RAMSI Review To Improve Partnership - Oti

Ramsi Review To Improve Partnership- Foreign Minister

Foreign Affairs Minister, Patterson Oti has rejected claims by his Australian counterpart, Alexander Downer that he wants to destroy the Regional Assistance Mission to Solomon Islands.

Mr Oti said all he demanded of the Australian-led mission was respect for the authority of the elected government of Solomon Islands and acceptance of its national development priorities.

He said the RAMSI had been operating as a parallel government in Solomon Islands since the Grand Coalition for Change Government was elected into office in May last year.

The Foreign Minister said the government's development policy was designed to effectively address the underlying issues of the ethnic tension which necessitated the deployment of RAMSI in 2003.

Mr Oti said the government's review of the Facilitation of the International Assistance Act which legalised the operation of RAMSI this year would be focused on fine-tuning that Act to ensure the mission's operation was in line with the development policy.

He said if RAMSI was genuinely concerned about lasting peace in Solomon Islands then it must work in harmonious partnership with the government in implementing the policy instead of working against the government and fuelling fears that violence would reoccur if it was to leave soon.

The Foreign Affairs Minister said the Solomon Islands government had expected a negative reaction from Canberra to the concerns he raised about RAMSI to the United Nations General Assembly meeting last week.

He said the RAMSI as it was operating now was serving the strategic interest of Australia and furthermore Australia itself was reaping the bulk of the economic benefits of the so-called regional intervention arrangement.

Mr Oti said the Australian-led mission was capitalizing on the ignorance of the uneducated Solomon Islanders and the carelessness of other few educated ones to rally support to remain in Solomon Islands as long as it could to protect Australia's strategic interest.

He said it would be irresponsible of the Grand Coalition for Change Government to allow foreign interests to control its development policy aimed at nurturing lasting national peace and unity through addressing the problems that led to the collapse of Solomon Islands in 2000.

ENDS

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