12 Nov 2002

Solomon islands MP wants rebel leader Harold Keke to name those behind the 2000 coup

12:30 pm on 12 November 2002

A Solomon Islands opposition MP, Alfred Sasako, says he wants to establish who was behind the ethnic unrest and the coup of 2000.

He says there should be a broad-based effort to capture the Guadalcanal rebel leader Harold Keke alive, for him to reveal the background to the uprising.

Keke is at the centre of a police hunt after he claimed to have killed a number of Malaitan men and a cabinet minister.

Mr Sasako has described Keke as a walking encyclopedia of the architects of the unrest and suggested that the international community and the Brotherhood of the Church of Melanesia help persuade Keke to surrender.

He says some people may not want Keke to disclose what he knows.

"Those people I believe are pushing other elements to ensure that Keke is eliminated so that their roles in both fomenting the civil unrest and of course the coup could be hidden forever."