Solomon Islands: How to explain the deadly riots?

This photo taken on November 27, 2021 shows the violence of the riots in the Chinatown district of Honiara, Solomon Islands.

AP - Piringi Charley

Text by: RFI Follow

3 min

The streets were calm Saturday, November 27 in Honiara, capital of the Solomon Islands in the Pacific Ocean, after several days of riots that left at least three dead and 56 buildings in the capital burnt and looted.

Advertising

Read more

The bodies of three people killed in the unrest were found in a store in the burnt-out Chinatown of Honiara on Saturday, police said.

An investigation has been opened to try to determine the causes of these deaths, the first listed since the start of the riots last Wednesday.

What had started as a small protest on Wednesday quickly turned into a violent all-out, with poor residents of the capital joining anti-government protesters in search of things to eat or sell through shattered windows and windows. Charred landfills, says AFP. 

Burned and looted buildings

For three days, angry crowds crossed the usually peaceful seaside capital to demand the withdrawal of Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare.

Fifty-six buildings in the capital have been burned and looted, and many businesses will have to wait more than a year to get back on their feet, according to early estimates from the Solomon Islands Central Bank.

The economic losses amount to nearly 28 million dollars (24.7 million euros), according to the Central Bank, dealing a hard blow to an already fragile economy.

More than 100 people have been arrested on suspicion of participating in the riots, Solomon Islands police said on Saturday, trying to restore order.

► To reread: Buildings burned in the Solomon Islands, Australia sends troops

The economic question

Two years of border closures, due to the coronavirus pandemic, ended up suffocating the already ravaged Solomon Islands economy, exacerbating unemployment and poverty in this archipelago of 800,000 people.

"

" Selson, a 32-year-old told AFP.

"

", according to this freelance worker.

A nighttime curfew and the presence of some 150 foreign peacekeepers sent by Australia and Papua New Guinea appeared to ease tensions.

Internal tensions between the islands

The causes of these riots are multiple. Besides the anger at the government and the economic hardships made worse by the pandemic, there is the historic rivalry between the inhabitants of the country's most populous island, Malaita, and those of Guadalcanal, the island where the administrative capital of the country. The people of Malaita feel abandoned by the central government, and disputes escalated when, in 2019, the government of Manasseh Sogavare decided to no longer diplomatically recognize Taiwan but the People's Republic of China.

In a nationwide speech, the pro-Beijing leader told citizens the country had been "

" by the riots, and vowed to resist calls for resignation. He also claimed that foreign powers opposed to his 2019 decision to diplomatically recognize China were at the root of the unrest.

This is not the first time that there have been anti-Chinese protests in the Solomon Islands, there had already been some in 2006. I think it is certainly due to the fact that the Chinese communities in particular, in the cities, are privileged links in terms of trade with China, and therefore since the years of China's economic rise, obviously benefit from the possibility of buying Chinese products at low cost and reselling them. I think that is also why they are targeted. On the other hand, I think we have to look at it more broadly, I think that we are perhaps in, I would say, the first conflict in the new cold war that we talk a lot about between China and the United States, given that what is at stakeis also the recognition by the Prime Minister of the Solomon Islands of China in 2019, recognition that made them abandon their ties with Taiwan. And what we are seeing right now is that there is a part of the Solomon Islands that wants to continue their relations with Taiwan. So, we feel that there is a confrontation behind which is much broader, much more global.

Why such a feeling?

Analysis by sinologist Alain Wang

Murielle Paradon

► To read again: In the Solomon Islands, the situation remains tense, the Chinatown targeted by the rioters

Newsletter

Receive all international news directly in your mailbox

I subscribe

Follow all the international news by downloading the RFI application

google-play-badge_FR

• Solomon Islands

• China

• Taiwan