By Cindy Trinh
Impunity Watch Reporter, Oceania

HONIARA, Solomon Islands – The Truth and Reconciliation Commission in Solomon Islands says more witnesses have volunteered to testify at future hearings into the ethnic tensions.

The Commission recently held its first public hearing regarding the ethnic tensions. The first hearing’s main concern was the conflict that has left 100 people dead and 20,000 displaced between 1998 and 2003.

The Commission says it will hold seven more public hearings this year, with the next to be held on the island of Malaita on April 10, 2010.

The chairman of the Commission, Reverend Sam Ata, says victims of ethnic tensions are calling on their perpetrators to come forward so they can be reconciled.

Amnesty International has called on the government to protect those who speak publicly because it says there is a “danger of reprisals.”

But Ata says rather than expressing fear of reprisals, the victims have “issued a powerful message of reconciliation to the perpetrators of violence.”

Ata stated: “That’s the message they have put across to the country, that they are willing to forgive them and reconcile with them, so I don’t know if there is a fear there after the victims have made a plea for these people to come forward, then that is something else.”

Ata worries that reprisals would be difficult, but he acknowledged the possibility.

Jo O’Brien, correspondent for a news station in Solomon Islands, reported: “The first hearing into the conflict…concluded yesterday. Nineteen witnesses gave testimony, including a woman who lost her husband, brother and niece, a man whose father was tortured by militants, and a Guadalcanal woman who was attacked because she married a man from Malaita. During the hearing there were calls for perpetrators to come forward and tell their stories, and the Commission’s chairman, Father Sam Ata said it will invite them to testify because they also need to heal.”

The Minister for National Unity, Reconciliation and Peace, Sam Iduri, says the “level of public support and interest in the hearing has far surpassed the ministry’s expectations.”

For more information, please see:
Radio New Zealand International – More volunteers to testify at Solomons Truth Commission – 11 March 2010

Radio New Zealand International – Solomons Truth Commission advocates reconciliation – 11 March 2010

Impunity Watch – Solomon’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission Plans to Have its First Hearing – 07 March 2010