Solomons PM raises resignation

Bartholomew Ulufa'alu: People will not just sit back

The prime minister of the Solomon Islands, who was seized at gunpoint last week, has said he will resign rather than face being thrown out of office by a rebel-inspired confidence vote.

Bartholomew Ulufa'alu said he would stay in office until Thursday, when the parliamentary confidence vote is due to be held.

The vote was part of a deal which won his freedom from the rebels, the Malaita Eagles Force (MEF).

The vote is an insult to my integrity, to my family and the people in my constituency

Bartholomew Ulufa'alu

But Mr Ulufa'alu said on Tuesday it was a "sheer mockery of democracy" which had been forced by the rebels to give their coup a veneer of legitimacy.

"The vote is an insult to my integrity, to my family and the people in my constituency," Mr Ulufa'alu told the Associated Press news agency.

"I don't want to be part of the new government," he added.

The agency reported that Mr Ulufa'alu chain-smoked throughout the interview, and appeared despondent.

Rebels of the Malaita Eagles Force demanded the vote

He also hinted that his resignation might trigger revenge attacks, and that the country could even fragment into different island nations.

"People are not going to just sit back," said Mr Ulufa'alu.

Mr Ulufa'alu also accused Australia and New Zealand for failing to send troops and for condoning the deal with the rebels.

"Australia and New Zealand failed the rightly democratically elected government by accepting a watered-down version of democracy," he said.

Evacuees from the Solomons arrive in Cairns, Australia

Australia and New Zealand have ruled out military intervention in the Solomon Islands, despite the country's repeated requests for assistance, although the Australian navy has been ferrying foreigners to safety.

Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said "getting peacekeepers to enforce a peace with no political settlement" was "pretty pointless".

'Payback' tradition

And New Zealand's Foreign Minister Phil Goff said: "We can't impose a solution, that's not how the world works."

He said he expected problems with the "longstanding Melanesian tradition of payback".

The conflict has sprung from a bitter fight over land and resources between the two ethnic groups from the main islands of Guadalcanal and Malaita.