Historical grievances and geopolitics at the heart of the latest civil unrest in the Solomon Islands

Article thumbnail of the Solomon Islands National Parliament, 24/6/2013, courtesy of Wikipedia Commons

A peaceful protest in the Solomon Islands state capital, Honiara, turned into civil unrest on Wednesday 24, November. Protesters initially took to the streets to voice their frustration against the national government and called for Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare to resign. The situation quickly escalated as a Parliament building, businesses in the Chinatown district, a school, and a police station were burnt down and, in some cases, looted. It prompted Sogavare to announce a 36-hour lockdown in the capital until Friday 26, November.  Lockdown was defied on Thursday. After two days of rioting, calm seemed to have returned to Honiara on Friday. A curfew for Honiara has been declared by the Governor-General. It is effective from 26 November until revoked. The civil unrest is generating regional cooperation among the Solomon Islands’ neighbours as Australia and Papua New Guinea (PNG) are sending security forces to the Solomon Islands following a request from Sogavare. Fiji also offered assistance. 

Grievances include a perceived lack of development in Malaita, the most populous island in the archipelago. There is also a long-running standoff between Malaita Province Premier Daniel Suidani and Honiara over the national government’s decision to end its 36-years old diplomatic relations with Taiwan in favour of China in September 2019. The Solomon Islands, one of the poorest countries in the Pacific, received $US500 million from Beijing in exchange for the move. The move was fiercely criticised by opposition leaders who condemned the shift in relation in an open letter released in July 2019. It warned against the risk of a debt trap and seeing land rights, the rule of law and cultural heritage being compromised by this new relation. Solomon Islands’ break with Taiwan benefits China as Beijing seeks to undermine Taipei and extend its influence in the Pacific, a diplomatic stronghold for Taiwan. In retaliation against the switch to China, the Malaita province organised an independence referendum in 2020. The national government dismissed it as illegitimate. 

However, to associate the protest solely with a quarrel between two political leaders over a geopolitical manoeuvre would overlook historical domestic issues. This civil unrest is the most recent iteration of a cycle of conflict that dates back to The Tensions – a low-level civil war that took place between 1998 and 2003. Disputes over the provision of government services, land, the distribution of primary resource rents, and access to development and livelihood opportunities drove the conflict. These grievances flared up again on Wednesday. Malaitan protesters, who believe they have not been granted the autonomy promised to them in 2000 under the Townsville Peace Agreement, also claim to have been denied development opportunities since that period. Likewise, longstanding concerns about corruption, insufficient consultation from the Sogavare’s government, the Covid state of emergency and the impacts of extended border closures on the economy have contributed to the latest riots.

The Royal Solomon Islands Police Force resources quickly reached a breaking point, prompting Sogavare to seek assistance from Papua New Guinea and Australia. The request for Australian assistance has activated a security treaty the Solomons signed with Australia in 2017. In response, the Australian government has deployed over 100 police and military personnel to the Solomon Islands. 23 members of the Australian Federal Police’s Specialist Response Group were immediately deployed to assist with riot control with a further 50 police officers to enforce security at critical infrastructure. The Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison also announced the deployment of another 43 military troops to aid Australian police officers. According to Morrison, the Australian deployment is expected to last a matter of weeks and is not an intervention in the Solomons’ internal affairs. He added that the purpose of the operation “is to provide stability and security to enable the normal constitutional processes, within the Solomon Islands, to be able to deal with the various issues that have arisen.”

This is not the first time that the Solomon Islands has been beset by violent civil unrest. Since its independence from the United Kingdom in 1978, it has witnessed several violent uprisings, a coup, and the rebellion of its population. On 18 and 19 April 2006, following the election of the new Prime Minister, Snyder Rini, Solomon Islanders took to the streets, sacked, and burnt down Chinatown as they perceived Rini to be influenced by Chinese business interests. Riots broke out again after Sogavare got elected for the fourth time in 2019. The Australian presence on Solomon Islands soil is not new either. Canberra ran the Regional Assistance Mission to Solomon Islands (RAMSI) from 2003 to 2017. It was a multi-country deployment of police, military, and government advisers, to address state failure in the country and put an end to The Tensions.

Tensions had been building up for quite some time. They are evidence of grievances that extend beyond geopolitics. As this new civil unrest shows, the underlying drivers of The Tensions are still present in the Solomons: inter-island and ethnic tensions, perceived inequities in the geographical pattern of development, high youth unemployment, and widespread poverty. The relief provided by Australia and PNG will not resolve the longstanding problems Solomon Islands is facing. To avoid another unrest, the national government must initiate dialogue with the population and consider reforming the political system. Otherwise, it will be difficult, if not impossible, to break the circle of conflict.