Ex-combatants receive payments under cover of darkness

 

THERE’S mixed feelings amongst the 90 or so ex-militants the Government engaged in collecting guns from Malaita Province – some jubilant, others disappointed.

Members of the group received their payments under cover of darkness in a rest-house in East Panatina on Tuesday evening. Senior members of SIPRA administered the payments.

According to eyewitnesses, the payments were handed out in sealed envelopes. No government official was there to make or witness the payments.

Some estimate that total payout was more than $900,000 and is said to be in addition to an estimated $270,000 the ex-combatants received on Thursday June 1, the day they left for Malaita Province.

“Some received up to $11,000 each in this week’s payment. They are the happier ones,” the eyewitnesses said.

“Others are not so happy, disappointed in fact because the envelopes they received contained only about $2,000,” one eyewitness said.

The ex-militants collected only 18 guns in the week-long exercise which took in 13 villages right across Malaita Province.

The revelation of the payment comes as the government struggles to keep up with mounting bills. In recent weeks, Government Ministries have been told to trim their budget allocations for the year.

“Government Ministries have been directed to cut, cut, cut. They are directed to use whatever they cut off their budget this year to be used as baseline for their budget submissions for next year,” insiders said last night.

The hefty payments to the ex-militants also come at a time when Solomon Islands students studying at universities both here and abroad continue to experience hardships due to late payments of their allowances.

At home, student teachers attending the Solomon Islands National University (SINU) have been told they would have to meet their own travel costs when they go on their teaching experience assignments.

“It’s a little unfair on us when we had to do the same last year. It is even more unfair when the government paid only the student voters of politicians in government,” one student said.

At the same time, news of the payment to ex-militants is also expected to exert pressure on the government to honor similar commitments it had made to engage ex-militants in Honiara, Guadalcanal and Marau on the gun-collection exercise.