an international peacekeeping mission in the crisis-hit Solomon Islands following deadly anti-government riots.

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Ardern said she was "deeply concerned” by the civil unrest that unfolded in the capital, Honiara, and wanted to help restore peace and stability. The New Zealand deployment follows similar actions from Australia, Papua New Guinea and Fiji after the Solomon Islands government requested international help.

Solomon Islands police found three bodies in a burned-out building and arrested more than 100 people amid the violence.

Australian Federal Police inspect burnt out areas of Chinatown in Honiara, Solomon Islands, on Tuesday. AP

Ardern said the deployment of 65 peacekeepers followed a request from the Solomons government, which was almost toppled during the unrest that claimed at least three lives and reduced much of downtown Honiara -- the country's capital -- to smouldering rubble.

She said an initial force of 15 New Zealand personnel would set off Thursday and another 50 would join them over the weekend.

The New Zealand leader said they would work with Solomons police and about 200 peacekeepers already on the ground in Honiara from Australia, Fiji and Papua New Guinea.

Fiji soldiers disembark from an Australian Air Force C130 in Honiara, Solomon Islands, on Tuesday. AP

The crisis erupted last week when protests over government policies turned violent, fuelled by poverty, unemployment and inter-island rivalries in the nation of 800,000.

Solomons Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare is set to face a no-confidence motion filed by the opposition on Monday, providing another potential flashpoint for unrest.

After trying to storm parliament, mobs ran amok for three days, torching much of Honiara's Chinatown area and attempting to burn down Sogavare's home.

Sogavare's government, meanwhile, has been upset over millions in US aid promised directly to Malaita, rather than through the central government on the largest island of Guadalcanal, where Honiara is located.

Sogavare has blamed outside interference for stirring up the protests calling for his resignation, with a thinly veiled reference to Taiwan and the US.