Craig Skehan; 12/10/06; www.smh.com.au
The Federal Police Commissioner Mick Keelty has called for the Solomon Islands to deport the fugitive Australian lawyer Julian Moti on child sex charges, rather than wait for extradition proceedings. However, the Solomons Prime Minister, Manasseh Sogavare, who yesterday defeated an Opposition no confidence vote, continued to defend Moti after last month appointing him as the country’s attorney-general.
There have been unconfirmed reports that Taiwanese funds could have been used to finance an ultimately aborted charter flight to help Moti avoid extradition from neighbouring Papua New Guinea.
PNG sources said that the planned September 30 charter flight (the day following Moti’s arrest at Australia’s request) was blocked after intelligence agencies heard of the plan.
However, the Australian Government is deeply concerned that the PNG defence force after the Prime Minister, Michael Somare promised Moti “safe passage” flew him on Tuesday to an airstrip in the western Solomons.
Moti yesterday appeared before a magistrate’s court in the Solomons capital, Honiara, charged with unauthorised arrival and not having a valid passport. He was remanded in custody for two weeks, but intends to mount an appeal in the Solomons High Court against the magistrate – funded by the Australian Government – who is dealing with his case. Moti claimed there was a danger of bias.
During the court hearing, an Australian-chartered helicopter hovered overhead as part of a big security operation that included the nearby national parliament.
At the National Press Club in Canberra yesterday, Mr Keelty said Solomons authorities should move to deport Moti because his Australian passport had been cancelled. Despite Solomons police co-operation in arresting Moti, Mr Sogavare has continued to allege there were political motives in trying to have him removed from the country.
The Australian Government believes Moti was involved in an attempt to free from prison two MPs allied to Sogavare who are awaiting trial on charges of inciting riots in April.
Mr Keelty said yesterday: “The lack of support for the extradition of a fugitive Australian citizens from the leadership of some of our neighbouring countries exemplifies the difficulties we face …”
He added: “A topic not openly discussed, but I think worthy of private contemplation at least, is ‘who is behind these issues? Who organised the charter flight last Saturday to spirit Moti out of Papua New Guinea. Who paid for the charter flight? And who is supporting the corruption in these countries?” Following his speech, Mr Keelty refused to elaborate.
But sources in Honiara said there were suspicions that money which came originally from Taiwan, as well as business interests, had been used for the foiled charter plan. This Moti saga has already exacerbated underlying tensions in Australia’s relationship with PNG, with Sir Michael Somare accusing Australia of a “diplomatic blunder” in the way his government had been embroiled.
Mr Keelty said yesterday he was concerned about “recent developments” involving both PNG and the Solomons. “If the criminal justice system is corrupted, or otherwise interfered with, a community is left with few options, the least desirable of those options is for them to take the law into their own hands,” he said.
Mr Keelty said if it had not been for the recovery of more than 3700 weapons since the Australian-led law and order restoration force arrived three years ago, he believed there would have been “numerous” fatalities in the April riots.
He pointed to shadowy vested interests behind violence and intimidation in the Solomons.
Charting a course within societies in flux – Mick Keelty; 12/1/0/06; is the Australian Federal Police Commissioner. This is an edited extract of a speech he gave yesterday to the National Press Club; www.smh.com.au
The Australian Federal Police have been steeped in the Western tradition of impartiality and prevention of crime, but is that best suited to international peacekeeping operations in morally ambiguous circumstances? In many cases, police in these situations are forced to operate and co-operate with governments and individuals who are either corrupt or involved in illegal or immoral activities.
A defence force can and is deployed by government without necessarily affecting its political standing. But taking on these new roles for us means weaving a course through politics to keep our apolitical character.
In July 2003, at the send-off for the Pacific Island Forum Police and Military Forces, I recall saying that the measure of our success in this operation would be measured by the people of the Solomon Islands “who we hope will say they are better off as a result of the intervention”. I think it is important that we maintain our focus on the community’s measure of our performance.
But if we are to consider that offshore deployments are as much to do with our own security as the changing nature of the threat, then we must accept that police have found themselves in a role formerly occupied by the military.
As the US national security analyst Lieutenant-Colonel Ralph Peters noted: “Soldiers are brilliantly prepared to defeat other soldiers.” He goes on to say that “the enemies we are likely to face … will not be soldiers with the discipline and professionalism with which that word implies in the West, but warriors – erratic primitives of shifting allegiance, habitually let to violence, with no stake in civil order”.
Add to this the cultural mix of ‘wontok’ and imperfectly governed democracies and you soon recognise that these are very different challenges.
The situation is exacerbated when one observes recent developments between our Government and the governments of Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands. Our interest is in upholding the criminal justice system. If the criminal justice system is corrupted or otherwise interfered with, a community is left with few options. The least desirable of those options is to take the law into their own hands.
We have seen some extraordinary events since the election of the current Solomon Islands Government.
Riots which were aimed at damaging certain elements of the Honiara community were professionally and responsibly handled by both the Regional Assistance Mission to Solomon Islands (RAMSI) and the Royal Solomon Islands Police. Had it not been for the removal of more than 3700 weapons by RAMSI in the early phases, then in my view the fatalities would have been significant.
I will have more to say once the judicial process in the Solomons is complete, but one has to question the wisdom of appointing as the new Police Minister a person alleged to have instigated those riots.
But that is the reality of these environments in which we operate. The call for a judicial inquiry into the riots by the Solomon Islands Government should silence any critic of the AFP who thought we were being precious when we were adamant about having immunity from prosecution as part of the conditions applying to our earlier deployments to Papua New Guinea where we no longer serve.
The lack of support from the leadership of some of our neighbouring countries for the extradition of a fugitive Australian citizen exemplifies the difficulties we face, but should also assure our resolve to support the criminal justice system.
A topic not openly discussed but worthy of private contemplation is who is behind these issues? Who organised the aborted charter flight to spirit the suspended Solomons Attorney-General, Julian Moti, away from PNG? Who is supporting corruption in these countries?
What if Moti were not a politician? What if he were accused of another type of crime, although it is hard to imagine a more deplorable crime than the one alleged. What if he were a person who committed a terrorist activity?
Policing is politically challenging but I think there is a balance achieved between how we are carrying out our functions and how the impartiality of policing is maintained. Above all, there is a need to support the criminal justice system because, provided it too has not been corrupted, it remains the last bulwark against anarchy.