8 Aug 2003

Civil Society in Solomons says RAMSI must link with it

4:30 pm on 8 August 2003

The Civil Society Network in Solomon Islands says it is important that the regional assistance Mission, or RAMSI, establish close links with it.

A spokesman, Mathew Wale, says they have had little contact in the first two weeks of the intervention.

He says this is understandable given the concentration on restoring security.

But Mr Wale says there is a necessity for Civil Society to be formally engaged in the process by the RAMSI team.

"It will be in their interest to engage civil society constructively and do that through a formal process. And it will also be in civil society's interests because the law and order situation is normalising, the political situation is becoming more fluid than before and so I think it is in their interest that civil society is engaged constructively"

A spokesman for the Civil Society Network in Solomon Islands, Mathew Wale.