By Cindy Trinh
Impunity Watch Reporter, Oceania

HONIARA, Solomon Islands – The first public hearing by the Solomon Islands Truth and Reconciliation Commission is to be held this week.

The first national public hearing of the Commission comes almost a year after the Commission was established in April last year. The Commission was formed to end the chaos and violence in the Solomon Islands from 1997-2003, mainly because of conflict between gangs from the islands of Malaita and Guadalcanal.

The Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s primary function is to promote national unity and reconciliation.

In a public announcement, the Commission says the national public hearing is “one of the most significant activities of the Commission’s work plan to accomplish their mission.”

The public hearing allows victims and witnesses of crimes committed during tensions in Solomon Islands the opportunity to give testimony regarding their experiences.

The Commission stated that “the public hearings will give voice to victims of the ethnic tensions who have had to silently endure abuses and crimes impossible to describe.”

The ethnic tensions have claimed 100 lives so far, and displaced about 20,000 persons in the Solomon Islands.

The Commission hopes to end the “silence” and make the country “recognize their sufferings and feel their tragedy that has long been denied.”

The hearing is expected to last for two days. During these days, victims and witnesses from Guadalcanal, Malaita, Western Province, and Choiseul are expected to appear before the Commission to offer their testimony.

The victims will not be allowed to name individuals, but they are allowed to name the groups that have abused them.

The hearings will take place at the Forum Fisheries Agency offices in Honiara on Tuesday and Wednesday, March 9-10, 2010.

For more information, please see:
Radio New Zealand International – First hearing of Solomons Truth and Reconciliation Commission this week – 07 March 2010

Solomon Times Online – First TRC Public Hearing Next Week – 05 March 2010

Three Rivers Episcopal – Archbishop Tutu launches Truth and Reconciliation Commission in the Solomon Islands – 20 May 2009