Ethnic Tension in the Solomon Islands: An Integrated United Nations Response.

The Solomon Islands, once a field in the Second World War, recently was confronted with another conflict, this time from within. Its roots lay in longstanding unresolved issues such as land ownership, control of resources and deeply embedded resentment towards the Malaitan population, who are seen as having acquired a disproportionate share of employment on the main island of Guadalcanal, where they have settled in large numbers over the past 30 years. The ethnic tension escalated in December 1998 when the Guadalcanal Revolutionary Army, also known as Istambu Freedom Fighters, started an offensive of active intimidation against the Malaitian settlers, resulting in a mass dislocation of people.

The conflict led Rime Minister Bartholomew Ulufa'alu to ask Secretary-General Kofi Annan for United Nations humanitarian aid. A joint UN assessment team was mobilized to travel to the Islands for a one-week mission.

The team focussed on a humanitarian response to the crisis, which had resulted in a de facto ethnic division in Guadalcanal, where between 15,000 to 20,000 ethnic Malaitans, representing approximately 20 per cent of the total Guadalcanal population and feeling prone to the intimidation campaigns of the militants, had fled from the countryside to the capital of Honiara, converting it into an almost entirely ethnic Malaitan city. The influx required the establishment of 11 evacuation centres, where the families lodged while awaiting a boat trip back to Malaita. At the same time, a large number of Guadalcanal people, possibly up to 12,000, who used to live in and around Honiara, felt forced to hide out in the rural areas surrounding Honiara for fear of reprisals by the Malaitans.

We could not visit the Guadalcanal people outside Honiara because of the still precarious security situation; and the police had established checkpoints around the capital to isolate the militants and as a short-lived attempt to deprive them of food supplies which limited the food flow to and from the capital.

Fortunately, this policy was changed, and the Red Cross was again able to deliver food to the interior of the island. At the evacuation centres in Honaira, we saw Malaitan families, remarkably fatalistic about their circumstances, who seemed only to desire to leave as they were "guests" and respected the fact that their Guadalcanal "hosts" had no longer extended their welcome.

The minimal conditions in the centres were sufficient for a short layover stay before travel. The Red Cross provided food and the people appeared to be in good health; long-term stay would have facilitated epidemic diseases. The local church groups and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) also provided assistance, but they did not have sufficient personnel, resources or experience to deal with a crisis of this magnitude. On the island of Malaita, our mission helped to overcome the absence of an organized humanitarian structure by bringing together the Malaitan Emergency Rehabilitation Initiative, or MERI, which means "women" in the local language. MERI consists of churches, NGOs, provincial and women's representatives. It has as its principal task the further assessment of the needs of the displaced and the host villages, mobilizing support among donors, as well as overseing the distribution of aid.

When visiting Malaita, we saw a number of internally displaced persons' host villages located in three different regions. We witnessed the "wantok tradition", whereby a single income-generating member of the family provides for the livelihood of up to 20 extended family members, as most returning families were able to stay with their remote wantoks in their village of origin or their ancestral village of origin, living together in one house, sharing the limited food available, surviving but suffering. The wantok custom was stretched to its limits and the displaced people and their guest families were happy to see that the United Nations found time and resources to provide a helping hand to this seemingly "small-scale crisis", which represented an enormous national challenge to these South-Pacific islanders. By providing both Malaitan and Guadalcanal people with short-term food and medical supplies, materials for construction of houses and a little moral support, the United Nations can help them to pick up th eir lives and underscores its endeavours to alleviate the suffering of all people throughout the world.