Last Monday saw a fatal explosion on the outskirts of Honiara where members of a family came victims when cooking on the ground alongside a heavy metal pipe.
A blast occurred, at first thought to have been a bomb explosion from a left over WWII unexploded ordnance, but this later was disputed by the head of the RSIPF EOD Team who believed the explosion could have occurred when the metal pipe become hot and fragmented
As a result of the suspected overheating of the metal pipe, the blast that occurred caused the death of a father and his son, while two other members of the same family were reported to have been seriously injured and rushed to hospital.
The actual cause of the explosion I believe might still need to be officially confirmed by the head of the RSIPF Team that attended and investigated the scene of the explosion.
The two reported to have been injured, the wife of the deceased man, and his other son, are reported out of danger and recovering from their injuries at the National Referral Hospital (NRH).
It was only a year or so ago that that the detonation of a buried Howitzer shell exploded in a similar cooking incident killed two young men and injured two others.
The 101mm cannon round exploded in the Lengakiki area where the youth members of the Kukum Seventh Day Adventist Church had been holding a fundraising barbecue.
With Solomon Islands seeing some of the most intense conflict in WWII, the country remains littered with bombs and hidden munitions are an ongoing threat across the country.
It will be recalled that in September 2020, two men working for a WWII bomb clearing agency died in an explosion in Honiara.
Briton Stephen Atkinson and Australian Trent Lee were employees of Norwegian People's Aid.
- The blast took place in a residential part of the capital Honiara
- The Norwegian People's Aid (NPA) described the explosion as a "tragic accident".
- Its Deputy Secretary General Per Nergaard said an "investigation needs to be completed before there can be a conclusion on the cause of events".
- The organisation's Secretary General Henriette Killi Westhrin added that it was "devastated by what has happened".
Trent Lee had described himself as a Chemical Weapons Advisor on his Facebook page, adding that his role was "to survey and locate the items, then hand information over [to] the Solomon Islands Police Explosive Ordnance Disposal team.
This was confirmed by a statement from the Royal Solomon Islands Police Force who said that the survey team typically goes out first to confirm the location of unexploded ordnances before relaying the information to them.
According to the NPA, they were assisting the government in developing a centralised database that gives an overview of the extensive amounts of explosive remnants of war contamination dating from the Second World War.
Workers had been in the capital Honiara clearing sites of bombs ahead of the 2023 Pacific Games.
After the Lengakiki explosion and tragic fatalities, the United States, (which along with Japan is responsible for most of the country's UXO), said in a statement through its embassy in Papua New Guinea that it is “deeply saddened to hear of the tragic incident in Honiara this past weekend and mourn the loss of life”.
“The United States government, through our Department of Defence, will continue to support efforts to remove unexploded ordnance from Solomon Islands.
“Among these efforts is our ongoing partnership with Norwegian People's Aid, which has worked in the Solomon Islands since 2019 to identify and dispose of unexploded ordnance.”
But work by the Norwegian People's Aid (NPA) was suspended following the deaths of the Australian and British team members in Honiara.
Sources - Radio New Zealand, STUFF (NZ) and Solomon Times Online.
Comment
I respectfully raise the question of what is happening now in 2021 by the United States government to help clear the Solomon Islands of its unexploded WWII munitions and to help the RSIPF UOD team establish a data base to aid their bomb disposal work.
Work on a date base stopped when the NPA members lost their lives and sadly the RSIPF does not have the manpower and the necessary resources to do more than it does already in responding to community reports when UXO is reported.
How many more innocent lives are to lost from explosive devices left rotting 80 yrs after the great battles that centered on Guadalcanal when some 7000 US soldiers lost their lives and reportedly 38,000 Imperial Japanese troops died?
LEST WE FORGET.
Footnote.
Previously, the Australian and New Zealand military had removed more than 1000 WWII era munitions as part of Operation Render Safe.
Yours sincerely
Frank Short
