Wantok Press: 11 July 2000
SOLOMON ISLANDS: FORMER PM BEATEN BEFORE HE FLEES CAPITAL
The Solomon Islands' former Prime Minister, Bartholomew Ulufa'alu, has been beaten and forced to pay $2000 compensation to the Malaitan Eagle Force before fleeing the country's capital, Honiara.
By DURAN ANGIKI in Honiara
HONIARA: Solomon Islands' former Prime Minister, Bartholomew Ulufa'alu, was
beaten and forced to pay AUD$2,000 compensation to the Malaitan Eagle Force
before fleeing the country's capital, Honiara.
Close associates of the former PM yesterday confirmed that Ulufa'alu was
abducted by several members of the Malaita Eagle Force at his residence in
Honiara over the weekend.
A former minister also confirmed last night that the former PM partly
related the story to him as he (Ulufa'alu) made haste arrangement to travel
back to Malaita Province on Sunday night.
During his preparation to leave Honiara, Ulufa'alu admitted being
running out of cash to pay for basic needs because the MEF had forced him on
the previous night to pay a compensation money to the militia.
The former PM's associates said the MEF took him (Ulufa'alu) to their
headquarters at the former Guadalcanal Provincial office in the heart of
Honiara and harshly interrogated him.
Following the more than one-hour interrogation, members of the MEF threaten
to kill the former PM and demanded the money before releasing him.
On the next day, the former PM fled Honiara on a ferry back to his home
constituency, Aoke Langalanga in Malaita Province.
A man closer to the former PM and MEF and of Malaitan ethnic origin said the
Eagle militia took Ulufa'alu for interrogation because he had at several
occasions previously got really drunk and swore at members of the MEF.
An attempt to get the leader of the MEF to comment was unsuccessful.
The Malaitan man said the reports that the MEF had beaten the former PM were
exaggerated but refused to neither confirm nor deny the payment of the
compensation.
Meanwhile, the Solomon Islands government yesterday forced to pay more than
AUD$80,000 to the Guadalcanal Province for the killing of the two members of
the Isatabu Freedom Movement by three Malaitans.
The killing of the two IFM wounded members at their hospital beds in Honiara
threatens to further derail the negotiation process to broker a peace deal
between the warring militant groups on Gualdalcanal.
Chairman of the government caucus, Charles Dausabea, last night revealed
that the payment has been made to the relatives of the victims through the
Guadacanal Provincial Premier, Ezekiel Alebua.
The government had intended the money to be split between the two victimsı
relatives in an attempt to salvage the current efforts to bring both parties
to the negotiation table.
Dausabea said the government minister of Ethnicity and Reconciliation
gave the money to the Premier at a meeting at Tetere in East Honiara.
HONIARA (July 10): The Malaita Eagle force broke into the casualty unit of the
Solomon Islands national referral hospital and shot dead two wounded members
of rival group, Isatabu Freedom Movement, yesterday (Monday).
A hospital spokesman said the incident took place at about 2pm, when three
MEF gunmen forced-open the casualty unit door and shot the victims, who were
lying hopelessly on their beds.
The armed men, who wore camouflaged uniforms with hoods, walked into the
hospital and demanded the keys to the casualty intensive unit.
When the duty nurses refused to hand over the keys, the three MEF members
broke-opened the door.
He said following the MEF action, on-duty nurses and doctors fled the
hospital leaving sick patients without care.
In a media statement issued last night (Monday), the MEF said it has no
knowledge about who did the killing.
Solomon Islands newly elected Prime Minister, Manasseh Sogavare, expressed
shock over the cold-blooded-murder of the two victims.
He assured in a message broadcast over the national radio that the
government would do everything within its power to bring the murderers into
justice.
Sogavare said his one-week-old government had spoken to the MEF-joint
operation over the killing and they had agreed to provide security at the
hospital.
The Solomon Islands Christian Association (SICA) also condemned the action
and called on the people involved to stop the aggression.
The victims were an 18-year-old and a 20-year-old man, who had been admitted
to the hospital in the countryıs capital, Honiara, on July 5 two days after
the MEF and IFM engaged in a major clash on July 3.
According to the hospital spokesman, the Red Cross brought the victims for
medical treatment after they were seriously wounded during the shootout.
One of the victims got his left-leg imputed while the other received surgery
to his lower abdominal and both were slowly recovering from their
operations.
The recent killing by the MEF members of the two IFM militiamen had only
complicated current negotiation talks held by the government between the two
warring militant groups.
Last Friday, the MEF also captured and badly beaten up three youths from the
ethnic Polynesia group of Bellona Island, claiming that they had been
engaged in anti-MEF scheme.