Pacific / Solomon Islands

Victims of Solomons’ conflict urging government to finally act

08:33 am on 19 February 2018

Caroline Laore spoke to Koroi Hawkins

Victims of the Solomon Islands' bloody ethnic tensions in the late 1990s are still calling for action on reconciliation.

Parliamentarians are being urged to act on the recommendations of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission or TRC, according to one of its last surviving commissioners.

The commission was set up to identify causes of the conflict and chart a way forward for the country.

Caroline Laore said recommendations outlined in a TRC report were tabled in parliament in 2012 but have never been debated.

She said people all around the country contributed to the report hoping their stories would help create a better Solomon Islands.

"The conclusion was that government had a responsibility to protect its citizens but it failed because as we all know the police force was divided so then the citizens were left on their own."

"So the responsibility is there for the government to set up the reparations commission to bring restitution to a lot of the victims," she said.

A handout photo release by the Solomon Star and released on May 1, 2009 shows South Africa's Archbishop Desmond Tutu (2nd-L) greeting the Truth and Reconciliation Commissioners George Kejoa (L), Chairman Father Sam Ata (2nd-R) and Caroline Laore (R) during the launching of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in Honiara on April 29, 2009. The Nobel laureate and anti-apartheid hero launched a Truth and Reconciliation Commission in the South Pacific nation's capital aimed at drawing a line under the lingering ethnic tensions which have seen more than 100 people killed and 20,000 displaced in five years of unrest. AFP PHOTO/SOLOMON STAR/Charles KADAMANA / AFP PHOTO / THE SOLOMON STAR / Charles KADAMANA Photo: Solomon Islands Star/AFP