HONIARA: The markets of the Solomon Islands capital Honiara are again full with fish, tropical vegetables and betel nuts. Ships lie at anchor off the central town area and children are everywhere, shyly hiding behind their parents or running in carefree groups along the sides of the dusty, rutted roads.
It is a far cry from 2003, when an Australian-led intervention force arrived in July to end five years of civil strife which displaced an estimated 20,000 people and left at least 100 dead in the Melanesian state of half a million.
In those days, Honiara — with a population of around 50,000 people — would be nearly deserted by the afternoon as gangs of armed rebels, often drunk, would take over the streets as residents scurried home.
At the root of the conflict were ethnic tensions sparked by increasing migration of Malaitans to the neighbouring island of Guadalcanal and in particular to the national capital of Honiara.
Although peace has returned, the situation remains fragile. The civil strife cut GDP in half in an economy based chiefly on subsistence agriculture, forestry and fishing. It has yet to fully recover.
The government remains weak and the police service is being rebuilt after about a third of the 1,500 strong force was dismissed after the unrest.
Chief Justice Sir Albert Palmer admits that Solomon Islanders had given up reporting crimes, given the police in the past were responsible for many of them and the justice system had virtually collapsed.
Now things are changing. Some of the leading figures of the Malaita Eagle Force and the rival Guadalcanal Liberation Front are now serving jail sentences for murder after high profile trials. Former deputy police chief Wilfred Akao is serving two years jail for his part in the rape of a Honiara woman.
A former prime minister, Ezekial Alebua, has been charged with stealing 302,000 Solomon Islands dollars (41,000 US), money intended as compensation for families of Guadalcanal people killed in the unrest.—AFP
