The senior police officer in the Regional Assistance Mission in Solomon Islands, has welcomed the sentencing of a former militant leader and two of his cohorts to life imprisonment for murder.
Harold Keke who led the so called Guadalcanal Liberation Front, and two of his commanders, Ronnie Cawa and Francis Lela, have been convicted and sentenced for the murder of the Cabinet Minister, Father Augustine Geve.
The murder happened at Haleatu village on the Guadalcanal Weathercoast in August 2002.
Some residents of the Weathercoast had been expecting Keke to return but the Regional Assistance Mission's top police officer, Sandy Peisley, says they have been conducting workshops there to explain the judicial process.
"We hold not only meetings within separate villages, but we also hold very large meetings where villagers, villagers from a number of areas around the Weathercoast will come and listen, and not only speak with RAMSI principals about what they see as their problem, but they also like to hear from us about what we are doing and what we continue to do."
