Foreign Affairs Minister Peter Shanel told Radio Australia in Canberra that the Government is confident that by 2013, they would be able to fill in some of the gaps within the society.
Mr Shanel said one of the notable one was to take back ownership of the security in maintaining law and order in the country.
Radio Australia also questioned Mr Shanel whether Solomon Islands would be able to stand on its own feet economically by 2013.
Minister Shanel replied ‘not quite but Solomon Islands always have friends like Australia to help.’
The Solomon Star understands the Government is currently working on a strategic framework on how they could take over from RAMSI during this transition period.
And Mr Shanel highlighted that one of the options would be to increase AusAID; thus some of the work RAMSI has been doing would be taken over by AusAID.
However, Minister Shanel admitted law and order was still a problem but it was something that happened everywhere even in the streets of Australia.
Meanwhile, since the Solomon Islands Government was briefed by RAMSI on their transition plans in May this year, questions have been raised by critics as well as the public whether Solomon Islands could stand alone when RAMSI leaves.
This was left unanswered until a secret United States Diplomatic Report was leaked in August this year highlighting that ‘if RAMSI should leave tomorrow, Solomon Islands could revert to the dark days during the ethnic crisis.’
This was because the report highlighted that there were still people out in the communities who were yet to be brought to justice for atrocities they committed during the crisis.
But RAMSI’s special coordinator told participants at the Third Australia Solomon Islands Business Forum in Brisbane last week that ‘RAMSI’s transition is not a mad rush to some pre-determined end point, it is a process, and it has a way to go yet.’
By DOUGLAS MARAU
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