Solomon riot influence unknown: Keelty
May 09, 2006
This article from : AAP
THE role of Chinese and Taiwanese influences in the Solomons riots and in the corruption of officials in other parts of the region was unknown, Australian Federal Police Commissioner Mick Keelty said today.
"We are yet to unravel the role, if any, of Taiwanese and Chinese influences behind the recent violence in the Solomons," Mr Keelty told a security in government conference in Canberra today.
"These complex influences are exacerbating an already difficult relationship between the Malaitans and the Guadalcanalese.
"We need to ask ourselves to what extent is Chinese organised crime influencing, for example corruption of public officials in countries like PNG."
Violence broke out in Honiara after MPs elected Snyder Rini as prime minister on April 18. Mr Rini later quit and was replaced by rival Manasseh Sogavare last week.
Mr Keelty said many Pacific countries were made vulnerable to organised crime by poor governments and government structures.
"One of the great concerns about organised criminal groups, is that they tend to target the weak and vulnerable countries, struggling with poor governments and government structures, those that are struggling with social, political and economic instability.
"Such conditions allow these organised crime groups to set up and conduct operations with relative ease and substantially reduce the risk of detection.
"It remains to be seen for example, the large number of cash transactions that took place after the 18th and 19th of April violence in the Solomon Islands and where that money was transferred to and from."
Mr Keelty also said the riots last month would have been far worse without the work done by Australian police in recent years under the Regional Assistance Mission to Solomon Islands (RAMSI).
"More than 3700 weapons and 300,000 rounds of ammunition were seized and one has to wonder what the violence of the 18th and 19th of April might have been had those weapons not been removed from the streets.
"There have been more than 7300 arrests, 89 of those concerning members of the Royal Solomon Islands Police and there have been more than 10,000 charges laid."
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