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Four people killed in Solomons shootout
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Posted on Nov 14 2000
Honiara (Solomon Islands Broadcasting Corporation/PINA Nius Online) – Police in Solomon Islands are investigating the deaths of four people in a shootout in the country’s Western Province, Radio Australia reports.
A group of Bougainvilleans went into the Gizo Hotel just after midnight local time, and tried to disarm two Bougainvilleans believed to have brought arms across the border, Radio Australia reported.
Shots were fired, and the two were killed, along with two Solomon Islanders – one from the Western Province and the other from Guadalcanal.
Two women from the Western Province received minor injuries.
Radio Australia’s Solomon Islands Correspondent reported the border between Solomon Islands and Bougainville has become a passageway for arms smuggling, after the Solomons’ ethnic unrest left the border unguarded.
Bougainville was recently scene of a secessionist war from Papua New Guinea and lies close to islands of the Western Province of the Solomons.
The people of these islands have close links with the Bougainvilleans.
Solomon Islands militant forces from Guadalcanal and Malaita who have been battling on Guadalcanal, home of the capital Honiara, have been handing in their arms under the Townsville Peace Agreement.
