Royal Solomon Islands Police Force (RSIPF) Commissioner, Matthew Varley on Sunday visited Gizo in the Western Province to meet with Premier Wayne Maepioh, police officers and the community following the conclusion of last week’s police operations.
Accompanied by Assistant Commissioner of Crime and Intelligence, Ian Vaevaso, Commissioner Varley purposely made the visit to reassure Premier Maepioh and the community that the situation in Gizo has now returned to normal, a statement from the Police Media Unit said.
The RSIPF successfully completed an operation yesterday to repatriate a further five Bougainvillean men who had escaped from immigration detention at Gizo Police Station last Wednesday.
The men surrendered to Police on Saturday afternoon and were interviewed by police and immigration officers overnight.
When immigration processing was completed, the men were removed from Solomon Islands yesterday and returned home, because they had been denied entry into Solomon Islands under immigration laws.
Western Province Premier Maepioh and Commissioner Varley yesterday inspected a police parade before holding high-level talks on the security situation in Gizo over the past week.
Despite the difficult and tense situation at times in Western Province over the past week, Premier Maepioh was complimentary of the good work done by police to keep the community safe.
“As the Premier of this Province, I am extremely satisfied with the level of security rendered and have a lot of confidence in our police force for the safety and security of our people, our communities and for the people of our nation Solomon Islands. Thumbs up RSIPF,” said Premier Maepioh.
Following their meetings, Commissioner Varley met with the Operation Commander, Assistant Commissioner Mostyn Mangau and Provincial Police Commander Mathias Lenialu to receive a briefing on the current security operation in Gizo and make plans for continued police presence and security in the township over the coming days.
He also held a muster for all the police officers involved in the operation to thank them for their hard work in bringing the situation safely under control.
Afterwards, the Premier, Commissioner and senior community leaders addressed a community meeting at Gizo market.
Hundreds of people turned out to hear the Commissioner and the Premier explain the full circumstances of what had happened over the past week.
“It is important for you to hear from me that the RSIPF and the Solomon Islands Government respects and values the traditional relationships between the people of Bougainville and Shortland Islands. But the freedom of movement across those traditional waters does not permit people to travel further into Solomon Islands territory beyond the special customary zone in the Shortlands. In this case, the RSIPF was bound to intercept the men from Bougainville as they approached Gizo, to ensure there was no security risk to our community,” Commissioner Varley explained to the crowd.
He further explained, “The situation in Gizo is back to normal and the community is safe. The RSIPF encourages everyone to go back to their normal business and to continue to work together with community leaders and your police to keep Western Province a safe place.”
Today, 26 February, Commissioner Varley will travel on to Noro town to hold a meeting with community leaders, to brief them on the facts and findings of the police investigation into the accidental death of a young man on 6 February.
Rumors and speculation about the cause of this death were behind the reasons the Bougainvillean men came to Western Province last week, it was revealed.
