INDEPENDENT NEWS

A Virtual Visit To Honiara With PM Helen Clark

Published: Mon 24 Oct 2005 04:16 AM
Scoop Foreign Correspondent
Helen In Honiara
A virtual visit to Solomon Islands capital Honiara with New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark, October 23, 2005, (features images and audio)
From Scoop Co-Editor Alastair Thompson on Assignment in Papua New Guinea and the Solomons – CLICK IMAGES FOR BIG VERSIONS
Prime Minister Helen Clark today went on a tour of Honiara's hotspots in the company of the premiers of Samoa, Nauru & Kiribas.


The view on approach to Anderson Field, Honiara, capital of the Solomon Islands, aboard RNZAF Flight NPB970


Helen is greeted by a group of Bamboo warriors and musicians
Listen to the bamboo warriors music:
STREAM: http://img.scoop.co.nz/media/audio/0510/HoniaraBamboo231005.m3u
DOWNLOAD: http://img.scoop.co.nz/media/audio/0510/HoniaraBamboo231005.mp3


Helen meets with Pacific leaders at the Solomon Islands Parliament House




Inside the Solomon Islands house of Parliament
Listen To Helen Clark's Standup Press Conference at Parliament House with Sir Allan Kemakeza
STREAM: http://img.scoop.co.nz/media/audio/0510/ClarkKemakeza231005.m3u
DOWNLOAD: http://img.scoop.co.nz/media/audio/0510/ClarkKemakeza231005.mp3


Scoop photographer Jason Dorday on the back of a NZ High Commission Truck in downtown Honiara


In recent months in downtown Honiara a "beautification committee" has been hard at work painting the planters and the telegraph poles.


Helen moves on to meet with Finance officials and Pacific Leaders in the Finance Fale


Helen with the PM of Samoa in the Finance Fale






Helen talks to Kiwi police officers during a visit to the White River Police Station


Two cute kids at White River Police Post…


.. get asked for their names by a Kiwi photographer
Meanwhile…


…the ever present Royal Solomon Islands Police…


… guard the Prime Minister and her entourage, not that the security situation in the Solomons is other than benign anymore.


Rove central police station and prison. This image, taken from the gate, shows soldiers from RAMSI on duty outside the barbed wire encased enclosure. While Helen and guests walked around the perimeter of the prison, media were left at the gate, and police at the gate were less then forthcoming about why this was so.
However according to the word in the street, local media and newspaper reports Scoop can divulge that in early October a riot broke out after prisoners refused to be locked down in protest at conditions in the prison.
According to some reports they wanted to watch TV. Things turned nasty and prisoners have since had their mosquito nets confiscated because they were using them as slingshots. The prison itself was recently privatised and is now being run by a company owned by Australian Media Baron Kerry Packer.


As we are locked out of the prison visit, we cross the road to visit a peace memorial on the Honiara waterfront instead. The memorial records the names of police officers from RAMSI and the RSIP who have died in the course of duty. To date only one member of RAMSI an Australian police officer has been killed in the line of duty.


Underneath the memorial several tonnes of weapons turned in by armed gangs have been interred in concrete.


Nearing the end of the day Helen Clark visited RAMSI and held an end of the day press conference with her Pacific Island colleagues including (pictured) Sir Allan Kemakeza (image by Jason Dorday)
Listen To RAMSI Press Conference (17 Mins):
STREAM: http://img.scoop.co.nz/media/audio/0510/ClarkRamsiPresser231005.m3u
DOWNLOAD: http://img.scoop.co.nz/media/audio/0510/ClarkRamsiPresser231005.mp3
ENDS
Alastair Thompson
Scoop Publisher
Alastair Thompson is the co-founder of Scoop. He is of Scottish and Irish extraction and from Wellington, New Zealand. Alastair has 24 years experience in the media, at the Dominion, National Business Review, North & South magazine, Straight Furrow newspaper and online since 1997. He is the winner of several journalism awards for business and investigative work.
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