Looting and rioting in Solomon Islands

Transcript

Solomon Islands police are holding 15 people in custody following rioting and looting in eastern Honiara at the weekend.

Another 35 have been released on bail but a police spokesman says further arrests are likely.

Don Wiseman reports.

The rioting occurred on both Friday and Saturday nights and police needed tear gas to subdue the offenders. The rioters left a shopping centre badly burnt and palm trees along a key street destroyed. Our correspondent says it is clear at least some of the rioters are victims of last month's floods and had been at the Panatina Pavilion camp at the National University. Dorothy Wickham says several businesses, mostly owned by Chinese, were wrecked but the initial target was the bottle shop in the complex.

DOROTHY WICKHAM: So they raided that first, took out all the alcohol that was in his stock, went off and drank it, got more drunk and then came back and lit the place. That is the sequence of events that I understand.

Early reports said the rioters were reacting to moves by the National Disaster Management Office and international relief agencies to shut down the remaining evacuation centres. There are also suggestions they thought the government was going to pay each family 20 thousand Solomons dollars, or nearly 3 thousand US dollars, to help them move back to their homes.

But the interim chair of the Flash Flood Victims Coalition Taskforce, which is representing the interests of flood victims in the evacuation centres, says people from the camps were not involved. Though Jeffrey Leni says people who had already been repatriated may have taken part.

JEFFREY LENI: They were no longer under the control of the Flash Victims Coalition Team. They were free and if they decide to get involved in the riot that is their own decision. That has nothing to do with the victims [in the camps]. And I can assure you that victims from Panatina right down to Rove, during that riot, they were not involved, because we have already told them not to participate in any illegal activity.

Mr Leni also says it seemed to be a political riot, not about the flood response.

JEFFREY LENI: From the information I hear myself I think they want the Prime Minister to step down. That is the main thing that when the people were marching on the street they were shouting, 'Prime Minister, Prime Minister Step Down' That statement alone indicates to me it is nothing in the interests of the victims.

The country manager for World Vision, the largest non government organisation providing flood relief in Solomon Islands, says it is not clear what sparked the rioting and looting. Andrew Catford says they hope it was an isolated incident.

ANDREW CATFORD: What people have been saying here is that there were perhaps a few people who came from the evacuation centres who had some complaints - how things were going, but also quite a lot of people from Burns Creek area, which is neighbouring a few of the evacuation centres. Quite a lot of unemployed people there, particularly youth, who perhaps saw this as a little bit of an opportunity to create a little bit of trouble.

And Andrew Catford says it is very unlikely the government would ever have offered money to people in the flood evacuation centres. He says there is a lot of awareness that such an offer would just bolster numbers in the camps which they have been trying to shut down.

ANDEW CATFORD: People expected different things, I think the talk of a, there was a $15,000 cash payment that was probably never on the cards. I think it's about giving people what they deserve to sort of get their lives back on track.

 Jeffrey Leni says cash payments from the Government have never been expected. He says they want to work closely with the National Disaster Management Office and other agencies.

JEFFREY LENI: So that we become part of this whole operation because we understand more who are the victims, so that what belongs to them in terms of sustenance and other kinds of relief assistance, go direct to those people who are in need rather than going to the hands of those who are not victims.

He says this work with the NDMO centres on identifying those genuine victims and also isolating new areas where victims can be permanently resettled.