Document - Solomon Islands: A forgotten conflict
SOLOMON ISLANDS
A forgotten conflict
INTRODUCTION
Armed conflict in Solomon Islands, which began in October 1998, has resulted in a rapidly deteriorating human rights situation, with civilians suffering abuses by all sides, including abductions, torture, rape and killings, forced displacement, looting and burning down of homes. Amnesty International visited the islands of Guadalcanal and Malaita in September 1999, to investigate reports of violations and abuses of human rights, and to discuss concerns with the then government and armed political groups.In 2000, the conflict worsened, and a coup d'etat on 5 June 2000 overthrew the elected government, leading to an escalation in the fighting. Since mid-June 2000, at least 25 people, including seven civilians, have been killed, while an estimated 3,000 people have fled their homes1.
In this report, Amnesty International summarizes the background to the current conflict and details some of the human rights violations and abuses which are taking place. The organization also offers recommendations to all parties to the conflict and to the international community which could, if implemented, protect the civilian population from further abuses, and ensure accountability for the past.
BACKGROUND
The former British Protectorate of Solomon Islands, a tropical Southwest Pacific archipelago northeast of Australia, has a population of 408,0002and ranks amongst the poorest and least developed nations in United Nations statistics. Predominantly Melanesian3, more than three quarters of Solomon Islanders are subsistence or cash cropping farmers, and reside in small villages within culturally different island communities. These communities are grouped into nine provinces, including the main island of Guadalcanal (location of the national capital, Honiara) and Malaita - the most populous island. More than half the population live in Guadalcanal and neighbouring Malaita islands. Following the Second World War, thousands of Malaitans migrated to Guadalcanal, finding work in the development of Honiara from a former United States military base. Malaitan-dominated Honiara enjoys special political status as the national capital, separate from a Guadalcanal Provincial Government4and an elected provincial assembly with limited powers, who represent the rural population's interests at the national level. Since independence in July 1978, the country's parliamentary democracy5has been weakened by traditional loyalties of politicians to their home islands and by unresolved social and legal differences, particularly about customary and other forms of land use and ownership.
Isatabu Freedom Movement(IFM)
Collective name for armed political groups also known as "Guadalcanal militants", emerging between March and October 1998 and made up of approximately 500-2,000 indigenous Guadalcanalese villagers, including many child soldiers, mainly from the south coast and areas to the northwest and northeast of Honiara. Apparently without a single leader, several commanders representing eastern and western Guadalcanal groups cooperate in armed operations which in 1998 and 1999 focussed on driving out Malaitan settlers from rural Guadalcanal. In 1999, the IFM was also known as Guadalcanal Liberation Front, Guadalcanal Revolutionary Army (GRA), and Isatabu Freedom Fighters (IFF). Despite recent military setbacks, the IFM controls rural Guadalcanal around Honiara outskirts, extorting support from villagers.
Two years ago, tension between rival ethnic groups from Malaita and Guadalcanal island, resulting from such differences, escalated into violent conflict, which national and international mediation efforts have so far failed to end. In October 1998, armed political groups, initially known collectively as Guadalcanal 'militants' or Guadalcanal Revolutionary Army, but now calling themselves the Isatabu Freedom Movement (IFM), started a campaign of threats and intimidation against Malaitan settlers on Guadalcanal island, killing and injuring scores of civilians and causing an estimated 20,000 people to abandon their homes and seek protection in Honiara or on other islands. As a result, Honiara has become a virtual ethnic Malaitan enclave surrounded by roadblocks cutting off rural
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