Heavily armed police have dispersed a crowd of about 200 thugs gunnies militants who surrounded the Prime Minister's office in the lawless and near-bankrupt Solomon Islands and demanded "goodwill" money. The tense stand-off outside Prime Minister Allan Kemakeza's office came a day after the tiny South Pacific nation approved a 2,000-strong, Australian-led intervention force to restore order after five years of violence and intimidation by ethnic militias. Police armed with M-16 rifles moved in after the unarmed militants, all former members of a militia from Malaita island, converged on Mr Kemakeza's office. They surrounded a finance ministry official demanding he sign payments of SI$2,000 ($AU653) for each of them.
| "Gimme so money so I can blow this town!" |
"Police are now in control of the situation," police commissioner William Morrell told reporters.
| "Ow! Okay! Okay! You're in control! Put that thing down!" |
The Solomons, a former British protectorate once know as "the Happy Isles", is teetering on the brink of bankruptcy and public servants have not been paid since September. Government offices and hospitals are often closed because staff have not been paid.
| But, hey! They're nobody's colony... |
Witnesses said the militants were former members of the Malaita Eagles Force, which fought bloody battles with a rival militia from the main Guadalcanal island from 1998, leading to a coup in June 2000. Some of the militants said they wanted money so they could leave the capital Honiara, on Guadalcanal, and return to Malaita. "We just want the SI$2,000. It's a goodwill payment," one unidentified militant told Reuters. "We want the money today so that we can go home."
| "Pay us off and we're outta your hair..." |
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