NZ infantry to be deployed to Solomons to hunt for weapons

5.00pm

The New Zealand Army is to deploy 125 infantry to the Solomon Islands to hunt for weapons being hoarded by militants and criminals.

Foreign Affairs Minister Phil Goff said the Australian-led force had been successful so far without a shot being fired, but warned the "hard yards" had yet to be done.

The troops will leave at the end of the week to join 35 New Zealand police and 105 other defence personnel.

It was expected their tour of duty would last up to 90 days.

"The key task of the company will be back up the police in targeted operations to recover weapons," Mr Goff said.

A three week arms amnesty had seen 2700 weapons returned. This included 550 military style weapons and 300,000 round of ammunition.

The amnesty ended last Thursday and now the operation would enter a wider and more dangerous stage - getting weapons off people who wanted to keep them.

"On our estimates there are still probably several hundred high powered weapons in the community." Mr Goff said.

The response to the arms amnesty on the island of Malaita was particularly disappointing and court issued search warrants would be issued soon to hunt down arms on that island and throughout the Solomons.

"Jimmy Rasta's people (the Malaita Eagle Force) handed in 99 weapons. We are convinced there are other weapons on the island."

The Malaita Eagle force carried out the 2000 coup in the capital Honiara on the main island Guadalcanal.

The collapse of law and order accelerated after the coup with some criminal elements literally holding the Government to ransom.

The month old operation now has over 2000 police, military and civilian personnel from Australia, New Zealand, Fiji, Tonga and Papua New Guinea on the Solomons.

Mr Goff said the force had the wide support of Solomon Islanders and would continue until rule of law was put back in place.

"We have seen the surrender of Harold Keke (a local warlord), but possibly the hard yards are still to be done...we want to maintain that momentum."

The infantry company had been on stand-by in July and Cabinet had approved additional funding of $3 million for the deployment.

Ministers estimated the operation had cost New Zealand up to $8 million so far.

- NZPA