Dawn of stability

Vanuatu Coup

Police arrest VMF soldiers in early morning mid

Reports by Patrick Decloitre

Vanuatu’s police force on

November 12 arrested all Vanuatu Mobile Force (VMF) officers in a move to stop nearly two months of rebellion within the VMF.

However, most soldiers who had been arrested in this surprise pre-dawn opera tion were released the following day on the condition that they take an oath of

allegiance.

But some 24 officers (including the so called “stand-down” movement leaders) and one member of parliament, whom the government suspects of having stirred up the soldiers for political reasons, may face charges.

The soldiers, who had spent one day in Port Vila’s small jail and police headquar ters, were not charged but swore an offi cial oath of allegiance before Home Affairs and Justice ministers Robert Karie and Walter Lini.

One after one, over a hundred soldiers swore on the Bible and signed instruments prepared by Vanuatu’s Attorney-General, Oliver Saksak.

Outside Home Affairs Minister Karie’s small conference room, close to Port Vila’s Independence Park, the released soldiers were waiting their turn to appear and take an oath promising to “only use the powers given to maintain order and the chain of command”.

Before they went back to work, Acting Police Commissioner Peter Bong insisted they take this engagement “to make a new start and bring back confidence in this

country”.

At the time of writing, some 24 VMF officers and mutiny ring leaders were still in custody and could face charges, one of the gravest of which would be the abduc tion of the president at gunpoint on October 12.

Sato Kilman, MP for Malekula island the brother of the “stand-out” VMF group’s spokesman Samson Kilman, was also arrested by police.

On Tuesday, November 12, Vanuatu

woke up to a speech made live on nation al radio by newly appointed Justice minis ter Walter Lini, who had been given spe cial mandate by Prime Minister Serge Vohor to deal with the VMF crisis.

Lini said a special police operation to arrest “all VMF officers” had started at 4am and been completed by 5.30 am.

“They went in without any guns to the VMF compound last night. They arrested people with bare hands - all in one hour.

Most of them were sleeping,” Lini said, adding that the operation went “smooth ly”

Armed police officers wearing black woollen caps were on guard at the camp in front of the VMF Cooks Barracks - for the whole of the day preventing anyone from even stopping at the gates.

Local Television blong Vanuatu crew had their camera confiscated.

But in Port Vila town, life continued as usual with no sign of panic.

Vohor, speaking by telephone from Australia - where he was stopping over en route to Rome (Italy) where he is attend ing the United Nations-organised World Food Summit - later said in another live broadcast that the arrests were to ensure soldiers involved in last month’s abduc tion and last Thursday’s of a Australian adviser, David Schupp, would be prose cuted.

The VMF had seized, abducted and detained for several hours President Jean- Marie Leye Lenelgau and then Acting Prime Minister Barak Sope over an alleged SUS9BO,OOO in unpaid allowances to the VMF.

The soldiers involved were soon after given amnesty by the government. Last Thursday, an unarmed VMF commando

allegedly abducted, hit, interrogated

Schupp, who is in Vanuatu under Australian aid. Schupp was returned to his office several hours later.

Reacting to Schupp’s abduction, Vohor’s first secretary, Antoine Pikioune, said the government could not tolerate such actions any more and called on dis

ciplinary action against the officers involved.

The VMF, which consists of some 300 men trained by Australia and New Zealand under defence agreements, is responsible for maintaining law and order, providing disaster relief and a fire service under the authority of the police commis sioner. After the takeover, Lini said law and order duties had been shifted to the police. ■