Expatriate Sees Canberra Headed In Wrong Direction
Sydney Morning Herald
Thursday June 15, 2000
Don Austen, a wiry knockabout Australian in his fifties who has been living in the Solomon Islands for 21 years, has a bit of advice for Canberra and the diplomats who represent it.
He says they should reconsider plans to contribute millions of dollars to a compensation scheme intended to defuse the islands' violent ethnic conflict.
Australia has offered to fund a large part of compensation claims for up to $60million, and the matter has been raised in Cabinet.
``There is all this talk of compensation but, rather than being down to government, it should be between the people involved that is how `custom' works," said Mr Austen, whose small tyre retreading business has been temporarily shut by the strife.
What did he think about Canberra's offer of funds?
``I think that is a step in the wrong direction," he said.
``Once that starts, people will just have their hands out for more and more. It will push wider problems under the carpet and then they will resurface again as more claims are added."
An estimated 350 Australians have left the Solomons but more than 500 remain, about 400 in the capital, Honiara. Many of those who have elected to stay own property and operate businesses, while others include doctors, engineers and technicians.
Mr Austen said he thought part of the problem was that Australian diplomatic staff in Honiara were talking to the ``wrong people" at the top of the local political system.
``They don't mix much with ordinary people or even talk to expatriates who have been here for a long time," he said. ``You hardly ever see them at the clubs."
The compensation issue goes back to late 1998, when people on the main island of Guadalcanal, where Honiara is, sought about 2.5 million Solomon Islands dollars (less than $1million) for land occupied by squatters from the neighbouring island of Malaita.
However, frustration at failure to resolve the demand led to Guadalcanal militants driving out thousands of Malaitan families, who in turn sought compensation for loss of their living areas as well as for the dozens of people killed.
Local observers say a contribution of about $8million from Australia towards settling outstanding compensation claims fuelled further demands, some of which were highly exaggerated.
Said one Solomon Islands journalist: ``It was a big mistake to pay compensation because now everybody is after it as they think Australia and the international community is going to pay.
``Traditionally compensation was all about exchanges of shell money and pigs. It was more a way of using `custom' for the purpose of reconciliation.
``But now it is just coming down to getting some money. A lot of people who are making claims never really lost anything."
One Solomon Islands minister has been appointed to negotiate with Australia and other governments on the formation of a compensation fund. It is believed that even some government ministers plan to make substantial compensation requests.
Mr Austen came to the Solomons to work in the timber business, but lost his left arm in an accident in 1981. Now he stays with relatives of his islander wife who run a vehicle repair business.
He thought some expatriates had ``jumped the gun" by fleeing the islands in the past week. However, he admitted he was concerned about how the rival militias could be disarmed.
© 2000 Sydney Morning Herald