Note: One reason why I'm writing this is that I hate to see incorrect statements about the current situation in S.I. and leave them uncorrected. However, to really appreciate what's going on here and thereby be qualified to give opinions and comment on the situation, you really need to understand all that's happened, to see the big picture so to speak, and that's impossible without a sort of chronology of events.
Continuing my story...
Okay, we heard it first on CNN that Canberra had just authorized warships to evacuate Australian citizens, and we watched an interview in which Alexander Downer, the Ozzie Minister of Foreign Affairs, said that the ships would also evacuate any other foreign national who needed evacuating.
As it turned out, when the ships arrived, they took people from rich world countries, i.e. Australia, New Zealand, U.K., U.S. etc. but they refused to take anyone from China, Taiwan, Philippines, Malaysia, India etc. They did take the two dozen or so Fijian soldiers who were in S.I. as "peace monitors" under the U.N. banner.
As I recall, they were among the first to board, complete in U.N. colors. I was there at the wharf. I'm Malaysian by the way, but I haven't lived in Malaysia for a long, long time. The wife of one of my colleagues, who was pregnant at that time, was really pissed about this, but I kind of expected it. Anyway, I did specifically request to be allowed to stay behind. I thought it was all great fun
At the same time, more complicating factors: we heard news that the Western Province, backed by Isabel Province and Choiseul Province were making noises about declaring themselves independent of the Solomon Islands. As I said, they had no love of the Malaitan political elite in Honiara, and gangs of people started harassing and threatened Malaitan people who were living in Gizo, the capital of Western Province. One Malaitan youth was killed when he tried to fight back and that really angered the Malaitan population in Honiara.
Another important fact: Choiseul Province is located right next to Papua New Guinea, specifically, Bougainville island of PNG. Again, history buffs will know that Bougainville has been struggling for independence from PNG on and off for the past several decades, which means that they have 1) lots of guns 2) lots of experience in guerilla warfare. Add to the fact that many people in Choiseul and Bougainville are friends / family (it's after all only an accident of history that the two islands ended up in different countries), and you realize that the Western Province suddenly has military back up from some elements of the Bougainville Revolutionary Army (BRA).
Eventually the Malaysian community here lobbied the Malaysian government hard enough to get the Royal Malaysian Air Force to send a Hercules transport plane in and get some people (including those people from Taiwan, China, India, Thailand etc. that the Australians missed) out. A couple of colleagues went and all of the expat women and children, but most of us (including me) stayed behind.
The next few weeks was mostly life as usual in the capital, except for sporadic looting and gunfire, no police and no government. The MEF deployed their people at the outskirts of the city to keep out the GLA/IFM. They even took a bulldozer, fitted it with metal plating armor, drilled holes for guns, and used it to raze a few Gualais villages, but all that was far away from the city. In the meantime, the exodus of Malaitans from Western Province continued, and boatloads of armed BRA people zipped back and forth between Western Province and Bougainville.
After a while, the GLA/IFM, being vastly outgunned, simply sort of melted apart, except for Harold Keke's gang of die-hard rebels. The Australians came back in, organized a big meeting in Townsville, Australia, and got the remnants of the GLA/IFM, except for Keke's band who refused to participate, to sign a peace agreement (the Townsville Peace Agreement, TPA) with the MEF.
Under the TPA, the various organizations were supposed to disband and all armed parties were given an amnesty period within which everyone who voluntarily gave up their weapons would not be charged for any crimes.
So what's the problem, you ask? Simple, the stupid amnesty thing wasn't working, so when its time was up, they renewed it, then extended it again, and again, and again... Just today, I heard on the radio that they are going to extend the amnesty period for one ultra-final, absolutely Last, no exceptions permitted, time.
Somehow, I'm not convinced.
To be continued...