By Michelle Nichols
HONIARA (Reuters) - Australia, helping to keep the peace in the Solomon Islands after two days of violent protests in the capital, said on Saturday the need for economic reform was a matter of life or death for the South Pacific country.
Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer, during a brief visit to the still smouldering Honiara, also said corruption must be wiped out, but that there was a limit to what peacekeepers could do.
"Continuing with economic reform is a life or death issue for the Solomon Islands," Downer told reporters after meeting new Prime Minister Snyder Rini, seeking to calm fears about foreign influence.
"In the end, the future of this country is in the hands of the government and the people of the Solomon Islands. They ultimately have to chart their own destiny and be responsible -- we can only help."
Tuesday's election of Rini, who had been the deputy prime minister, sparked two days of rioting and looting in Honiara, where a curfew has been imposed and Australian troops are now patrolling the streets to ward off further trouble.
Dozens of buildings still smoulder in Honiara and derelict shops are daubed with obscene graffiti directed at Rini and an Australian-led police operation, but the central market was again bustling on Saturday as a sense of normality returned.
The military will lock down the Solomons parliament on Monday when MPs meet for the first time since an election earlier this month, the first poll since Australian-led peacekeepers restored law and order in 2003 after violent ethnic unrest.
Opposition parties have already moved a no confidence motion against Rini, which is due to go to a vote on Wednesday, with both sides claiming they have the numbers to be successful.
Former prime minister and leader of the opposition Liberal Party, Bartholomew Ulufa'alu, who was ousted from power during a coup in 2000, described the government as a repressive regime that was only paying lip service to economic reform.
"Continuation of the same regime would be like a time bomb," Ulufa'alu told Reuters. "What happened in Honiara is a reflection of what the nation as a whole wants -- the people want change."
CORRUPTION PROBLEM
Hundreds of Chinese targeted in the violence and forced from their homes, many which burnt to the ground, were being sheltered inside Honiara's police headquarters by the Red Cross. Beijing has requested the Solomons protect its nationals.
Honiara's small Chinese community was targeted after claims were made that Rini's government is corrupt and heavily influenced by local Chinese businessmen and Taiwan, which the Solomons recognises diplomatically. Rini has denied the claims.
Solomons voters ousted half their parliament, but it wasn't enough to unseat the government, with Rini elevated to the top job and on Friday naming 11 members of the previous government -- including nine former ministers -- in his 21 member cabinet.
However, he immediately suffered a setback with one of his chosen ministers -- a new MP -- declining the role and defecting, along with another government politician, to the opposition.
Unlike the last election in 2001, marred by armed gangs and reports of vote rigging, observers said the 2006 poll was free and fair. Corruption was the key issue after several ministers were arrested on graft charges in the past year.
"I made the point (to Rini) that it's very important that the political class builds the confidence of the people that ... there is a high level of accountability and transparency in order to ensure corruption doesn't continue," Downer said.
The Solomons, a chain of 992 islands covering 1.35 million sq km (520,000 sq miles) of ocean, teetered on the brink of collapse in 2003 when armed gangs fought over Honiara.
Australia then led a South Pacific force to restore order, warning that failed states could become terrorist havens.
Australia, New Zealand, Fiji and Papua New Guinea have all committed more troops and police to the Solomons since the latest unrest, bring the foreign peacekeeping force to more than 640.
Reuters (IDS)