Militia tale symptom of sleaze

By MARY-LOUISE O'CALLAGHAN Herald correspondent

HONIARA - The 'boys' may have been drinking rum and coke from the back of their four-wheel-drive parked beneath the coconut palms fringing one of the Solomon Islands' legendary white sand beaches, but the story of militant leaders Jimmy Rasta, Moses Su'u and Simon Mani is a far from pretty one.

Four years ago these three men helped found the Malaita Eagle Force (MEF) the civilian militia who with elements of the Royal Solomon Islands Police eventually carried out a coup in June, 2000.

"The Malaita Eagle Force was formed out of desperation," Mani said.

"From 1998 Malaitan men and women were being systematically murdered, women were being raped, our earthly investments were stolen at gunpoint.

"We were waiting 18 months for the Government of the day to do something and they didn't do it; that's why the MEF was born."

Not many in Solomon Islands would dispute this account of the origins of the MEF but the story does not stop there.

In fact the story of Rasta, Su'u and Mani is the inside story of how a nation fell into the hands of criminal thugs, rogue police and corrupt politicians.

And the decision of these three MEF leaders to go public provides the first real insight into the spider's web of sleaze and intrigue that this tiny South Pacific nation has spun around itself to the point of virtual strangulation in the past few years.

For the Australian-led intervention forces and its civilian head, Nick Warner, it is also the first close-up glance into the complex morass of political, criminal and personal connections, claims and counter-claims that he will have to wade his way through in the months, and years ahead if the Solomons is to be sorted out in any sense of the word.

For Warner the revelations that Rasta, Su'u and Mani want to co-operate with the intervention and hand in their weapons, is something of a two-edge sword.

It is the first positive indication that General Peter Cosgrove's strategy of overkill - for it was very much the Australian Defence Force Chief's call to deploy 2000 military personal and heavy duty assets in the Solomons' operation may be enough in itself to persuade the worst of the Solomons' criminal cum militants to surrender, at least their weapons.

However as the three men made clear over the weekend, they too want their pound of flesh.

"The Prime Minister should step down, may be he doesn't know how to rule the country," Mani said on Sunday, echoing the views of many of the militants and criminals who have drunk with, guarded and profited from the reign of Sir Allen Kemakeza.

"They should get a team of investigators to come and investigate the white-collar crime," Mani said, which is already one of the main focuses of both the police and civilian aspects of the intervention.

Perhaps more complex and worrying than the straight allegations of corruption against Sir Allen is the claim by Rasta, Su'u and Mani, supported by their own detailed accounts, that the Prime Minister has actively attempted to derail the peace process in the past.

Speaking about an attempt to bring in guns under an amnesty in May last year, the three leaders are adamant that Sir Allen insisted they retain their weapons.

"We came to the Prime Minister, we had a party actually and he said: 'Okay, you boys hold on those guns because the problem is Harold Keke is not giving his up'," said Rasta in a reference to the rival Guadalcanal rebel leader.

"What he didn't know was that once upon a time, Harold Keke and Jo Sangu - we were friends - so when we contacted Jo Sangu and Harold Keke, then they said that the Prime Minister came over and told us the same story, don't give up your guns because Rasta is holding on to his guns."

The allegations against Kemakeza, particularly if they are substantiated, have the potential to severely complicate the intervention forces relationship with the very man who invited them in.

For his part, Sir Allen, who took office in December 2001, after being sacked a few months earlier as Deputy Prime Minister for allegedly paying himself about A$500,000 in 'compensation' for property lost during the ethnic tension, has said he is prepared to face the courts.

But with 90 per cent of Solomon Islanders wanting the intervention by this neutral regional force, he can at least take heart that political support for the move is unlikely to wane.

Why? Because, as Warner put it yesterday when he said, that despite the invitation to come into Solomons being from the Kemakeza Government, there had been 'No Deals'.

Solomon Islanders love him for it.


Firearm control

Police holding illegal guns in the capital Honiara had until last night to hand them in or face arrest.

Leaders of one of the Malaita Island militia said on Monday they were prepared to surrender their weapons, but wanted talks with the head of the intervention force.

The militia also wanted a 30-day amnesty to hand in weapons.

Authorities were expected to declare an amnesty in Honiara some time this week for the surrender of some of the estimated 1300 illegal weapons held by militants and the public.

Some guns have been handed in. On Saturday, the intervention force destroyed 25 weapons, consisting mainly of homemade rifles.