NZ offers compensation for Solomons rebels

By WARREN GAMBLE and NAOMI LARKIN

New Zealand has offered to spend millions of dollars on a land compensation deal to solve the Solomon Islands crisis as a mass evacuation of foreigners accelerated yesterday.

Foreign Minister Phil Goff, who arrived at Whenuapai Air Base with 61 evacuated New Zealanders and 34 from other countries, was part of a Commonwealth team which offered the deal to warring leaders in Honiara at the weekend.

As those leaders deliberated yesterday, the Air Force brought out all New Zealanders who wanted to leave.

Included were another 30 on a Hercules which arrived in Brisbane last night in one of the biggest peace-time evacuations of New Zealanders from an overseas troublespot.

Mr Goff said that left about 60 New Zealanders who were "taking their chances" in the Solomons, although the frigate Te Mana was off Honiara to provide reassurance and evacuation if needed.

Among those staying is Honiara tour business owner Peter Hundleby, who said last night: "There's nothing immediately rough that I can see - but that's not to say that it's not wise for some people to get out, especially women and children."

Mr Goff said the land compensation deal would involve New Zealand, Australia and possibly the wider Commonwealth and the European Union in a financial package compensating 20,000 Malaitan Islanders forced off their land on the main island of Guadalcanal.

The 18-month-old land dispute triggered the crisis last week when the Malaitan Eagle Force militia seized Prime Minister Bartholomew Ulufa'alu at gunpoint and took control of the capital.

Mr Goff said it was too early to estimate the size of the multimillion-dollar compensation bill, but it was proposed to fund it from international aid budgets to the Solomons. New Zealand contributed about $5 million a year in aid, and diverting some of it to compensation would mean cuts to education and other projects.

The Eagles' leader, Andrew Nori, told the Commonwealth team on Saturday that the land deal and a two-week truce already agreed to by the opposing Isatabu Freedom Movement would have to be referred to the five factions of his force.

It was unclear whether the truce, put in place for the Commonwealth group, was still holding last night.

"We told them the choice is clear," Mr Goff said.

"If you go to war there is no way I'm going to persuade my people that we should continue to pour money into a country bent on self-destruction."

He said the Commonwealth group had also secured the protection of Mr Ulufa'alu's family, but the Prime Minister still feared for his life and might resign when Parliament resumed on Thursday.

Among the 61 New Zealanders relieved to be home yesterday was Jonathan Stewart, who had been working since March as a carpenter at the Goldridge Mine north of Honiara. The Glenfield father of two said the crisis had left the Solomon Island people with nothing.

Devonport woman Allyssa Morris, who ran a Bible school on Malaita with husband Doug, brought her two young children home after a week of unrest and mounting food and petrol shortages.

Mr Goff said he was also concerned at the possible spread of the conflict to nearby Bougainville Island after reports from the remote Bougainville town of Gizo that a man had been killed after recent tension between Malaitan and local residents.