The Australian: 30 June 1999
SOLOMON ISLANDS: MEDIA GAG FOLLOWS PEACE ACCORD
Tough new emergency restrictions have been placed on the media in the Solomon Islands following the signing of a peace accord aimed at paving the way for a resolution of the Guadalcanal crisis. The restrictions have forced the local Solomon Islands Broadcasting Corporation to drop its daily transmissions of Radio Australia, Radio New Zealand International and other international news services.
By MARY-LOUISE O'CALLAGHAN in Honiara
Original Title:
SOLOMONS MEDIA GAG
TOUGH new emergency restrictions have been placed on the media in the Solomon Islands following the signing of a peace accord aimed at paving the way for a resolution of the Guadalcanal crisis.
The restrictions have forced the local Solomon Islands Broadcasting Corporation (SIBC) to
drop its daily transmissions of Radio Australia, [Radio New Zealand International] and other international news services.
They give the Solomon Islands Prime Minister, Bart Ulufa'alu, the power to ban any
publication or broadcast that he deems "may incite violence ... cause racial or communal
disharmony or hostility".
Militants on the island of Guadalcanal, who have taken up arms to press their claims
against settlers from the neighbouring island of Malaita, were being briefed yesterday on
the planned implementation of the accord, although they were not a direct party to it.
Late on Monday night, the Commonwealth's special envoy to Solomon Islands, Fiji's
Sitiveni Rabuka, had signed the four-page accord that sets out the principles for ongoing
negotiations and officially acknowledges the Guadalcanalese's long-standing grievances
for the first time.
These primarily concern the loss of sovereignty over their island, which houses the
Solomons' capital, Honiara, and in particular the escalating loss of traditional lands to
settlers from Malaita.
For the past decade they have also been demanding the establishment of state government
for Guadalcanal and the powers to control land ownership on the island.
The accord, which provides for a review of encroached land, was counter-signed by the prime Minister and the provincial premiers of Guadalcanal and Malaita.
Although it makes references to the militants as a party to the negotiations that led to the accord, the document is not signed by any of their leaders.
Instead, Mr Rabuka, the former Fijian coup leader and prime minister, spent most of yesterday in the bush outside of the capital of Honiara, accompanied by several Solomon Islands cabinet ministers, in an effort to secure the participation of the militants in the peace accord.
This would require them to disband their arms and orgabisation and surrender their weapons to village elders at locations to be agreed to by Mr Rabuka.
It is not yet clear whether all the various militant groups are willing to cooperate with the accord, which notes a commitment by the Prime Minister to meet with them in the near future.
Concerns about the lack of amnesty for the militants were addressed today when they agreed to participate in the accord on the understanding that their demands would continue to be considered in the planned face-to-face negotiations with government officials.
Solomon Islands showdown ... a Guadalcanal Revolutionary Army member (left)
and Fijian peace envoy Sitiveni Rabuka.
Tearsheet: Brisbane Courier-Mail