Abstract
The shadow of September 11 has reached the Solomon Islands. Australia's policy of nonintervention was abandoned in July when about 2,000 Australian-led troops invaded the islands. In the words of Australian Prime Minister John Howard, if the Solomons were to become a failed state, it could become a haven for drug running, money laundering, and terrorism.
Until former rebel leader Harold Keke began a four-year reign of terror on the Solomon Islands that included the murder of a government minister and six Anglican priests, Australia and New Zealand were unwilling to be regional sheriffs. They limited their interventions to evacuating foreign civilians caught up in the violence that began in 1998, refusing to get involved in any direct military deployment. They expected the local people to sort out their problems themselves.
July 30, 2003: Australian soldiers show newly arrived Tongans around a camp near Honiara, Solomon Islands.
That changed with the arrival of the Australian-led force–including personnel from New Zealand, Fiji, Tonga, and Papua New Guinea–which came to the Solomons with three objectives: to disarm militia groups, restore law and order, and help rebuild the country's economic and social infrastructure. The operation represents a new era in the South Pacific, a region traditionally neglected when it comes to outside attention and assistance.
After the Cold War ended, the United States seemed willing to let go of many of the ties that it had formerly seen as valuable. In terms of the broader international community's agenda, conflicts in the South Pacific have captured much less interest than struggles in other areas like Sierra Leone or Liberia. Perhaps this is because the total population of the South Pacific–from east of Australia all the way to the coast of Chile–is only a few million, less than the population of New York City.
There had been a grudging recognition by other South Pacific governments that violence in the Solomons was getting worse, with the government bankrupt, armed gangs running various parts of the islands, and the economy collapsing.
The Australian prime minister's June announcement represents a significant change in regional policy. Howard declared that it was not in Australia's interests to allow neighboring states to fail, leaving them with nothing to sell but their sovereignty. They might, for example, host terrorist groups or support terrorists by selling them citizenship and issuing passports to them. They could provide flags of convenience to ship crews with criminal motives, or create facilities for money laundering. Australians fear more trouble may be ahead; in his announcement the prime minister referred to failed states in the plural.
The Australian-led operation was not sanctioned by the United Nations. The coalition of South Pacific countries decided not to approach the Security Council for at least two reasons:
First, the level of violence (with the number killed in the hundreds) is relatively low compared to the violence in Africa and the Middle East. Although thousands of Solomon Islanders have been displaced and traumatized, comparatively few have been killed.
Second, it is likely that China would have vetoed any Security Council vote on this issue. China punishes countries that recognize Taiwan as a separate country, and the Solomons maintains diplomatic links with Taiwan.
The intervening countries decided that if they were asked to go in by the government of the Solomon Islands, they would do so. An invitation came from the Solomons parliament on July 17. While there was debate among the participating South Pacific countries about the appropriateness of an intervention, the action in the Solomons was not a U.S.-style Iraq invasion. In this case, the invaders were invited.
Some members of the Australian and New Zealand media fear that the problems of the Solomons extend across the South Pacific. To begin, many problems in the region are legacies of European colonialism.
The first Europeans to arrive in the Solomon Islands were the Spanish, sent in the sixteenth century from their colony in Peru to look for the fabled lost isles of King Solomon, reputed to be full of gold and silver.
There is gold on the islands, but there is far more potential wealth in fish, palm oil, timber, and foreign tourism. If the country had been able to develop economically, it would be wealthy by South Pacific standards.
In the late nineteenth century the islands were raided by “blackbirders” who captured laborers for work on plantations in Queensland and Fiji. A total of about 30,000 Solomon Islanders are believed to have been taken between 1870 and 1911. The British established a protectorate on the main islands in 1893 to try to stop this forced labor, and they seized other islands between 1898 and 1899. As a result, formerly independent islands found themselves part of a single colony.
The British did little to prepare the populace for independence. After World War II, in which the Solomons suffered a great deal, the British were anxious to get out of their colonial obligations as quickly as possible and with as little expenditure as necessary. The Solomons became an independent state in 1978, although the Queen of England remains the official head of state. The country has a population of about 450,000. English is the national language, but 68 other languages are spoken as well.
Ten years after the Solomon Islands gained its independence, violence erupted in 1988 between the people of Guadalcanal and migrants from the poorer island of Malaita. Toward the end of World War II, the United States built up the Guadalcanal facilities–such as Henderson Field, now the country's international airport–and Malaitians headed there in search of work. Over the decades, residents of Guadalcanal resented the migrants, who worked hard and bought local land.
In 1998 Keke became a leader of the newly formed Guadalcanal Liberation Army, and in 1999, unemployed youths formed the Isatubu Freedom Movement. Both groups sought to drive off the Malaitians, who, in turn, formed the Malaitian Eagle Force (MEF) to defend themselves.
The violence escalated, and the MEF, with help from police paramilitaries, deposed Prime Minister Bart Ulufa'alu in June 2000. Australia hosted peace negotiations in Northern Queensland, and the resulting October 2000 Townsville Peace Agreement called for disarmament, repatriation, and investigations into land ownership. New elections were held, but many of the underlying issues were not dealt with, leading to the July 2003 intervention.
The South Pacific's problems are not just ethnic; racial labels often serve political purposes. Economic growth could be the glue that holds these diverse societies together.
Many of the Western-style plans for economic development imported over the past three decades have failed. Governments have encouraged people to move into cash crops, companies to borrow from overseas banks, and foreign companies to invest. They have done what the textbooks have suggested, but what works in the West has not always worked in the South Pacific.
Meanwhile, Australia and New Zealand have unemployment problems of their own, leading to tighter immigration restrictions. This has reduced the opportunities for South Pacific islanders to work overseas and send money home to their families.
Another problem in many South Pacific islands is that, while they may have strong leaders, most lack a strong tradition of peaceful succession.
Some fear that the intervention in the Solomons is simply the beginning of a new era of instability. Disarming militia groups and restoring law and order will be difficult enough. Trying to rebuild or create economic and social structures will be even more difficult. As the post-colonial experiences in Africa and Asia have shown, there is no single solution for economic and social growth.