Riot squad officers at a
roadblock near the Taiwan embassy in Honiara. Chinese-owned businesses were
targeted by looters and rioters after the election of a new prime
minister.
Photo: Luke
Johnston
A blaze at Honiara's Pacific Casino Hotel
follows the looting and burning of Chinatown, writes Ian
Munro.
ONE of Honiara's newest
hotels, which had earlier sheltered Australians and New Zealanders from hundreds
of drunken rioters, was burning fiercely yesterday as police surrendered the
streets of the Solomon Islands capital.
An Auckland businessman,
Ray Vuksich, said 500 locals attacked the Pacific Casino hotel about 2am
yesterday: "It was unbelievable. They were trying to get up the stairs with
machetes and batons …They were waving their machetes around. Women were
screaming," Mr Vuksich said.
Robin Deamer, 33, an Air
Vanuatu employee based in Honiara, said the hotel was occupied by Australian
tourists and international aid officials. "What happened was a wave of rioters
moved up from town basically targeting any Chinese-owned business," he
said.
"It was pretty scary. You
hear small rocks coming through, and then they got bigger and
bigger.
"There was one room that
caught fire because they pelted a petrol bomb through one of the
windows."
Hotel secretary Lyndall
Helen said several rooms were looted. "All the windows and things are
broken. They stole all the computers and the bedding."
Mr Vuksich said the rioters were driven off after about 30 minutes by the
Regional Assistance Mission to Solomon Islands (RAMSI) police
force.
But yesterday afternoon a police spokesman confirmed that the Pacific Casino
hotel was ablaze. After the rioters "finished off" Chinatown they had turned
their attention elsewhere.
"By looking at the pall of smoke going up, it's quite an aggressive fire. I
am about three kilometres from it, the smoke is pretty black and it's completely
blotted out the sky … it's a fairly big fire," the spokesman
said.
Locals said the hotel came under repeated attack because it was owned by an
ethnic Chinese investor.
Quality Motel manager Lesley Nakada said rioters had also set fire to
buildings in the Ranadi industrial area. At the height of the riot, he said,
close to 1000 demonstrators gathered at Chinatown, where they were only briefly
confronted by police.
"When the crowd was here there were three RAMSI vehicles that drove straight
through and fired some tear gas and, from what we could see, they left." He said
the rioters went ahead with their attack on Chinatown.
"Chinatown is, like, almost completely burnt. Along the main street here, the
shop below the motel is burnt … all of them have been looted."
Rock-throwing demonstrators injured officers, most of them Australian Federal
Police, who suffered fractures or cuts during 24 hours of riots and looting.
Several were injured by broken glass as rocks were thrown through windows of
police vehicles.
About 50 Chinese shopkeepers were under Red Cross protection as the rioters
returned to completely raze the city's Chinatown precinct.
The police spokesman said there had been no lessening in the rioting that
broke out around midday on Tuesday. "There's still a lot of looting and burning
down in Chinatown. There's still some looting in the main street. Out towards
the National Referral Hospital there's a large group (of about 400) — that's
about a kilometre from the Pacific Casino (Hotel)."
Even in residential areas not directly affected by the riots, residents
reported chaos.
Lawyer Andrew Radclyffe, a resident for 25 years, said the lack of police
response was disturbing. "I have been downtown a couple of times today — one
time to see friends in Chinatown who said they had been there all night calling
police and there had been no response," Mr Radclyffe said.
"People were just wandering off with bagfuls of stuff taken from the stores.
There's been no problems in the residential suburbs, but what we have seen
(here) is women, children as well as men, walking back past where we live with
obviously stolen property, exhibiting no shame at all."
Mr Radclyffe said that unless police were to increase their presence on the
streets there was no point to the 6pm-6am curfew announced
yesterday.
Dr George Kabwere said government services were not functioning. "It's
totally chaotic around here. The situation is still pretty serious and I think
it's going to worsen," he said. "We are not expecting a return to normalcy any
time soon."
JULY 2003Australian-led Regional Assistance Mission in the Solomon
Islands arrives and halts the country's slide into lawlessness. This follows
more than a decade of ethnic violence and instability that threatens to make the
Solomons the region's first truly failed state.
DECEMBER 2004One hundred more Australian troops sent to stop the
spread of violence after the killing of Australian Protective Service officer
Adam Dunning in Honiara.
APRIL 2006Seventeen Australian peacekeeping police injured as violence
is sparked by the election of unpopular former deputy prime minister Snyder Rini
as Prime Minister.
Solomons MPs chose Rini as their leader despite a big swing against the
Government in the April 5 election.
The Age is keen to hear from anyone in Honiara. Email your details to
newsdesk@theage.com.au
Copyright © 2006. The Age Company
Ltd.