The paper said the Forum could seek help from the Commonwealth Secretariat or the United Nations to help address issues.

Laisa Taga
Three major challenges have been identified as important to the future of the Solomon Islands by the Forum Taskforce reviewing RAMSI .

The challenges are contained in a preliminary report of the taskforce, known as a “non-paper”‚ in Pacific Islands Forum speak. This has been circulated to the Australian, New Zealand and the Solomon Islands governments. According to Forum sources, responses from both Australia and New Zealand so far have been positive.

The taskforce was set up after Solomon Islands Government (SIG) concerns over the operation of RAMSI, the Australian-led Regional Assistance Mission to Solomon Islands. This was deployed in the Solomon Islands in July 2003 to help restore law and order after years of ethnic conflict. Its mandate is also to help rebuild good governance and the economy.

The taskforce comprises former New Zealand diplomat Neil Walters and Fiji’s former foreign minister, Kaliopate Tavola.

The second round of consultations are expected in mid-June, where Tavola and Walters will visit the rural areas of the Solomons.

A copy of the non-paper obtained by LETTER FROM SUVA said although the challenges fall outside the strict terms of reference for the Forum review, the taskforce feels the challenges of:
• identifying and dealing with the causes of ethnic tension;
• moving ahead with reconciliation; and
• charting the course of the federalism are of such overriding importance to the future of the Solomon Islands they should be brought to the attention of the Pacific Islands Forum. 

The paper said the Forum could seek help from the Commonwealth Secretariat or the United Nations to help address these issues.

“These activities are squarely the responsibility of the Solomon Islands Government and fall outside RAMSI’s strict mandate,” it says.

“Nevertheless, RAMSI will, on request, stand ready to provide logistical support to the SIG as it pursues these goals, subject to its resource limitations.”

On the regional character of RAMSI, the report highlighted a number of measures that would emphasise and reinforce the regional character of RAMSI. The measures include:

• BUILDING on the Forum Enhanced Consultative mechanism (at senior official level) which had its first quarterly meeting in February 2007 and was due to meet again;
• ESTABLISHING a Forum Ministerial Standing Committee to provide oversight and governance to the RAMSI operation.

This would be supported by the Senior Officials Consultative Mechanism and meet at six- monthly intervals with the Solomon Islands Foreign Minister and Solomon Islands Government Special Envoy to RAMSI and the Special Coordinator of RAMSI.  It would report to Forum Leaders, through Forum Foreign Ministers, at no less than annual intervals.

• APPOINTMENT of a suitably qualified person to the newly-established position of Pacific Islands Forum Representative in Honiara;
• APPOINTING more Pacific Islands people to RAMSI positions, particularly on the civilian side of the operations. The Forum should consider ways of assisting with the release of suitable Pacific Islands people (RAMSI has made commendable effort in this area but has come up against difficulties in securing the availability of interested Pacific  Islands people);
• ESTABLISHING a clear demarcation between AusAID and RAMSI activities and personnel in Solomon Islands. (The current arrangements have generated some confusion and uncertainty. RAMSI is currently looking at ways of achieving this clear separation.); and
• HAVING appointees to the position of Special Coordinator (appointed by Australia in consultation with Solomon Islands) endorsed by the Pacific Islands Forum.

Following on from this, the Special Coordinator would be expected to provide the Ministerial Standing Committee with regular reports on RAMSI’s operations.

On the SIG/RAMSI co-ordination, the taskforce has identified a number of measures that would:

• strengthen and regularise consultation and coordination, thereby help resolve issues around Solomon Islands‚ sovereignty;
• the alignment of RAMSI activities with SIG goals and priorities;
• the requirement for greater clarity and precision on RAMSI’s mandate, targets and goals;
• and the evident need for a more joined-up approach to reviewing progress towards those goals.

There is also an urgent need to improve dialogue and information flow in order to dispel the many misunderstandings that exist in SIG about RAMSI’s activities.

The measures include:

• Implementation of the SIG’s proposal to appoint a Special Envoy to coordinate SIG’s position on issues involving RAMSI, act as a liaison point for the Special Coordinator and supervise the work of sectoral committees to work alongside RAMSI on planning and evaluation in each area of focus;
• Regular (say, six-weekly) meeting of the Special Envoy, the Special Coordinator and the Forum Representative in Honiara with the SIG Cabinet to ensure that Ministers are fully informed of RAMSI activities and take ownership of its work, to guard against misunderstandings and confusion about RAMSI’s operations (eg. number and role of advisers) and to facilitate the resolution of any differences; and
• Acceptance that the Special Envoy and Special Coordinator will work closely together and be authorised to exchange letters to clarify issues and confirm understandings as to how the SIG/RAMSI partnership should operate.

On the legislative framework and mandate, the taskforce received a number of comments relating to RAMSI’s legislative framework. 

These covered questions such as RAMSI’s original mandate (spelt out only in general terms in the original documentation), the change in circumstances since 2003 and the question of immunities.

“The taskforce considers that while there may be some validity to the points made to it, in many cases the complaints are based on less than a full understanding of the situation or can appropriately and effectively be dealt with by the changes suggested above.

“It notes that there are closely inter-related documents (the Framework Agreement on Strengthened Assistance, the June 2003 Forum Foreign Ministers Outcome statement, the July 2003 Treaty between Solomon Islands and contributing Forum countries and the Facilitation of International Assistance Act of July 2003) that, taken together constitute both the legal Framework and the mandate for RAMSI. Changes made to any of these documents will require the opening up of all of them.

“It considers the suggestions on regionalisation of the operation and on strengthening dialogue mechanisms made would provide the equivalent of an agreed management or implementation plan on the achievement of RAMSI’s goals.

“It notes too that there are options other than legislative amendments which could effectively address the concerns expressed to us concerning RAMSI’s mandate.”