The Solomon Islands Democratic Coalition for Change Government says it will table in Parliament the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s Report.
But Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare would not say when his government will table the report other than promising it would do so during its four-year term in office.
Mr Sogavare said Solomon Islands cannot afford to ignore the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s Report which consists of the Commission’s findings of the causes of the ethnic tension more than a decade ago.
Meanwhile, Member of Parliament for North Malaita, Jimmy Lusibase, said the government must address outstanding issues of the five-year armed conflict between the people of Guadalcanal and Malaita Provinces.
Mr Lusibaea said failure to address them would be seen as a slap on the face of the leaders of the two former warring provinces who signed the Townsville Peace Agreement (TPA) to end the ethnic conflicts in 2000.
The TPA is a legal document which spells out key areas agreed upon in the peace talks and which should be addressed by the National Government.
The Prime Minister said as issues relating to the conflicts will continue to surface, it is his government’s intention to table the TRC report in Parliament.
He said for the government to settle all the outstanding issues of the ethnic crisis, it would need six budgetary allocations of its annual budgets to finance them, adding he can now see why the former government led by Gordon Darcy Lilo had decided to withhold the TRC report from being presented to Parliament while in power.
Mr Sogavare then challenges all MPS to prepare themselves to contribute to the debate on the TRC report when it is presented to Parliament.
– By George Atkin
