CANBERRA - Australia has further beefed up its military presence in the Solomon Islands as the strife-torn Pacific nation heads into a tense week of political manoeuvrings.
Defence Minister Brendan Nelson said two patrol boats and a platoon of airfield defence guards had been committed, adding to the contingent of 240 Australian soldiers and 330 police already on the ground in the capital Honiara.
The patrol boat HMAS Townsville left yesterday and HMAS Armidale would depart later in the week.
Aside from unforeseen events, no further troop deployments were envisaged, Dr Nelson said.
The deployments, under the Regional Assistance Mission to the Solomon Islands (RAMSI), follow two days of rioting, looting and arson in Honiara last week, amid allegations the newly-elected government of Prime Minister Snyder Rini was in the pocket of Chinese businessmen.
The Labour opposition has proposed a vote of no-confidence in Mr Rini's government.
Dr Nelson said Australia was determined to send a clear message to trouble-makers in the country.
"We are determined to send a very strong signal to those people in the Solomon Islands that are causing unrest and have perpetrated the sort of activity and criminal behaviour this week that we've seen, to get a very clear message that we are not going to muck about," Dr Nelson said.
"Also, we think it's important this week, with the (Solomons) parliament sitting and some of the political tensions which Mr Downer has been dealing with in his visit there yesterday, that we make sure that we've got good and adequate forces available."
Dr Nelson said he agreed to a request from Defence this morning to dispatch a platoon of 25 airfield defence guards.
"Yesterday, we dispatched HMAS Townsville, from Cairns, one of our patrol boats, which will arrive in Honiara early tomorrow morning," he said.
"We would expect that later this week, HMAS Armidale will also arrive."
Two army Iroquois helicopters will be in service in the air over Honiara today.
"In terms of security, peace and order in a country like the Solomon Islands, it would be foolish to say that you think you've got it right and you won't need to allocate any more," Dr Nelson said.
"But we will judge it on a day-to-day, week-to-week basis.
"We will be there at this level for at least a month."
Dr Nelson said last night had been a peaceful one in Honiara, with just one arrest.
"We anticipate that tensions will rise in the next few days, not just Monday but throughout the week, with the parliament resuming and the vagaries of politics and what might happen," he said.
"We're just making sure that we're absolutely ready.
"But I wouldn't anticipate that over the next few days we will be required to deploy more.
"But, if we need to, we will and we can."
About 140 ethnic Chinese islanders fled the islands for China today, joining many others who have already left following the anti-Chinese rioting, which left Chinatown largely destroyed.
They are flying to China, via Papua New Guinea, on a Chinese government chartered plane.
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