SOLOMONS: FM says NZ helping with review of RAMSI act
Updated
Solomon Islands Foreign Affairs Minister Patteson Oti says New Zealand has offered to assist his government in its controversial review of the RAMSI facilitation act. The act was passed in 2003 to enable member countries of the Pacific Islands Forum to intervene in Solomon Islands.
Presenter: Sam Seke
Speakers: Patterson Oti, Solomon Islands Foreign Minister
SEKE: Today's announcement by Mr Oti comes after his Australian counterpart Alexander Downer and the New Zealand Defence Minister Phil Goff expressed concern about such a review. But Patteson Oti told a news conference in Honiara today however that the review process of the RAMSI Facilitation Act is going ahead starting with a workshop this weekend.
He says the review process will include consultation with all members of parliament. Mr Oti says consultations will be made with all Pacific Islands Forum governments before any amendments are made to the Regional Assistance Mission Act.
OTI: In fact this process will kick start on the 28th of this month by holding the first consultations with all members of parliament. Then we'll go through the process slowly, one by one as we come to it. In fact there are a number of tasks to be counted out, eight. First this workshop, and then we will take the outcome of the workshop to brief members of parliament, and then the members of parliament will carry out detailed analysis of the provisions of the international Facilitation Act and then explain it to the public and then from this we'll carry out this workshop to further refine the review agenda . The review of the agenda will be explained to the public.
SEKE: The Solomon Islands Foreign Affairs Minister says he will then personally meet his forum counterparts to discuss the areas that the government wants reviewed. Mr Oti says his government will be taking up with the New Zealand government what assistance it needs for the review.
OTI: I, as Minister for Foreign Affairs will then engage in a comprehensive consultation with my counterparts in the region who are participating member countries informing them of what the people and the government of Solomon Islands have decided as to the areas that needed review. I'm glad to say that in my dialogue with the Prime Minister Helen Clark she was supportive and she has pledged that should the government need assistance for the review of the Facilitation Act New Zealand will be able to assist. This has been conveyed to the Prime Minister and we'll be conveying this to New Zealand as soon as we work out what sort of expertise we would need to assist the government and the parliament in the review of the facilitation international act.
SEKE: Mr Oti also says that the review is not to get rid of the Regional Assistance Mission but to ensure it operates in the best interest of Solomon Islands.
OTI: It should be noted that the rationale for the review is not to get rid of RAMSI, far from it, but rather to see how RAMSI can better support the government of Solomon Islands to address the root causes of the ethnic tension and drive the national development agenda forward that it operates within the bounds of our constitution and our laws of the country, fullstop.
