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Solomon Islands prime minister taken hostage, New Zealand diplomats Say |
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June 6, 2000
WELLINGTON, JUNE 5 (AP) - A rebel group fighting in the Solomon Islands took the prime minister and other government officials hostage Monday and put up road blocks around Honiara, the capital, officials in New Zealand said.
The rebels were demanding that Prime Minister Bartholemew Ulufa'alua resign within 48 hours, the officials said, but it was not immediately clear where he and the other government members were being held captive, or what had motivated the apparent coup attempt.
The armed rebels from the Malaita Eagle Force captured the officials early Monday morning and were holding them hostage on the main Solomon island of Guadalcanal, said Brad Pattersfield, the spokesman for New Zealand's Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade.
In Canberra, Australia, the country's Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade said the rebels had overrun key installations in the capital Honiara overnight.
The Malaita Eagle Force rebel group has taken over key installations in Honiara, including police stations, the Government Telecommunications Center and key intersections, the department said in a statement. "These actions represent a significant deterioration in the tensions between ethnic groups reported in previous travel advisories," the statement said.
It was not immediately clear how many fighters the shadowy rebel group had used in its attack or what kind of support it was receiving from the island's people.
Diplomats in New Zealand said the Malaita Eagle Force also had raided a police armory in Honiara and stolen weapons. The apparent coup was the second in the South Pacific in recent weeks.
More than two weeks ago, armed rebels captured Fiji's prime minister and more than 30 legislators in that country's parliament.
Since then, the military has taken power and accepted many of the rebels' demands, including dismissing the prime minister, the first ever elected from Fiji's ethnic Indian minority. On Monday, the hostages were still being held in parliament as the military sought a peace deal with the coup leader, George Speight.
In the Solomons, the Malaita Eagle Force and the Isatabu Freedom Movement rebel groups have been fighting for 18 months on the Solomons' main island, Guadalcanal. The Solomons are about 3,600 kilometers (2,230 miles) northwest of Wellington and 2,575 kilometers (1,600 miles) northeast of Sydney, Australia.
The Isatabu force has been fighting to push thousands of migrants from the nearby island of Malaita off Guadalcanal. Honiara, located on Guadalcanal, is largely populated by Malaitans.
The Malaita Eagle Force is resisting that effort, and at least 50 people have been killed or left missing in the fighting and 20,000 forced to flee their homes.
Peace talks between the warring factions in the Solomon Islands were called off last week, shortly before they were to have started. On Monday, it was not immediately possible to reach officials of the Malaita Eagle Force to discuss the coup attempt.
However, a source in the Solomons, communicating with The Associated Press by e-mail, said Andrew Nori, a spokesman for the militia, told Solomons radio station SIBC that the rebels had taken control of Honiara and were holding members of the government, including the prime minister, under "protective guard." They are demanding that Ulufa'alua resign within 48 hours, the source said on condition of anonymity.
The militia apparently was acting in cooperation with members of the Solomons' police "field force" - a small paramilitary unit which is the closest the Solomons Islands has to an army. The raid on the police armory added to the arms that the militia was already using, ones found by digging through World War II arms dumps. Guadalcanal was the scene of bitter fighting between U.S. and Japanese forces during the war.
Pattersfield, who was speaking after talks by satellite telephone with New Zealand's High Commission in Honiara, said it was not known where the prime minister was being held or why the rebels had taken him hostage.
Honiara Mayor Donald Fugui on Monday broadcast a statement to the city's residents warning them to stay home, Pattersfield said. The streets were reportedly mostly calm.
Australians were warned to avoid traveling to the South Pacific nation.
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