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New Zealand politicians have turned their attention to how to pay for the rebuilding of Nuku'alofa, as residents of the Tongan capital ask who was behind destructive violence that caused an estimated $90 million damage.
Prime Minister Helen Clark yesterday said New Zealand was considering what developmental aid
could be given to Tonga.
Meanwhile, the New Zealand Government was last night still to decide whether soldiers rushed to Tonga over the weekend to secure the airport would have their role expanded to patrolling Nuku'alofa.
King Tupou IV's cousin Kololiana Naufahu, the first member of the Tongan royal family to speak publicly since the rioting, yesterday called for convicted rioters to be executed.
"The people involved should be round up and shot really. We have the death penalty here in Tonga," she told TV One last night.
Nuku'alofa was yesterday reported to be quiet, with markets and stalls reopening.
Most of the damage was to private businesses, and Helen Clark said New Zealand could decide to offer small grants or credit facilities.
A spokesman for Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters said the scale of the damage was still being assessed.
"[It] is obviously huge, and we will have to look very carefully at what we can do to help out."
Australia, which also sent soldiers and police to Tonga, is expected to contribute funding toward rebuilding government buildings destroyed in the weekend rioting.
Both countries have emphasised the need for action on democratic reforms in Tonga and senior New Zealand Cabinet ministers yesterday reiterated that point.
"The New Zealand Government has been pro-active in its support for peaceful democratic reform in Tonga," Mr Peters said.
"Our consistent position has been, however, that the pace and timing of reform must be determined by the Tongan people themselves. It's appropriate that the process of democratisation be handled by Tonga as a sovereign nation."
Mr Peters said there was a long history of marches and protests in Tonga, but they had never been violent. The riot was not an event New Zealand could have predicted, but it suspected there was an element of premeditation, he said.
Mr Peters' comments offered weight to unsubstantiated allegations made on National Radio yesterday by Tongan-based New Zealand businessman Mike Jones that some rioters had been paid by rival business operators to vandalise properties.
Mr Jones alleged some of the rioters were paid "five dollars a day" to cause trouble.
"It wasn't a riot as such. It was an organised attempt to cut out all of the Chinese, and whatever businesses were in opposition" to the unscrupulous traders, he said.
Defence Minister Phil Goff also said there were reasons to believe the riot wasn't a spontaneous action.
"It's very hard to say that young drunken men intent on looting and sacking were there simply because of a desire to create democracy," Mr Goff said.
