THE United States and its World War II allies must account for the losses from the war whilst they honour the sacrifices paid and acknowledge the peace and prosperity earned, the head of the US diplomatic mission in Solomon Islands said.
The Solomon Islands US Embassy Chargé d’Affaires a.i., Russell M Comeau was speaking at the 81st Anniversary of the landing of the Marines on Guadalcanal at the US Monument at Skyline in Central Honiara on Monday.
Speaking at the solemn dawn occasion attended by the Governor General, Sir David Vunagi, Prime Minister, Manasseh Sogavare and other dignitaries, including Heads of Foreign Diplomatic Missions in Honiara, Mr Comeau said, “As we honor such sacrifices, and acknowledge the peace and prosperity they dearly earned, we must also account for the losses.”
He added, “It is incumbent upon all of us to learn and then speak of what former US President Eisenhower called the ‘brutality and the stupidity’ of war so as to be reminded of why peace is so precious.
“In this country, across her islands, over the seven-month span of the Guadalcanal campaign – 1,600 Allied troops were killed and more than 4,000 were wounded. Imperial Japanese forces lost more than 24,000 personnel.
“And you Solomon Islands lost an untold, uncounted, number of people when the war came to your shores.
“And we must account for the lasting scars that this war left. We need look no further than here in Solomon Islands were the remnants still litter the countryside in the form of unexploded ordnance or UXO.”
Mr Comeau said this ‘terrible legacy of the past’ holds the future hostage in far too many ways.
“Decades after hostilities ceased, this invisible hazard continues to injure and claim lives here in Solomon Islands.”
He said the work of the US, along with our partners and allies, over the past decade to remediate explosive hazards is foundational for a prosperous Solomon Islands.
“In January, the United States deepened its UXO partnership with Solomon Islands through HALO Trust—also known as HALO—which began a U.S.-funded project to locate and track World War II legacy UXO while providing further training and capacity building to the Royal Solomon Islands Police Force EOD unit.
“Through this project, the United States aims to use existing data and historical records, as well as conducting search activities, to update the national UXO database. This information will inform future explosive ordnance risk education and explosive hazard responses to UXO by the RSIPF EOD unit.”
Mr Comeau added that the US has offered significant additional funding to provide technical support, specialised training, public awareness campaigns, and engineering surveys to identify UXO contaminated areas and assist with methodically searching and clearing the ground of hazards.
“We hope to move forward together with Solomon Islands on this shared challenge while being respectful of the Solomon government’s internal deliberative processes,” he further added.
By Deli Oso
