Forty unarmed Australian Federal Police officers will be based in the Solomon Islands as trainers after the 14-year long, Australian-led peacekeeping mission in the Pacific nation ends in June.
The AFP training program will cost $79m over four years.
“They will not be armed and they will not have policing powers,” the AFP said in a statement to SBS World News.
“AFP officers deployed will be undertaking capacity building work.”
The Solomon Islands Police Development Program (SIPDP) will become the AFP’s second-largest overseas deployment, after the 73-officer mission in Papua New Guinea.
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“SIPDP was developed in consultation with key stakeholders in Solomon Islands, including DFAT (Australian Department of Foreign Affairs), the RSIPF, and the Solomon Islands Government,” the AFP statement said.
In 2003 the multi-national military Regional Assistance Mission (RAMSI) ended a violent ethnic conflict, known as the ‘tensions’, that had cost hundreds of Solomon Islander lives.
RAMSI disarmed local police after elements of the force took sides and turned their guns on civilians.
Australia funded the $2.6 billion decade-long RAMSI military operation that ended in 2013 and the AFP stayed on with 100 officers to rebuilt the Royal Solomon Island Police Force (RSIPF).
Earlier this month 125 members of the RSIPF’s rapid response and close personal protection units were rearmed for the first time.
Former AFP deputy commissioner Matthew Varley heads the Solomon Islands police.
“Members of the SIPDP mission report to the AFP SIPDP Mission Commander in the Solomon Islands who reports to the AFP National Manager International Operations," the AFP said.
Total Australian overseas aid to Solomon Islands in the 2017-18 financial year is $142 million.
