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Solomon’s Prime minister threatens to resign |
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June 14, 2000
HONIARA, Solomon Islands (AP) - The prime minister of the Solomon Islands said Tuesday that he would resign despite fears that quitting would ignite a new round of rebel fighting that could splinter this South Pacific nation.
In an exclusive interview with the Associated Press, Bartholomew Ulufa'alu said that rebels who seized the capital last week were threatening his government and the only safe option was to step down. Ulufa'alu said he would stay on the job until Thursday, when parliament holds a no-confidence vote on his leadership. He called the vote a "sheer mockery of democracy" because the well-armed militants forced the special session of parliament to give their coup a veneer of legitimacy. The vote was the result of a deal with rebels who seized Ulufa'alu at gunpoint June 5 and demanded that he resign. A few days later, they released him and allowed him to stay in office until the parliament decided his future. "I don't want to be part of the new government," Ulufa'alu said in his small wood-paneled office in the capital, Honiara. "This (the vote) is an insult to my integrity, to my family and the people in my constituency." Chain-smoking and looking despondent with his shirt half untucked, Ulufa'alu said he comes from a big tribe and his "people are not going to just sit back." When asked if they might take up arms and seek revenge, the prime minister said, "Others can do it. Why not?"
Tensions have been growing since 18 months ago when indigenous Guadalcanal residents, called Isatabus, began forcing out migrants from the nearby island of Malaita. About 20,000 thousand Malaitans have been expelled. Last week, a group of Malaitans raided an armory and teamed up with Malaitans in the police and paramilitary troops. The fighters, whose ranks include about 500 people in the capital, detained Ulufa'alu at gunpoint and demanded his resignation.
After less than a week of fighting, the Malaitans drove the outgunned Isatabus out of the capital and into the surrounding hills. Though both sides have honored an unwritten truce since late last week and looting has been rare, thousands of foreigners and locals have flooded out of the capital. Ulufa'alu, elected in 1997, accused Australia and New Zealand, the two major regional powers, of condoning the deal with the militants leading to his ouster. "Australia and New Zealand failed the rightly democratically elected government by accepting a watered-down version of democracy," said Ulufa'alu as puffed on a filterless cigarettes and gripped a lighter tightly in his other hand. The prime minister said the two countries rejected his request several weeks ago to send a few hundred troops to help ease tension.Now, he said, this group of islands of 455,000 people, made up of a complex mix of tribes and islanders, is on the verge of splitting.
The Solomon Islands, a former British colony, became self-governing in 1976. "Do Australians want this country to be fragmented?" asked the prime minister, elected in 1997. "Would it be cheaper for them to have three, five or six separate countries? This is something Australian and New Zealand voters should realize because it's going to fall sooner or later." Solomon Islands Foreign Minister Patteson Oti told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation radio that he had been pleading in vain with Australia to send troops to Honiara to restore law and order.
"We've been (asking for troops) every day and it has been rejected every day," Patterson said.
Australia has an amphibious navy ship HMAS Manoora moored off Honiara with 200 troops onboard to oversee the evacuation of expatriate Australians fleeing the unrest. Foreign ministers from Australia and New Zealand, visiting the Solomon Islands last weekend, said they wouldn't consider sending troops until local leaders can negotiate a peace agreement.
There has been concern that most of the 50 members of parliament will not show up for Thursday's vote, fearing for their safety. But the vote can take place if lawmakers do not request that the parliament speaker demand a quorum, or 26 total votes. The Solomon Islands include six main islands, famous for battles between Japan and the United States in World War II. President John F. Kennedy's PT-109 Navy patrol boat sank near the islands during the conflict.
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