Solomon Islands
New documents expose New Zealand surveillance of Solomon Islands
By Tom Peters, 24 March 2015
New Zealand spies on the Solomons and other Pacific countries to defend its imperialist interests in the region.
“Super cyclone” Pam hits South Pacific islands
By Will Morrow, 14 March 2015
While the full scale of the destruction is yet to emerge, the storm has flattened entire villages in Vanuatu, with unconfirmed reports of dozens killed.
Major floods devastate Solomon Islands
By Allan Leigh, 15 April 2014
Tens of thousands made homeless by the disaster now face the danger of dysentery and other diseases.
Ten killed in Solomon Islands tsunami
By Oliver Campbell, 8 February 2013
The tsunami’s impact is an indictment of the callous indifference of the Australian and New Zealand governments toward the plight of working people in the South Pacific.
Australian government prepares “transition” for Solomon Islands intervention
By Patrick O’Connor, 13 November 2012
Nearly 10 years after dispatching hundreds of troops, federal police and government officials, Canberra is winding down RAMSI’s military component.
Solomon Islands: Australian police accused of bribing witnesses
By Will Morrow, 28 October 2011
There are obvious parallels between the failed prosecutions of Dausabea, Ne’e, and Bartlett and the continued efforts of the Australian government to convict former attorney general Julian Moti.
WikiLeaks cables reveal US role in Australia’s “regime change” in Solomon Islands
By Patrick O’Connor, 14 September 2011
The 2006 cables shed light on US backing for Canberra’s aggressive interventions in the Solomons and across the South Pacific.
Australian High Court concludes hearing into Julian Moti appeal
By Patrick O’Connor, 5 August 2011
The seven High Court justices heard further allegations of serious violations of the rule of the law by the Australian government in the South Pacific.
Unlawful Australian government action alleged in Julian Moti case
By Patrick O’Connor, 4 August 2011
The Australian High Court is hearing an appeal by former Solomon Islands’ Attorney General Julian Moti alleging that the government’s attempt to prosecute him is politically motivated and unlawful.
Australian High Court prepares to hear Julian Moti appeal
By Patrick O’Connor, 30 July 2011
The High Court will next week hear the appeal of the former Solomon Islands attorney general, who has waged a five year battle against the Australian government’s attempt to prosecute him on what he alleges are “politically motivated” statutory rape allegations.
US delegation tours Pacific island states
By Frank Gaglioti, 18 July 2011
The initiative was aimed at reinforcing US dominance in the region and came as the Obama administration stepped up its provocative efforts to contain Chinese influence in East Asia.
In blow to Australian government:
High Court agrees to hear Julian Moti appeal
By Patrick O’Connor, 9 April 2011
The former Solomon Islands’ attorney general won an important victory yesterday in his ongoing battle against the Australian government’s efforts to open a politically motivated criminal trial, based on trumped up statutory rape allegations.
Solomon Islands government accuses Canberra of destabilisation drive
By Patrick O’Connor, 12 February 2011
Solomon Islands Prime Minister Danny Philip has accused the Australian Labor government of plotting to bring down his government.
Julian Moti prepares High Court challenge to Australian government’s politically motivated charges
By Patrick O’Connor, 8 January 2011
Former Solomon Islands’ Attorney General Julian Moti is preparing a High Court challenge to the Australian government’s politically motivated attempt to prosecute him on statutory rape charges.
Solomon Islands: New coalition government formed
By Peter Byrne and Patrick O’Connor, 1 September 2010
The national election was only the second to be held under the watch of the Australian-dominated neo-colonial intervention force, the Regional Assistance Mission to Solomon Islands (RAMSI).
Solomon Islander shot dead by Australian-led intervention forces
By Patrick O’Connor, 16 August 2010
Military personnel with the Australian-led Regional Assistance Mission to Solomon Islands shot and killed an unarmed local man and wounded another in an incident on the outskirts of the capital, Honiara, last Thursday.
Australian government resumes vendetta against Julian Moti after appeals court reinstates charges
By Patrick O’Connor, 14 August 2010
The former Solomon Islands’ attorney general is once again threatened with trial on politically motivated statutory rape allegations, following a decision last month by the Queensland Supreme Court of Appeal to overturn an earlier court ruling that the charges be dismissed.
Australian court hears prosecution appeal against Julian Moti verdict
By Patrick O’Connor, 2 June 2010
Public prosecutors yesterday asked the Queensland Court of Appeal to overturn the legal victory recorded by former Solomon Islands Attorney General Julian Moti late last year when the Australian government’s attempt to prosecute him on politically motivated statutory rape charges was blocked by the Queensland Supreme Court.
Papua New Guinea report highlights illegality of Moti arrest
By Patrick O’Connor, 13 March 2010
The report is further confirmation of the provocative character of the witch-hunt waged by the Australian government against the international and constitutional lawyer.
Australian government prosecutors appeal Julian Moti verdict
By Patrick O’Connor, 26 February 2010
Australian public prosecutors have issued a notice of appeal against a court ruling last December that threw out statutory rape charges against former Solomon Islands’ attorney general Julian Moti.
Earthquakes, tsunami destroy villages in Solomon Islands
By Frank Gaglioti, 11 January 2010
Earthquakes and a tsunami hit the Solomon Islands’ Western Province last week, destroying entire villages.
Solomon Islands’ parliamentarian denounces WSWS during debate on Australian intervention force
By Patrick O’Connor, 9 January 2010
The growing nervousness of the Solomon Islands’ and Australian governments in the face of escalating domestic opposition to the Regional Assistance Mission to Solomon Islands found peculiar expression in the country’s parliament last month, with prominent parliamentarian Peter Boyers denouncing the World Socialist Web Site.
Political lessons of the Julian Moti affair
By Patrick O’Connor and Linda Levin, 23 December 2009
The extraordinary five-year vendetta has cast light on Canberra’s neo-colonial operations in the South Pacific, as well as the complicity of the entire political and media establishment—ranged across the official political spectrum, from the openly right wing to the ex-radical “left”.
Australian government frame-up of Julian Moti collapses as court throws out charges
By Patrick O’Connor, 17 December 2009
In an important victory for democratic rights, former Solomon Islands’ attorney general Julian Moti has succeeded in blocking the Australian government’s attempt to frame him on statutory rape charges.
Solomon Islands: parliamentary report rubberstamps Australian-led RAMSI intervention force
By Patrick O’Connor, 17 November 2009
A report released by the Solomon Islands’ parliamentary Foreign Relations Committee last Thursday brushes aside many serious issues regarding the legal status of the immunity of RAMSI personnel from Solomons’ law.
New Zealand university administration calls police on protestors
By the Victoria University of Wellington ISSE, 16 November 2009
In a blatant attack on democratic rights, two former university students were arrested when they attempted to deliver a petition to the administration of Victoria University of Wellington (VUW) in New Zealand on October 21.
Australia-Sri Lanka deal for joint crackdown on Tamil asylum seekers
By Richard Phillips, 13 November 2009
By reaching a deal with Colombo—that is, with the regime responsible for the oppression of Tamils—the Australian Labor government is legitimising its police state measures and nullifying the basic right of all people to seek asylum under international law.
Trial by media in Australian terrorism case
By Mike Head, 13 November 2009
Despite objections by defence lawyers, highly-prejudicial and untested prosecution evidence was released to the media in Australia’s latest large-scale terrorist trial.
Australian Pabloites prepare NPA-style dissolution
By Laura Tiernan, 12 November 2009
The Democratic Socialist Perspective will dissolve itself into the ailing Socialist Alliance electoral front in January 2010. Modelled closely on France’s New Anti-capitalist Party, the DSP is making a pitch for allies in official bourgeois politics, above all the Greens.
Australia’s “rock solid” banks: the financial crisis one year on
By Alex Messenger, 11 November 2009
The corporate press claims that the Australian financial system has survived the global financial crisis because of good regulation and sound banking practice. In truth, Australian banks only survived because of unprecedented government intervention.
Australia: Julian Moti defence closing submission outlines “oppressive and unfair” prosecution
By Patrick O’Connor, 10 November 2009
Defence counsel for former Solomon Islands’ attorney general Julian Moti issued its closing submission to the Queensland Supreme Court on Friday.
Tamil asylum-seekers reject Australian government demands
By Richard Phillips, 9 November 2009
The Rudd government is intensifying its pressure on 78 Sri Lankan Tamil asylum seekers aboard the Oceanic Viking to disembark and enter Indonesian immigration detention centers.
Fiji expels Australian and New Zealand diplomats
By Frank Gaglioti, 7 November 2009
Tensions between Fiji and the two regional powers, Australia and New Zealand, intensified further this week after Suva expelled two top diplomats for interfering in the country’s internal affairs.
Unanswered questions over Australian offshore oil spill
By Mike Head, 7 November 2009
Throughout the oil spill crisis, the Rudd government has been preoccupied with protecting the image and profits of the multi-billion dollar offshore drilling industry.
Australia: Qantas aircraft engineers vote for industrial action
By Terry Cook, 7 November 2009
About 190 professional engineers at Qantas voted by 98 percent to take industrial action after seven months of negotiations for a new work agreement failed to resolve issues over pay and working conditions.
Workers Struggles: Asia, Australia and the Pacific
7 November 2009
The World Socialist Web Site invites workers and other readers to contribute to this regular feature.
Julian Moti case: Enormous sums paid by Australian police to alleged victim’s family
By Patrick O’Connor, 6 November 2009
Hearings over the past two days have been dominated by two key issues—Australian complicity with lawyer Julian Moti’s allegedly unlawful removal from the Solomons in December 2007, and the staggering amounts of money paid to members of the alleged victim’s family.
Australian Labor “left” bestows medal on General Petraeus
By Laura Tiernan, 6 November 2009
The photograph published in yesterday’s press of John Faulkner, the Defence Minister in the Australian Labor government, draping an honorary Order of Australia around the neck of General David Petraeus, speaks volumes.
End the persecution of Tamil asylum seekers by Sri Lankan and Australian governments
By Wije Dias, 6 November 2009
The plight of Tamils living in intolerable conditions in Sri Lanka has been brought into sharp relief by the tragic drowning of 12 Tamil asylum seekers attempting to reach Australia in a small vessel.
Australia: Latest refugee deaths—the Rudd government’s SIEV X
By Socialist Equality Party (Australia), 4 November 2009
The tragic drowning of 12 Sri Lankan Tamils northwest of the Cocos Islands on Sunday is another grim reminder that the election of the Rudd Labor government in November 2007 has changed nothing for refugees and asylum seekers.
Julian Moti defence counsel attacks Australian government’s “politically driven prosecution”
By Patrick O’Connor, 4 November 2009
In Queensland’s Supreme Court, defence counsel for former Solomon Islands’ attorney general Julian Moti condemned Australian authorities for “bringing the administration of justice into disrepute”.
“Pressure politics” at Sydney protest over asylum seekers
By Mathew Benn, 3 November 2009
A rally called by the Refugee Action Committee to protest the Labor government’s callous treatment of refugees was dominated by futile appeals for “compassion” from Prime Minister Rudd.
Australian government’s industrial “cop” prosecutes union over Qantas strikes
By Mike Head, 3 November 2009
The Rudd government’s Fair Work Ombudsman and Qantas are seeking fines, multi-million dollar compensation
Australian government’s “Indonesian Solution” in disarray
By Richard Phillips, 2 November 2009
Two weeks after an Australian customs ship rescued 78 Tamil asylum seekers, the unresolved standoff over their future has focussed attention on the Labor government’s inhumane and illegal treatment of refugees.
Australian imperialism, the 1999 East Timor intervention and the pseudo-left
By Patrick O’Connor, 2 November 2009
September marked the tenth anniversary of the Australian-led military intervention into East Timor. It is also a decade since a layer of pseudo “left” groups organised “troops in” demonstrations—performing a vital service for the Howard government and the Australian ruling elite.
Australian man faces lengthy jail term for “offensive” letters
By Mike Head, 30 October 2009
A Muslim man faces up to 14 years in prison for sending allegedly offensive letters to the families of Australian soldiers killed in Afghanistan.
Bridgestone closes plants in Australia and New Zealand
By Terry Cook, 29 October 2009
The Bridgestone closures, which end tyre production in Australasia, are part of a global restructuring of the auto industry, in the wake of the worldwide financial crisis.
Australian government intensifies crackdown on asylum seekers
By Richard Phillips, 28 October 2009
The Rudd government is planning an “Indonesian solution” paying Jakarta to incarcerate refugees intercepted while trying to reach Australia.
Sri Lanka: Plantation unions accept wage sell-out
By M. Vasanthan, 28 October 2009
All the plantation unions, including those that initially opposed it, have effectively fallen into line behind a deal that binds workers to poverty-level wages and productivity speed-up for the next two years.
Australia: Five men convicted of terrorist “conspiracy”
By Mike Head, 22 October 2009
Following one of the longest jury deliberations ever recorded—23 days—five Sydney Islamic men were convicted last week on terrorist “conspiracy” charges.
Australian government prosecutors suffer significant blow in Moti case
By Patrick O’Connor, 21 October 2009
Justice Mullins concluded that the police and prosecution’s failure to disclose all the relevant documents on time meant that defence’s cross examination of the prosecution’s witnesses could not proceed this week.
Moti defence counsel challenges Australian Federal Police witness
By Patrick O’Connor, 20 October 2009
Australian Federal Police agent Peter Bond was cross examined yesterday in the Queensland Supreme Court case brought by former Solomon Islands’ attorney general Julian Moti.
Australia: Rudd intervenes to block Tamil asylum-seekers
By Richard Phillips, 17 October 2009
Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd’s response to the Tamil refugees is completely predictable and reflects the views of the entire political establishment, from the crisis ridden Liberal-National coalition to the corporate media and the unions.
Australian Federal Police disclose 1,500 pages of documents in Julian Moti case
By Patrick O’Connor, 17 October 2009
On Thursday morning, Moti’s counsel Jim Kennan SC explained that in the previous 48 hours, the Australian Federal Police (AFP) had handed over more than 1,500 pages of documents.
New Zealand workers face deepening assault on jobs and conditions
By Chris Ross and John Braddock, 16 October 2009
Over the past two months, workers in New Zealand have faced an intensifying barrage of attacks on their jobs, wages, and working conditions.
Australia: Contradictory witness testimonies in Julian Moti hearing
By Patrick O’Connor, 15 October 2009
The Queensland Supreme Court resumed hearings yesterday on the application by former Solomon Islands’ attorney general Julian Moti, for a permanent stay of proceedings in the attempt by Australian prosecuting authorities to try him on charges relating to statutory rape allegations that were discharged by a Vanuatu magistrate in 1998.
Australia: Productivity Commission report rules out curbing executive pay
By Terry Cook, 13 October 2009
A recently released report by Australia’s Productivity Commission into CEO salaries has opposed any significant restraint on the multi-million dollar remuneration packages.
Australian government deports Sri Lankan asylum-seekers
By Richard Phillips, 12 October 2009
In line with the previous Liberal-National coalition administration, the Australian Labor government has begun deporting refugees it claims do not qualify as asylum-seekers.
SEP public meetings in Sydney and Melbourne
Seventy years since World War II: lessons and warnings
8 October 2009
The SEP/ISSE meetings will discuss the historical lessons of World War II. That terrible conflagration was not inevitable. It was above all the product of the treachery of Social Democracy and Stalinism, which betrayed the working class and enabled capitalism to survive the revolutionary convulsions of the preceding period.
The Australian Labor Party and the war in Afghanistan
By Socialist Equality Party (Australia), 7 October 2009
Since its election in November 2007, the Rudd Labor government has escalated Australian military involvement in the Afghan conflict. Just as Afghanistan is now referred to as Obama’s war, so it has become Rudd’s war.
Pacific tsunami relief efforts grossly inadequate
By Tom Peters, 7 October 2009
In absolute terms the number of people affected by the tsunami in Samoa, American Samoa and Tonga is small, but, per capita, the level of destruction is enormous.
Australia: The assassination of Michael McGurk and the stench of NSW Labor
By Alex Messenger, 5 October 2009
Revelations arising from the murder of Sydney loan-shark Michael McGurk highlight links between NSW Labor and an underworld of property moguls and violent criminals.
Workers Struggles: Asia, Australia and the Pacific
3 October 2009
Workers Struggles: Asia, Australia and the Pacific
Australia: The political issues facing Victorian paramedics
By the Socialist Equality Party (Australia), 1 October 2009
A “no” vote must be the first step towards a coordinated industrial and political campaign mounted in opposition to the grossly inadequate salaries and dangerous working conditions endured by ambulance workers, and in defence of the public health system as a whole.
Australian government lawyers demand Guantánamo compensation case be stopped to protect US alliance
By Richard Phillips, 29 September 2009
The government has intensified its efforts to stop Mamdouh Habib, a 53-year-old Australian citizen and father of four, from suing over its role in his illegal detention and torture in Pakistan, Egypt, Afghanistan and Guantánamo Bay between 2001 and 2005.
Severe dust storm hits Australian coastal cities
By Alex Safari, 29 September 2009
A huge dust storm blanketed large areas of Australia’s southeastern coast last Wednesday, covering cities and towns in the states of New South Wales and Queensland, before moving out to sea towards New Zealand.
“Fair Work Australia”: A union-enforced straitjacket on workers
By Mike Head, 26 September 2009
The trade unions are enforcing Labor’s industrial legislation that goes far beyond the previous government’s “Work Choices” laws in prohibiting nearly all strikes.
The Australian media and the Julian Moti case
By Patrick O’Connor, 24 September 2009
The Australian media has imposed an effective blackout on proceedings brought before the Queensland Supreme Court by former Solomon Islands’ Attorney General Julian Moti.
Behind the “day of action”: Australian university union enforces government agenda
By Mike Head, 22 September 2009
The purpose of the limited “day of action” called by the National Tertiary Education Union was to suppress any political struggle against Labor’s agenda, while cementing the union’s place in implementing it.
Australian academics’strike at UNSW: a few observations from the ISSE
By Mathew Benn, 19 September 2009
Academics and general staff at the University of New South Wales went on strike last Wednesday as part of the National Tertiary Education Union’s “National Day of Action”. Members of the International Students for Social Equality—which has a club on campus—visited the picket lines and spoke to strikers.
Australian court told witnesses were threatened in Julian Moti case
By Patrick O’Connor, 18 September 2009
The Queensland Supreme Court has heard allegations that witnesses called by counsel for the former Solomon Islands’ attorney general Julian Moti were threatened with the termination of their employment if they gave evidence.
Australia: University staff strike for “day of action”
By our reporters, 17 September 2009
Members of the National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU) at 16 universities stopped work yesterday to fight increased workloads, a blow-out in class sizes, casualisation and other attacks on jobs and conditions.
Australian court hears Julian Moti’s challenge to “politically motivated” prosecution
By Patrick O’Connor, 17 September 2009
The Queensland Supreme Court yesterday commenced hearings on an application made by former Solomon Islands’ attorney general Julian Moti for a permanent stay of proceedings in his prosecution by Australian authorities on statutory rape charges.
Rudd’s Education Revolution “a disaster for universities”
By our reporters, 17 September 2009
Macquarie University’s National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU) branch president Carolyn Kennett speaks with the World Socialist Web Site about the deepening assault on public tertiary education that sparked yesterday’s industrial action
Australia: UN envoy denounced after he describes Northern Territory “intervention” as racist
By Richard Phillips, 16 September 2009
All factions of the political elite came together last month to denounce the UN’s Special Rapporteur on Indigenous Rights after he criticised the federal Labor government’s policies towards Aborigines.
Paltry GDP growth promoted as proof of Australian “recovery”
By Alex Messenger, 15 September 2009
Quarterly growth of 0.6 percent might mean that Australia has dodged a so-called ‘technical recession’, but a closer study of the figures reveals that Labor’s massive stimulus package is far from the much touted “road to recovery”
Gillard’s “Teach for Australia”: a corporate-backed assault on teaching
By Katrina Morrison and Laura Tiernan, 14 September 2009
Teach for Australia will parachute unqualified teachers into disadvantaged government schools. Part of the Rudd government’s “education revolution”, the initiative is modelled on Teach for America and the UK’s Teach First.
Education deans oppose Teach for Australia
“Teachers need a depth of theoretical understanding”
By Laura Tiernan, 14 September 2009
Since the Rudd government’s Teach for Australia program was first publicly mooted at the start of 2008, it has been condemned by education deans at universities in Sydney and Melbourne.
Hundreds die in disease outbreaks in Papua New Guinea
By Frank Gaglioti, 12 September 2009
Outbreaks of dysentery, influenza and cholera have hit remote communities in the northern Morobe Province of Papua New Guinea in recent weeks. According to local authorities, more than 400 people have died so far.
Australia: Bail denial in terrorism case sets dangerous new precedent
By Mike Head, 11 September 2009
Three men accused of a terrorist conspiracy have been denied bail, with a magistrate saying they were politically opposed to the existing legal and political system.
Australia: Ambulance union sells out MICA paramedics campaign
By Terry Cook, 10 September 2009
The federal and state Labor governments, acting in concert with the Ambulance Employees Association (AEA), mounted a major operation this week to suppress a campaign by around 300 paramedics in defence of their wages and working conditions.
Australia: New details about “SIEV 36” refugee deaths expose official lies
By Richard Phillips, 8 September 2009
Detailed information about the explosion on a fishing vessel carrying Afghan refugees off the north-west coast of Australia last April underscores the seamless transition that has taken place from the former Howard government’s inhuman asylum seeker policy to that of the Rudd Labor government.
Australian car parts maker goes into administration
By Terry Cook, 8 September 2009
The jobs of hundreds of workers at car parts manufacturer ACL are in jeopardy after it went into voluntary administration despite a government bailout.
Australian government downplays huge oil slick
By Frank Gaglioti, 7 September 2009
A major oil and gas rupture from the West Atlas mobile offshore drilling rig off the northwestern coast of Australia is threatening to become a major environmental disaster. The leakage is unlikely to be plugged for weeks.
Australia: Specialist paramedics threatened with punitive sanctions
By Margaret Rees and Patrick O’Connor, 7 September 2009
Mobile Intensive Care Ambulance paramedics met in Melbourne, Victoria on Saturday and resolved to proceed with their planned resignations, to take effect this Wednesday, in protest over a proposed industrial deal agreed by the state Labor government and the Ambulance Employees Australia union.
Australia: Bushfire investigation report a whitewash
By Richard Phillips, 4 September 2009
The Victorian royal commission’s interim report into the February 7 bushfires makes no criticism of the state government, and its predecessors, whose policies are responsible for the tragic loss of life on February 7.
Australia: International students protest lack of access to student concession cards
By Mathew Benn, 4 September 2009
Hundreds of international students protested in Sydney and Melbourne on Wednesday to demand access to the same student concession cards provided to domestic students.
Australian companies write down $47 billion
By Alex Messenger, 3 September 2009
There have been massive corporate write-downs in the mining and property sectors, yet economists say that the downturn has already come and gone.
Former Solomon Islands attorney general challenges Australian government
Evidence backs Julian Moti’s allegation of “politically-motivated” charges
By Patrick O'Connor, 2 September 2009
International and constitutional law expert and former attorney general of the Solomon Islands Julian Moti is applying for statutory rape charges brought by the Australian government to be thrown out of court on the basis that the case is groundless and represents an abuse of judicial process.
Australia: Workers protest against Labor government assault on safety laws
By our correspondents, 2 September 2009
Workers in several cities demonstrated yesterday against moves by the Australian government to undermine occupational health and safety legislation. The trade unions, however, are merely seeking a place in drafting the new laws.
Unemployment and charity requests soar in Australia
By Chris Johnson, 1 September 2009
Applications for unemployment benefits and requests for emergency financial aid are rising rapidly, belying the official claims of a budding recovery.
Ten years since East Timor’s independence vote
By Patrick O’Connor, 31 August 2009
Yesterday marked the tenth anniversary of the referendum that saw nearly 80 percent of the East Timorese people vote to secede from Indonesia and become a separate nation-state.
Solomon Islands: Julian Moti challenges Australian government’s “politically-motivated” prosecution
By Patrick O’Connor, 30 May 2009
International constitutional lawyer and former Solomon Islands attorney general Julian Moti is challenging statutory rape charges now being heard in the Australian judicial system as trumped-up and politically motivated.
Solomon Islands report demands legal immunity of RAMSI occupation force be revoked
By Patrick O'Connor, 1 May 2009
In a major blow to the Australian government, the Commission of Inquiry report into the 2006 riots recommends that the legal basis of the Australian-dominated occupation force, the Regional Assistance Mission to Solomon Islands, be revised and that immunity of RAMSI personnel from local laws be revoked.
Solomon Islands unprepared for flood disaster
By Dragan Stankovic, 16 February 2009
A state of disaster was declared in early February in the 12 worst flood-affected wards of the Solomon Islands after at least 10 people died and 10 were missing, feared dead. The inadequate response of emergency services only underscores the fact that the Australian-led occupation of the country was never to assist the impoverished local population.
Solomon Islands’ parliamentary review highlights illegality of Australian occupation
By Patrick O'Connor, 14 October 2008
A parliamentary review currently underway into the Regional Assistance Mission to Solomon Islands (RAMSI) has shed further light on the illegal character of the Australian-dominated intervention force.
Solomon Islands dragooned into the "coalition of the willing"
By Frank Gaglioti, 2 April 2003
The absurdity of the Bush administration’s claims about the international support for its invasion of Iraq—the so-called “coalition of the willing”—is highlighted by the case of the Solomon Islands.
Canberra displays callous indifference toward storm-ravaged Pacific islanders
By Will Marshall and Peter Symonds, 4 January 2003
The first direct news of the fate of residents on four remote South Pacific islands ravaged by a severe tropical storm last weekend has come—not from the governments of the Solomons, Vanuatu, Australia or New Zealand—but from a journalist who landed on Tikopia island yesterday.
Solomon Islands begins implementing IMF demand for severe job cuts
By Peter Byrne, 21 November 2002
At the insistence of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the Solomon Islands government is pressing ahead with plans to retrench 1,300 employees or about 30 percent of the public sector workforce. The first group of sackings was due to take place last week.
Australia and New Zealand starve Solomon Islands of funds
By Peter Byrne and Mike Head, 17 January 2002
In what can only be described as a neo-colonial intervention, the foreign ministers of Australia and New Zealand visited the economically ruined Solomon Islands for 24 hours last week and delivered an ultimatum to its recently-elected government: unless it restores order and implements the economic policies dictated by the two regional powers, the new government will receive no foreign aid.
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