"You can't shake hands with a clenched fist”

-Indira Gandhi

The Solomon Islands is a tiny country in Melanesia, east of Papua New Guinea. Recently, it was rocked by civil war (1998-2003) due to fighting between rival armed ethnic factions. The Solomon Islands were colonized by the UK in the 1890s, and some of the most bitter fighting of World War II occurred on this archipelago. Self-government was achieved in 1976 and independence two years later. For five years, ethnic violence, government malfeasance, and endemic crime have undermined stability and civil society (https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/bp.html). The violent struggle for political power, land, jobs, and status led to at least 100 deaths and more than 20,000 displaced. In 2003, the violence was quelled by Australian peacekeepers who continue to operate with the consent of the government of the Solomon Islands.

In August 2008, Shemuel Sam Iduri, Minister for National Unity, Reconciliation and Peace, introduced a Truth and Reconciliation Commission Bill to Parliament. On April 29, 2009, the TRC was formally inaugurated in the presence of Archbishop Desmond Tutu, (http://www.usip.org/resources/truth-commission-solomon-islands) with the hope that post the TRC the Solomon Islands would be able to move past the violence and start afresh as an autonomous government.

The objects of the commission are to promote national unity and reconciliation. The commission is tasked to engage stakeholders in reconciliation, and to examine the nature, antecedents, root causes, responsibility for, and the extent of the impact on human rights violations or abuses which occurred between January 1, 1998 and July 23, 2003. This is accomplished via a policy of recruiting witness testimonies from victims and aggressors, and granting amnesty to all who testify. In addition, the commission will recommend measures to prevent such events from reoccurring in the future. (Ibid) There is strong correlational evidence that Truth and Reconciliation Commissions may preempt future civil war in post war countries. Specifically, no country that employed a TRC post civil war has had a recurring civil war, thus it seems evident that a TRC, however indirectly, can only help the Solomon Islands!

However, due to lack of sufficient funding, the Solomon Islands TRC has had to put off its first provincial hearing till the end of May and there is a concern that the Commission will not be able to complete its work by its end of year deadline. As recently  as yesterday (May 3, 2010), Deputy Executive Secretary of the TRC, David Tuhanuku, says the Commission’s not receiving funding quickly enough from the government and the United Nations Development Programme, which is administering funds from other donors (http://www.rnzi.com/pages/news.php?op=read&id=53324). Please, urge the UNDP to disperse the funds more quickly, because there needs to be true reconciliation before the Solomon Islands can move towards a new constitution and a federal system of government, and once the momentum for the TRC is lost it won’t pick up again!

Help ensure that the victims of the Solomon Islands civil war can speak! Keep ethnic conflict from recurring! Sign this petition!

Please sign this petition and send it to other caring individuals.

For more information about the Solomon Islands TRC, please listen to :

http://mpegmedia.abc.net.au/rn/podcast/2009/04/lnl_20090430_2218.mp3

 

Please donate to the UN Foundation to ensure the facilitation of future TRCs:

http://www.unfoundation.org/

PLEASE FILL OUT THIS SHORT SURVEY TO DETERMINE THE EFFECTIVENESS OF THIS PETITION: 

https://spreadsheets.google.com/viewform?formkey=dGdtekg2NzFlSzB0alJ2Vmp5VldyUlE6MA

 Thank you!