13 Apr 2010

Still no deadline for RAMSI exit from Solomon Islands

5:06 am on 13 April 2010

0500/pn"

The chairperson of talks on the Regional Assistance Mission to Solomon Islands says there's still no deadline for RAMSI's departure from the country.

RAMSI was first deployed almost seven years ago amid a decline in law and order.

Bob McMullan, the Australian Parliamentary Secretary for International Development Assistance, says last week's sixth Enhanced Consultative Mechanism talks were very successful.

He says it can be difficult to measure exactly where RAMSI is directly responsible for improvements but it's definitely helping Solomon Islands to make significant progress in some concrete areas.

"The corrections area which was a big problem and now five of the six institutions are meeting the minimum United Nations standards, which are pretty high standards so that is a real, concrete progress about which people were generally pretty pleased.

Bob McMullan says post-conflict reconstruction of nations is very difficult and RAMSI's doing a better job of it than any other organisation in the world.