[Many of the protesters came to the
capital, Honiara, on the island of Guadalcanal, from Malaita, the most populous
island in the archipelagic nation in the South Pacific, about 1,000 miles from
the northeast coast of Australia.]
In a national address late
Wednesday, Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare called the riots a “sad and
unfortunate event aimed at bringing a democratically elected government down”
and announced a 36-hour lockdown to allow authorities to investigate.
“Hundreds of citizens took the law
into their own hands today,” he said, claiming they had been “led astray by a
few unscrupulous people” whom he did not name but said would soon “face the
full brunt of the law.”
Many of the protesters came to the
capital, Honiara, on the island of Guadalcanal, from Malaita, the most populous
island in the archipelagic nation in the South Pacific, about 1,000 miles from
the northeast coast of Australia.
[The
small Pacific islands at the center of a big power play]
Tensions have simmered between the
two islands since the national government switched diplomatic allegiance from
Taiwan to China in 2019, a move opposed by Malaita’s premier, Daniel Suidani,
who claimed he had been offered a bribe to support the switch. Sogavare denied
the accusation.
Suidani pledged Malaita would never
engage with Beijing and terminated licenses of businesses owned by ethnic Chinese,
drawing a rebuke from the national government. Tensions grew in May when
Suidani sought medical treatment in Taiwan, a trip the
government said was “unauthorized.”
On Tuesday, members of Parliament
from Malaita put out a statement expressing fear over planned protests in
Honiara and calling on Suidani to “recall our people, our brothers and sons
from carrying out such a potentially dangerous and violent actions.”
Suidani said the protests, which he
did not attend, were the result of the government ignoring the people’s
concerns over a range of issues, including the diplomatic switch and
infrastructure projects.
“Whatever the government wants the
people to know, they must stand and tell them,” he told the Guardian on Wednesday amid the rioting. “They
cannot run away from problems. It will not solve anything.”
Hundreds of protesters began to
gather in front of the national Parliament building on Wednesday morning,
shouting for Sogavare to step down, according to videos posted
online by local journalists.
[Solomon
Islands recognizes Beijing as diplomatic stranglehold tightens around Taiwan]
By midday, smoke could be seen
coming from a grass hut next to Parliament where lawmakers sometimes gather.
Soon, the hut was engulfed in flames.
Sogavare said in his address that
protesters had “breached” the Parliament building and burned the hut, as well
as a police station and a building in Chinatown.
Charley Piringi, a local
journalist, said the building was a Chinese-owned shop, and photos of the fire
showed a sign with Chinese lettering licked by flames. Videos of the police
station showed cleaners picking through its charred ruins.
Georgina Kekea, another
journalist, tweeted that
her former school had also burned.
Salote Mataitini, a Fijian pilot,
said she was flying from Kiribati to the Solomon Islands when she and her
co-pilot landed in the midst of the unrest on Wednesday afternoon. The route to
their quarantine hotel was blocked because of the disorder, with police in riot
gear using shipping containers to close access to the port. When
the pilots arrived at another hotel, they found police officers clashing with
protesters.
“I got a shock when I first heard
the rubber bullets and tear gas because I thought I heard shootings,” she told
The Washington Post in a social media message. “As we entered the room . . . we were told to stay away from the windows.”
The violence continued into the
evening, according to Mataitini and Piringi, who saw fires burning in the
streets as he tried to shop for food before the lockdown began Wednesday night.
The Solomon Islands, best known for
intense World War II battles between U.S. and Japanese forces, lie in a
politically volatile region where Beijing has been expanding its influence,
including through its Belt and Road program.
Sogavare, who is serving his fourth
stint as prime minister, first came to power in the aftermath of a 2000 coup
fueled by tensions between ethnic groups in the islands. The conflict, which
began in 1998, claimed around 200 lives and lasted until 2003, when an
Australian-led force restored law and order.
The prime minister alluded to the
history of violence in his address.
“I had honestly thought that we had
gone past the darkest days in the history of our country,” he said. “However,
today’s events are a painful reminder that we have a long way to go.”
Read more
The
small Pacific islands at the center of a big power play
Solomon
Islands recognizes Beijing as diplomatic stranglehold tightens around Taiwan
China
intensifies Pacific offensive as Taiwan loses another ally
