Foreign help sought

Soon after the police force arrest of VMF officers, Vanuatu Justice Minister Walter Lini confirmed the government had a few days earlier called on Australia to help crush a pay revolt within Vanuatu’s Mobiles Forces.

Lini said the Vanuatu government

had specifically approached Australia

through diplomatic channels with the view of obtaining some “back-up” to its police forces in a plan to arrest Vanuatu Mobile Force (VMF) soldiers.

“But the reply was so vague, non committal. We knew this would take a long time, and finally we decided it was better for us to do it ourselves.”

Lini said foreign aid donors thought Vanuatu should handle the situation itself. “If we had failed, they would have

given us back-up.”

In Canberra, a spokesman for Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said that Australia had offered to send a senior figure to Vanuatu to mediate between the government and the VMF.

An apparent coincidence caused con fusion here on the day of the arrests: a French Army Puma helicopter, carrying six soldiers, landed from neighbouring New Caledonia in Port Vila at around 9am and soon after took off again to northern Espiritu Santo island, before flying back to Noumea the same after noon via Port Vila.

It was a training flight, the French said, denying any connection between the events of the day and the Puma’s presence. ■