Solomon Islands police seminar

For A Change, Dec, 2004 by Mike Lowe

FOLLOWING A 'Winds of Change' conference in the Solomon Islands last June (see FAC Aug/Sept 2004) members of the Royal Solomon Islands Police held a workshop in September. Opening it, Assistant Police Commissioner Johnson Siapu called for 'a great revolution of character' to overcome division in the world.

Among the participants, from different communities, were people who had suffered in the Islands' recent conflict. Workshop themes included family values, trust, forgiveness and corruption, with such speakers as the Governor of the Central Bank, Rick Hou, who had turned down massive bribes, and Joseph Wong, a plantation manager who had paid back the equivalent of US$500,000 in unpaid taxes.

Gradually an atmosphere of honesty and trust developed. One who had been badly beaten during a coup in 2000 on the island of Malaita and rescued by the Red Cross spoke openly about his trauma for the first time. He ended by saying that he was ready to forgive. The next day three officers who had been involved in the coup apologized for their role, adding that they owed the whole police force an apology. In a ceremony of reconciliation the different ethnic groups embraced each other with many tears.

The participants have decided to meet every two weeks.