TMCnet News
LEAD: Australia, N.Z. to deploy troops to Solomon Islands+(Japan Economic Newswire Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge)SYDNEY, April 19_(Kyodo) _ (EDS: UPDATING WITH MORE INFO) Prime Minister John Howard said Wednesday that Australia will send troops to the Solomon Islands to restore order after a night of violence in the capital Honiara, while New Zealand said it will also send its troops there. Howard told reporters that soldiers would be immediately deployed from a Townsville base in Queensland. He said 110 soldiers "of a unit that has been in readiness for just this eventuality will go to the Solomon Islands. They will be joined by some 70 additional Australian Federal Police officers and that will represent an immediate and needed injection of additional security forces." Later in the day, New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clarke said that New Zealand troops will join Australian forces in the South Pacific nation to help quell riots. "The situation in Honiara continues to be a cause for concern," Clarke said in a statement. New Zealand will send 30 police officers and 25 troops, she said. The riots and looting, including the burning of shops and cars, began Tuesday after the Solomon Islands' parliament elected Snyder Rini, a former deputy prime minister, as prime minister. Crowds of demonstrators took to the streets claiming the vote was rigged, Australian Broadcasting Corp. reported. Nineteen Australian and New Zealand police officers were injured during the violence. The Australian Federal Police has been criticized for aggravating the situation in Honiara by firing tear gas at the protestors. "In my view, it was just misjudgment of the action of the officers concerned," the speaker of the Solomon Islands' parliament, Peter Kenolorea, told ABC. The violence is the worst unrest in the capital since Australia, New Zealand and other Pacific governments intervened in 2003 to end years of civil war. There are more than 250 multinational police in the Solomon Islands as part of the Australian-led Regional Assistance Mission. |