Solomons different from Iraq, says PM

By AUDREY YOUNG political editor

Prime Minister Helen Clark yesterday defended New Zealand's not seeking United Nations approval before joining the multinational intervention force in the Solomon Islands - a prerequisite for New Zealand military involvement in Iraq.

Commonwealth Secretary-General and former Foreign Minister Don McKinnon, visiting New Zealand, said there were some uses for such approval - and New Zealand had sought it with its involvement in settling the Bougainville conflict - but it was not the "be all and end all".

A former NZ ambassador to the UN, Terence O'Brien, has called on Helen Clark as chair of the Pacific Islands Forum meeting in Auckland this week to persuade other leaders to seek Security Council approval after the fact.

It is thought that Australia, which leads the 2250-strong military and police force in the Solomons, would not support an approach to the UN and that China would possibly refuse to have it on the Security Council agenda because the Solomons recognises Taiwan.

Yesterday, Helen Clark rejected a suggestion at a press conference that the Pacific Islands Forum should seek UN cover for the Solomons mission as contributors such as New Zealand had sought for their roles in Iraq.

"The situations, of course, are not analogous at all.

"Iraq had had a radical change of regime brought about by armed intervention.

"The United Nations has recognised the obvious, which is that there is an occupying set of powers which form the authority and it has authorised other people to go in and try and help with humanitarian relief, reconstruction and stability.

"In the Solomons, on the other hand, you have a Government which actually asked for help.

"That whole request went to Pacific Island Forum foreign ministers."

It would be discussed and endorsed at the forum in Auckland this week.

Mr McKinnon said it had been useful to get Security Council backing in Bougainville "because it brought them into play".

"But it is not the be all and end all. It doesn't always make a lot of difference but it does give an extra imprimatur.

"You could spend a lot of time burning up a lot of energy and a lot of capital in New York while people on the ground are wanting things to happen. And I think it's on the ground where the necessity is right now."

Mr O'Brien believed there would be value in getting UN approval even after the event.

"In these somewhat uncertain times where large powers and some of their allies are being fairly dismissive of the UN, small countries - including New Zealand - have a real interest in sustaining the UN as a rules-based system to support order in the world."

He also said it was important to keep Pacific Island issues on the "radar screen" of the five permanent members of the Security Council: United States, Russia, China, Britain and France.

Mr McKinnon will be in Auckland to meet leaders attending the Pacific Islands Forum this week.

He said there was no way the Australian-led intervention in the Solomons could be seen as neo-colonialist - as some critics have described it.

"I regard it very much as a partnership in the Pacific to help your neighbour - a partnership of the Pacific peoples with the Solomons to help them get things right.

"By no stretch of the imagination do I see this as any form of neo-colonialism or anything like it."

Asked to give an assessment of the state of health of the Pacific, Mr McKinnon said it looked better with the Solomons intervention.

Small Pacific countries were subject to economic buffeting, lost "good people" continuously and had trouble attracting investment.

"They are encouraged to do all sorts of things that do not turn out to be very useful or very profitable."

And they did not always have the critical mass of people to carry out certain things.

"There always must be a spirit of generosity towards the islands from Australia and New Zealand."