The case to keep guns out of police hands in Solomon Islands

Solomon Islands is one of 26 nations in the world without a standing military. Yet the Pacific nation is also one of only two non-militarised countries – alongside Haití – to experience armed conflict. Solomon Islands offers a cautionary tale of the risks that gun importation can bring, and the value of pursuing disarmament as a tool for promoting peace.

Holding caches of weaponry in the country can be fraught with risk. During the period known as “The Tensions” from 1998–2003, stolen weapons raided from police armouries contributed significantly to the escalation of armed violence between the Malaita Eagle Force (MEF) and the Isatabu Freedom Movement (IFM).

Several raids were illustrative of the danger.

• In December 1998, six armed masked men held two Yandina police officers at gunpoint during a pre-dawn raid of the Yandina police station armoury. Having stolen the weapons, a month later, a shoot-out involving the same six men took place on Bungana Island while travelling to Tulagi in search of more police weapons.
• An early morning raid in January 2000 saw 14 men and three women from the MEF break into the armoury in Auki, obtaining 34 high powered guns and more than 200 rounds of live ammunition.

• In June the same year, the MEF and more than half of the Solomon Islands paramilitary force – which included the Police Field Force and the Rapid Response Unit – raided two police armouries, taking control of Rove police headquarters. They then seized weapons located on three patrol boats at the Bokona naval base and took arms and ammunitions stored at the Central Police station in Honiara.
• From there, one of the MEF units was deployed to the residence of Prime Minister Bartholomew Ulufa’alu, where they over-powered security staff and took possession of their weapons. Ulufa’alu was put under house arrest and told to resign. The MEF took police vehicles and spread onto the streets to control the movement of people and prevent any opportunistic looting or vandalism, as had happened two weeks prior in the Fijian coup. This weapons raid saw the MEF take control of more than 98% of the Solomon Islands’ offensive weapons and ammunition.
• Later in the day, the IFM made a raid on the Gold Ridge Mine site, overpowering police officers guarding the mine, taking weapons, including at least three machine guns.

While these raids were not the only source of arms, the inability of the government to secure its weapons raised significant concerns for the domestic population. Under RAMSI, the regional peacekeeping mission deployed in 2003, Operation Helpem Fren called for a nationwide guns amnesty, and saw 3,730 guns handed in and publicly destroyed, including 700 high-powered military-style weapons, along with more than 300,000 rounds of ammunition. This demonstrated RAMSI’s commitment to reducing the prevalence of guns in Solomon Islands. The country has been largely successful in maintaining low rates of gun violence since.

However, decisions to reintroduce guns into Solomon Islands over recent years have raised concerns about the possibility of renewed gun violence in the country. This includes the 2017 decision to rearm the police following the withdrawal of RAMSI, the 2022 donations of 95 replica rifles and 92 replica pistols by China and 60 MK18 rifles by Australia, as well as recurring allegations that the Chinese replica gun shipment contained real weapons. While each of these instances have involved a relatively low number of guns entering the country, a public outcry has ensued.

Arguments in favour of arming the police in Solomon Islands focus on the need to maintain order without need for foreign assistance. A better approach would be to focus on expanding the police and their linkages to the community. Solomon Islands has relatively small police force, especially in comparison to other non-militarised states. The global average police-to-civilian ratio is approximately three police per 1,000 civilians. However, with only 1,500 police officers to a population estimated at 758,000, the Solomon Islands sits well below this global average, with 1.98 police officers per 1,000 civilians, and has the second lowest ratio in the Pacific region after Papua New Guinea.

Given the limited resources in Solomon Islands for training officers, efforts should focus on expanding the police force through community engagement and community policing, connectivity with chiefs, and non-violent dispute resolution mechanisms. Focus on training in firearms is unlikely to bolster trust in and support for the police and is more likely to remind people of the role of the police and paramilitary in enabling the raids and the impact that weaponry had on the tensions. The memory of these events at the turn of the century still linger, so arming the police and supporting the importation of weapons risks further damaging trust.