Australia Ventures Into Nation-Building

Six decades after U.S. soldiers landed here on Guadalcanal to drive out the Japanese, foreign troops have come back to this South Pacific nation, this time to halt years of ethnic fighting.

The quick -- and bloodless -- restoration of law and order by a heavily armed five-nation force led by Australia has won enthusiastic praise from the public.

The troops arrived in July at the invitation of the prime minister and parliament, and quickly took control of Honiara, the capital, and much of Guadalcanal, the main island. Without firing a shot, they arrested the country’s most feared rebel leader, confiscated thousands of weapons and began investigating government officials suspected of corruption.

“People are very pleased to see the intervention here,” said Victor Alikivara, 51, an unemployed electrician. “People venture everywhere now and go to places that used to be dangerous. The longer the intervention force stays, the better it will become.”

Since 1998, the former British colony has been plagued by fighting between two of the country’s main ethnic groups: natives of Guadalcanal and immigrants from the island of Malaita. The conflict has claimed hundreds of lives and forced 30,000 to flee their homes.

The deployment of 2,225 troops and police officers from Australia, New Zealand, Fiji, Tonga and Papua New Guinea is the first step in a plan to rebuild the country. The multinational force is committed to remaining for a decade, if necessary.

“The Solomon Islands was on the verge of becoming a failed state,” said Nick Warner, an Australian diplomat who is serving as special coordinator of the Solomon Islands intervention force. “I think we got here just in time.”

The intervention signals an effort by Australia and New Zealand to play a greater role in the South Pacific, where several island nations struggle with poverty, graft and lawlessness.

Some Australian policymakers have called for a Pacific Union modeled after the European Union, with a shared currency -- the Australian dollar -- and greater police cooperation. But others accuse Australia of bullying the smaller Pacific nations and attempting to “re-colonize” the Solomon Islands.

Last month, Australian Prime Minister John Howard visited the country for six hours and praised the multinational effort.

“What has been achieved so far is only the first stage,” said Howard, the first Australian leader to come to the Solomon Islands in more than a decade. “The next stage is a frontal assault on corruption and poor governance.”

The Solomon Islands, 1,200 miles northeast of Australia, gained independence from Britain in 1978. With nearly 1,000 islands and more than 500,000 people, it is one of the largest nations in the South Pacific.

Older residents still think of the United States warmly for its part in freeing the islands from the Japanese during World War II.

Some of the heaviest fighting of the war was on Guadalcanal, where more than 1,700 U.S. soldiers and 20,000 Japanese died in 1942 and 1943. Dozens of sunken warships lie offshore in what is now called the Iron Bottom Sound. About 200 miles to the northwest is the site where a Japanese destroyer sank John F. Kennedy’s patrol boat, PT-109.

With the wartime construction of the Solomon Islands’ first airport, the town of Honiara became the postwar capital, drawing immigrants from other islands and sowing the seeds of conflict.

Today the country is mired in poverty, with most people subsisting on whatever crops they can grow and fish they can catch. Nearly 80% of the population is illiterate, and government corruption is endemic. Most of the forests have been logged and the timber shipped abroad.

In 1998, fighting broke out between Guadalcanal natives, who long had believed that their land had been overrun by outsiders, and Malaitans, who had come to control much of the country’s economy, government and police department.

Malaitan forces, backed by some police officers, staged a coup in 2000, but sporadic fighting continued in many parts of the country. Australia brokered a peace agreement between the government and most rebel groups in 2002, but a climate of lawlessness still prevailed.

This year, the Malaitan-dominated government recognized that it had little chance of restoring order and accepted the offer of assistance from the Australian-led coalition.

When the first troops landed July 24, they moved quickly to take control of Honiara and outlying districts of Guadalcanal. The strategy of relying on overwhelming military superiority appears to be working, Warner said, although some trouble spots remain.

The intervention force declared a three-week amnesty and collected more than 3,600 weapons. Among them were about 600 military-style assault rifles, including many that had been taken from the police armory.

“People are sick and tired of the guns and the damage guns have done,” Warner said. “The large military footprint has caught the attention of people with guns. They prefer to hand them in than have them taken.”

Another of the mission’s successes was negotiating the surrender of Harold Keke, the leader of a native Guadalcanal faction that had been responsible for much of the violence. Keke, a former police officer who had refused to sign the 2002 peace accord, gave himself up when he realized that it would be futile to fight the heavily armed Australians.

“He was afraid,” one islander said. “He had never seen helicopters and real army trucks.”

Keke was charged Sept. 11 with murder in the shooting death of a member of parliament who was on a peace mission. Keke also was charged with involvement in the kidnapping of seven men who later were slain. Two other rebel leaders also have been charged with murder and kidnapping.

“No stone will be left unturned as we move to bring to justice all of those responsible for these atrocities,” said acting Police Commissioner Ben McDevitt, an Australian.

Unlike President Bush, who has reluctantly turned to nation-building in Iraq and Afghanistan, Pacific nations led by Australia have plunged headfirst into the reconstruction of the Solomon Islands.

“Nation-building could take years and years and years,” Warner said. “It’s a multiyear commitment.”

Warner said he hopes to send home hundreds of combat troops within months and replace them with more police officers. Among the duties of the foreign police will be training the Solomon Islands police force and rooting out inept and brutal officers. So far, four officers have been arrested on charges ranging from assault to drunken and disorderly conduct.

Unlike many peacekeeping missions around the world, the Solomon Islands intervention force was granted authority by the government to investigate corruption. More than a dozen Australian police officers have begun examining ministry records.

For years, government funds have disappeared while employees have gone unpaid, sometimes for as long as six months.

“The money comes in, but payments for police and teachers and civil servants are held up,” said John Vatehau, 65, an elder in the village of Tanavasa. “We don’t know where the money went.”

Warner says the mission has the authority to bring criminal charges against top officials, although that could be tricky because the government nominally remains in charge.

For now, the intervention force has won high marks in the capital and the villages.

In Kakabona, four miles from Honiara, the remains of a bridge blown up by Keke’s men lie by the roadside. Nearby, the jungle threatens to grow over burned-out shops and houses destroyed in the fighting. But the foreigners have turned things around by building a new police station for the village. Residents, who began trickling back to the area in 2001, are returning in greater numbers.

“The intervention force came in and made a big difference,” Police Officer Ubaldo Tiva said. “People feel free. Now they are not afraid.”

A mile up the road at White River, hundreds of people visit the roadside market; several months ago, only a few people came. Women, who used to fear harassment and brutality from thugs on both sides, welcome the chance to sell betel nuts and coconuts.

“Normal life had vanished, but now it’s starting to come back,” said Alikivara, the electrician. “The intervention force did this job very effectively. I have very great faith in people abroad who can help us.”