Politics
The Hunt's On For Rebel Harold Keke
Police and provincial constabulary in hot pursuit
Who is Harold Keke?
It’s been said that if rebel leader Harold Keke walks the streets of Honiara, hardly anyone will recognise him. For one thing, Keke is one rebel leader who’s hardly been photographed. Nor was he among the top hierarchy of the Guadalcanal militant groups when war broke out between militants from Guadalcanal and Malaita about three years ago. Not many will therefore recognise him, save perhaps for those who know the man, which by last month’s end, was a fast dwindling group. The man who emerged from the ethnic conflict as leader of a faction is now on the run, with a group comprising provincial police constables and former Keke militants in hot pursuit.
Keke, according to the few who know him, is in his early 30s. Compared with other militant leaders, he is not well educated, having dropped out early from high school in Honiara. Until the ethnic violence, Keke’s knowledge of firearms, let alone armed insurrection was limited, if any at all. True, he worked briefly for the Royal Solomon Islands Police, but only as a janitor not as a constable in the regular force.
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His limited education and virtual ignorance of military training have led some to suggest that Keke is being used by a group interested only in their selfish and murderous pursuits. It has also been claimed that the man carries with him gold bars stolen from the Gold Ridge mine outside Honiara at the height of the civil war. Observers say only those with “good connections” would be able to sell the gold bars in the black market.
Roneo and Anseta Tangi created a stir the moment they turned up at the National Referral Hospital in Honiara early last month. Not only were they bringing their one-month old triplets for vaccination, where they came from also generated a lot of interest.
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They were the first patients to come from the Weathercoast region of Guadalcanal since animosity between militants from Guadalcanal and Malaita turned into an-all-out-war three years ago.
When Guadalcanal faction leader Harold Keke set up a base at the Weathercoast, the area to the south and west of Guadalcanal, became a no-go zone with shipping and flights into the region cancelled. However, a local freighter, MV Temotu, decided to call in there early last month, and the Tangis were among its first passengers.
As it turned out, the couple’s escapade was not the only unusual news that came out from the country last month. Only a week after their arrival in Honiara, the capital of this besieged Pacific island nation was hit with the news that Keke was on the run with a group of armed men in hot pursuit. Seven men had already died in the manhunt, with police in Honiara quickly claiming responsibility for the mission. It said of the seven dead, six were Keke’s men. Royal Solomon Islands Police’s involvement in the hunt though is through a couple of its special constables and joining them are members of the Guadalcanal provincial constabulary.
Independent verification of the hunt was received by the local media outlets in Honiara which said villagers on the Weathercoast, now free of Keke’s influence, are said to be facing dire shortage of medicines and basic food items. The villagers also spoke of the terror and the senseless killings Keke and his men waged in the region.
Solomon Star newspaper said a close aide of Keke was among the seven killed. There’s a belief that Keke’s following has been reduced to a mere handful with a large number turning against him.
Senior government officials in Honiara, speaking to Islands Business said the decision to go after Keke was made days after cabinet minister and Roman Catholic priest Father Augustine Geve was assassinated while touring his South Guadalcanal constituency on the Weathercoast on August 20.
Keke called the national radio station in Honiara claiming responsibility for the killings. He was also behind the massacre of ten Malaita men sent to the region supposedly to capture the rebel leader in June. Because of the secret nature of the current mission, questions have been raised as to the real objective of the Keke hunt.
The Solomon Star newspaper, for instance, wanted to know what many other people had been asking: the link between Keke and Guadalcanal premier, Ezekiel Alebua.
According to the newspaper, Alebua’s indelible involvement in the armed uprising against Malaitans was contained in documents found at the scene of an attempt on his life, outside Honiara last year. There was a belief that Keke was behind that armed attack on Alebua.
Also raising questions is dynamic politician Alfred Sasako who is not impressed at the seeming urgency to eliminate Keke.
“I acknowledge that Keke is a criminal who is on the wanted list for murder after he was bailed by Premier Alebua and a Catholic priest during his capture following a 1998/99 shooting in which one Guadalcanal militant was killed,” Sasako says.
“But why didn’t the police arrest him when they went to investigate the 10 missing men from my constituency last July to August? After all, Keke was there with the police.
“It seems to me that the operation, which is currently underway, is intended to shift the blame to Keke, and shield the architects of the 2000 coup from any form of blame or punishment.”
Questions are also being raised on the termination of the Peace Monitoring Council (PMC) established under the Townsville Peace Agreement (TPA). Some observers are musing whether Sir Allan Kemakeza’s government does have the power to terminate the PMC, given that it was only one of the three signatories to the peace agreement. The termination also generated a lively debate on the success or otherwise of the Australian Government-brokered peace agreement.
One of its greatest achievements, many will agree, is the bringing about of a ceasefire which could have dragged on for years with devastating effects to country.
In hindsight though, some who took part in the Townsville talks admit the peace agreement could have achieved more especially in injecting justice into the whole peace equation.
Providing amnesty to militants sent out a wrong signal they said, and meant that criminals and cold-blooded murderers are left to walk scot-free.
But there could be hope still, since the amnesty granted under the peace agreement is conditional on the return to the authorities of weapons. Militants in the former armed groups like the Malaita Eagle Force and the Isatabu Freedom Movement could lose their amnesty cover if this provision of the peace agreement is enforced, observers say.
A failure of the peace agreement too has been the exclusion of civil society and women’s groups.
Civil society also harbours the fear that the proposed redundancy of government workers brought about at the urging of the International Monetary Fund’s rescue package, could be riddled with nepotism and favouritism.
“The IMF and the World Bank were hoping the cuts would involve the top brass of the public service, which is now full of cronies at top rates,” a former government official and Honiara resident told Islands Business.
“Instead they want to lay off the technicians who operate the machinery of government. They want to take the ‘easy’ way out and retain their cronies.”
Although the New Zealand government does not share this view, it has agreed to fund the redundancy package totalling S$7 million. Kemakeza plans to pay off 1300 civil servants and make a saving of several million dollars.
The European Union (EU) is also assisting the Solomons. This is proof, Kemakeza’s aides say, that the international community is supportive of the present regime.
The EU has agreed to fund the recruitment from Britain of the new police commissioner, a decision which generated a spirited debate in the country of the need to hire an expatriate.
Despite objections from senior police officers, Kemakeza is insisting that a British officer must come in. As if to prove that locals are just as capable of running the police force, the current leadership has been flexing its muscles of late, coming down hard on criminals and armed elements.
The raid on an inter-island ferry in September that led to the boat’s release from Malaita militants is a case in point. Not so long ago, it proudly announced of its present mission to apprehend Keke.
But these cases, critics complain, are too little, too late. And no doubt, the recent incident of drunken officers indiscriminately firing their weapons into the air at one of Honiara’s main hotels is indicative of the risk of having a law enforcement agency that has difficulty in getting its own people to even follow the law they are suppose to maintain.
