Australian officials last Friday brought warring faction leaders together for a compensation ceremony hosted by the newly-elected Solomons Prime Minister Manessah Sogavare on board an Australian warship anchored off the capital Honiara. Ironically, the event was timed to mark the 22nd anniversary of formal independence from British colonial rule. The staging of ceremony on the HMAS Tobruk highlighted the complete economic dependence of Sogavare's government on the Western powers. Part of the money was to compensate families of the 20,000 settlers from the island of Malaita who were driven off Guadalcanal during 19 months of communal conflict. Other payments were to compensate Guadalcanal people affected by the violence.
Foreign investment is now virtually invisible.
He appealed for cash from donor countries to fund the compensation plan. Australia and New Zealand, however, have refused to supply funds to the impoverished island state of just over 400,000 people until Sogavare's government secures a formal ceasefire and restores policing in the capital Honiara. Like his predecessor Bartholomew Ulufa'alu, who was captured by the MEF on June 5 and forced to resign, Sogavare has sought international assistance to restore governmental authority over the Solomons. Its real purpose, however, will be to protect the strategic and commercial interests of Australia and New Zealand, which dominate economic life in the Solomons and throughout the south-west Pacific, from Papua New Guinea to the Cook Islands. Owned by the Australian mining company, Delta Gold, it was the only major mining operation in the Solomon Islands, contributing up to 30 percent of GDP at peak production.