21 Jun 2016

Lingering tensions for Solomons' govt to solve - RAMSI

11:57 am on 21 June 2016
The Special Coordinator to the Regional Assistance Mission to Solomon Islands (RAMSI) Quinton Devlin.

The Special Coordinator to the Regional Assistance Mission to Solomon Islands (RAMSI) Quinton Devlin. Photo: RNZI / Koroi Hawkins

The Regional Assistance Mission to Solomon Islands, RAMSI, says addressing the underlying causes of the ethnic crisis remains the job of the Solomon Islands government.

The Australian-led regional security mission was deployed to Solomon Islands in 2003 after years of ethnic conflict, fuelled by disparities, led to the breakdown of law and order and government.

Its military component wound down in 2013, and the entire mission is expected to end in June next year.

RAMSI's special coordinator, Quinton Devlin, said the Solomons' future political stability and security would be in the hands of its government.

"RAMSI was unapologetically and unashamedly a security first mission and we provided the time, the space, and the budgetary health," said Mr Devlin.

"In other words, the breathing space for successive Solomon Island governments to deal with these kinds of issues, to recover the lost ground, and to address some of these causes or underlying drivers of what led to the tensions."