Solomon islanders dream of peace

By Phil Mercer BBC, Gela Island, Solomons

The warriors stormed out of the bush, brandishing spears and screaming. The whites of their wild eyes matched the war paint on their bodies. They demanded to know our business on their land.

Such traditional welcomes up and down the Solomons archipelago go back hundreds of years.

The Solomons public has welcomed the peacekeepers

It is a two-hour speedboat journey from Honiara to the village of Borohinaba, here on the northern side of Gela Island.

The vivid turquoise water and pristine reefs contrast sharply with the dusty, rundown streets of the capital. It is the same country, but a different world.

Here, national radio broadcasts keep the villagers informed of the progress of the Australian-led peacekeeping effort.

The paramount chief of Gela, Charles Koete, told the BBC News Online the future of remote communities relies on the multinational rescue mission.

"I really have hope that the intervention group will bring peace," he said.

"I believe that it will bring changes to the minds of our people," he said.

The trip across the bumpy waters of Iron Bottom Sound revealed a rugged land, covered in jungle.

A pod of 40 small dolphins escorted us on our way, surfing in the pressure wave at the back of the boat.

Crocodiles stalk many of the waterways. The history books tell of gruesome attacks on American sailors by sharks during World War II.

Further north, former President John F Kennedy - when he was a soldier in the US Navy - was shipwrecked when his patrol boat was split in half by a Japanese destroyer.

Subsistence

Gela is part of the Florida chain of islands. It lies between Guadalcanal and Malaita and was often caught in the middle of these warring islands during the ethnic conflict.

Around the coast at Haleta village, Godfrey Marasia, a community leader, explained how tough life had been in recent years.

I think the work these people are doing today will teach us a new lesson on how to live and how to rebuild our country to be the Happy Isles again Ribbie Lio, teacher

"There were many militants from both sides in the area and people in the village were afraid to leave," he said.

"They could not get the produce into the market, social services were cut down and medical supplies were not coming in," he added.

Four-hundred villagers live in Haleta. Small wooden homes, elevated on stilts, sit metres from the beach.

It is a subsistence community; fishing and farming are its mainstays. A modern school will allow the children to branch out in the future if they choose.

There is no electricity or sanitation but, as one foreign photographer remarked, these Solomon Islanders look far happier than most commuters on the London Underground on a Monday morning.

Root cause

Ribbie Lio, a primary school teacher, said she was delighted to see the international troops and police officers take control of her country.

"All around here the women are sitting under trees with their stories of the intervention force, and some stories we make up just to make us happy.

The ultimate success of the mission depends on future generations

"I think the work these people are doing today will teach us a new lesson on how to live and how to rebuild our country to be the Happy Isles again," Ribbie explained hopefully.

'Operation Helping Friend' aims to restore order and revive the economy.

Finding an answer to the long-standing ethnic tensions that caused the chaos may well be beyond this foreign intervention.

Mary Koete, a community elder on Gela Island, said that it was an issue the people of the Solomons will have to confront and sort out themselves.

"That's a big question. It may be hard but the important thing is we've got to address the root cause of the problem," she said.

"If we can't do that openly and honestly with trust then I should think that we will not be as noble as we should be," she said.