![]() This handout from the Solomon's Government Communications Unit shows the newly completed multimillion dollar Pacific Casino Hotel in East Honiara going up in smoke after it was torched by looters and rioters. Australia and New Zealand sped more troops and police to the Solomon Islands, where thousands of rioters threatened to destroy the capital unless the new prime minister resigned.
(AFP/SGC-HO) |
An overnight curfew and Australian troop reinforcements has restored calm to the streets of the Solomon Island capital Honiara after two days of rioting left parts of the city in ruins.
The curfew helped shops and transport links reopen in the city which was wracked by the burning and looting of mainly Chinese businesses following Tuesday's election of Snyder Rini as the new prime minister.
One Australian policeman was hurt overnight bringing to 35 the number of officers injured since the unrest began, said Paul Ash, the deputy coordinator of the Regional Assistance Mission to the Solomon Islands (RAMSI).
None of the injured, six of whom were Solomon Island police, were reported to be serious.
Government spokesman Johnson Honimae said the streets were calmer after the arrival of 110 Australian troops to bolster the existing RAMSI force that arrived in the nation in 2003 to end years of civil unrest.
The troops and foreign and local police were patrolling the streets of the capital in large numbers to prevent crowds from forming.
"There is less fear among citizens of Honiara and there are no looters around town," Honimae said.
Public transport, petrol stations and health clinics had reopened, although schools and banks remained closed. Power was being restored to areas damaged by rioting.
Around 40 shops were destroyed in the Chinatown area of the city during the two days of carnage that spread fear through the city's population of 50,000.
Around 10 were also burned in the central Point Cruz area, along with a hotel and casino complex on the eastern edge of the city and Asian-owned businesses in a nearby industrial area.
"There is still estimation of the cost of damage done in Honiara but it is expected to be in the millions of dollars. It will also take several years to rebuild the damage," Honimae said.
Frightened residents were stockpiling food in case the situation worsened, he said.
"There is now fear that there will be a shortage of foodstuff after most of the stock in the Chinese shops has either been destroyed in the fires or looted by rioters."
There were no reports of violence in other parts of the impoverished South Pacific nation of around 500,000 people.
New Zealand is flying in another 25 troops and 30 police Thursday, while a further 20 police will come from Fiji.
The rioting started Tuesday after supporters of defeated prime ministerial candidate Job Dudley Tausinga protested outside parliament before the rioting spread to other parts of the city.
Rini and outgoing prime minister Sir Allan Kemakeza have been tainted by allegations of corruption during the years of civil strife, while veteran MP Tausinga was seen by his supporters as offering a break with the past.
Chinese businesses were targeted because protesters alleged they were providing money for Rini to bribe other MPs for their support. Rini has denied the claims.
Rini, who has not yet been sworn in as prime minister, and Kemakeza are being guarded by police in "a safe place", Honimae said.
A demand by a citizens' group that he stand down has been rejected by Rini. He has offered instead to talk with protest leaders.
Robert Wales Feratelia, a leader of the group that presented the petition to Rini, refused the offer.
Rinis refusal to step down would mean "further destruction of properties in the city, especially to business houses and properties owned by cronies and financiers of the currently elected government," he was quoted as saying Thursday by the online version of the Solomon Star newspaper.
This week's violence is the worst since an Australian-led intervention force arrived in July 2003 to restore law and order following five years of civil strife.
The damage from the latest rioting is much worse than during the unrest, although more than 100 people were estimated to have been killed and 20,000 displaced before the arrival of RAMSI in 2003.