Word: malaita
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...ridge above Honiara, at a memorial for Allied troops who died fighting the Japanese in the Battle of Guadalcanal six decades ago, Reuben Buarobo, 25, feels he is at last setting sail on his future: "As long as ramsi is here things will change," says the unemployed Malaita islander. "There will eventually be stable government and everything will...
...Islands on Monday found himself sharing his Fijian counterpart's fate. Gunmen from a tribal militia have taken Bartholomew Ulufa'alu hostage and forced him to announce his retirement. And although the two territories are thousands of miles apart, the link between Speight's actions and those of the Malaita Eagle Force in the Solomon Islands is unmistakable - both are the result of ethnic tensions that date back to the legacy of colonialism...
...dispute dates back to World War II, when the Japanese moved the territory's capital to Guadalcanal. That brought an influx, over the years, of migrants from the neighboring island of Malaita onto Guadalcanal, and the Isitabu group has waged a bloody campaign to evict them. Economic sanctions remain the West's most powerful response to such turmoil, but Western leaders have little stomach for an option that will punish the islands' already impoverished residents. Which is why it may be some time before Britain's former Pacific islands live up to the peace described in their name...
Planter Kuper reported that Communists had taken advantage of unemployment in the copra industry to incite the islanders. The movement, also called "Marching Rule" (Marxian Rule), was led by natives from Malaita Island, traditional headhunters who had been proselytized by Australian Communist servicemen. The Malaita agitators, according to Kuper, were in touch with a U.S.-organized Communist cell on Guadalcanal...