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Global Policy Forum - UN Security Council Australia Can't Police Pacific: Howard
Sydney Morning Herald
June 5, 2000
Prime Minister John Howard condemned the attempted coup on the Solomon Islands today, but said there were limits to Australia's capacity to maintain stability in the Pacific region.
Malaita Eagle Force rebels seized Solomon Islands Prime Minister Bartholomew Ulufa'alu and Governor-General Father John Lapli at gun point in Honiara today, demanding Mr Ulufa'alu's resignation.
Foreign Minister Alexander Downer denied the second coup attempt in the South Pacific within a month, following George Speight's grab for power in Fiji on May 19, meant Australia had taken its eye off its own back yard. But the opposition said Australia could have prevented the coup in the Solomon Islands capital of Honiara if it had adequately responded to rising ethnic tensions there.
In condemning the coup, Mr Howard said it was as concerning to Australia as the ongoing stalemate on Fiji that inspired it. 'We ... utterly condemn the kidnapping of the prime minister and the governor-general by armed militants with assistance from elements of the police,' Mr Howard told parliament. And he said Fijian coup leader Speight's pursuit of a racial constitution was unacceptable to Australia.
'But in the final analysis, we have to make certain that any response we give to that situation, as we do to the situation in the Solomon Islands, is consistent with recognising the right of countries ultimately to make decisions about their own future,' Mr Howard said. 'And to make decisions as to whether foreigners should involve themselves in the internal affairs of those countries.'
Mr Downer said Australia had made an enormous contribution to helping the Solomon Island government contend with the 18-month-old ethnic conflict in which the indigenous people of Guadalcanal, the island which hosts the capital, have tried to drive out settlers from the neighbouring island of Malaita.
But the Fiji crisis had prevented Australia fulfilling its promise to Mr Ulufa'alu last month to provide an extra 50 police to bolster the Commonwealth Multi-national Police Assistance Group, Mr Downer said. 'Deployment has obviously been held up because of the coup in Fiji since Fiji was to be one of the major sources of police in the Solomon islands,' Mr Downer said.
But the opposition said the government had been warned by letter on May 5 of an urgent need for action. Labor MP Duncan Kerr, deputy leader of Australian delegation to the Solomon Islands, reported back to Mr Downer that the police were out of control and could not provide any effective security in the medium term.
Opposition foreign affairs spokesman Laurie Brereton said: 'Had they pursued a proactive policy when first asked instead of trying to minimise any Australian involvement, today's coup might have been avoided.'
He said urgent action may be required to evacuate the 700 Australians and other foreign nationals from the Solomon Islands if the situation worsened. A Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade spokesman said while contingency plans were in place, evacuation was not yet being considered.
Former Solomons MP Joses Tuhanuku, a trade union movement leader for 20 years now studying at the Australian National University, said the latest coup demonstrated a failure of Australian foreign policy. 'In its dealings with South Pacific neighbours, Australia has a big responsibility and they have to really look at its approach,' he told AAP.
But Mr Downer said Australia 'can't be held responsible for everything that goes wrong in a region which is a fragile part of the world'.
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