He adds that it will cost more to rebuild.
In his recent national address Mr. Sogavare said the social and economic impacts of this unfortunate and shameful event will continue to be felt throughout 2022.
PM Sogavare said the pain and suffering of the recent riots and looting are still fresh but yet these businesses put our people first before themselves.
“This is a testament that there are good people out there who care deeply for the welfare and well-being of our people and country, despite their own hardship. For that, I wish to thank you from the bottom of my heart,” he said.
He stressed that businesses that were built over the years through hard work were razed to the ground in a matter of minutes and hours.
“Yet when Honiara experienced the outbreak of community transmission and lock downs, it was these businesses assist people in Honiara with food and the necessary logistics to feed the people.
“They were quick to forgive and responded to the needs in such situation,” the prime minister said.
Mr. Sogavare highlighted the November riot and looting was the biggest man-made disaster ever to hit the country and it subsequently delayed the passage of the 2022 budget as well.
“The last few months have been the most challenging since the civil unrest we experienced some 24 years ago. On 24th November 2021, an attempted coup was made when certain people attempted to breach Parliament to force me to resign and topple a democratically elected government,”Mr. Sogavare said.
“And so, when this did not succeed, they took to the streets and looted our beloved city. Businesses were burnt to the ground for no reason at all, leaving more than 1000 people without jobs.
“These people had people who also depend on them.”
Comment,
His Honour the Chief Justice recently called for a Commission of Inquiry into last November’s rioting, arson and looting in Honiara and today’s announcement of the cost of the rioting adds, I feel, to the need for a full understanding of the cause of the civil unrest and those that might have been involved and their motivation.
I thank all those in Honiara that reportedly lost their businesses, livelihoods and income during the rioting, but, as the Prime Minister has said, were among the first to come forward to help with food and supplies to those in need during the recent lock-downs.
I witnessed the senseless civil unrest that started in late December 1998 and I accurately reported on the likely outcome of the outbreak of the poliitcally inspired militancy that blighted the Solomon Islands well after my departure and still has a lingering impact on the lives of the older generation and their dependents.
I saw, albeit from afar, the rioting and damage in 1996 to Chinatown and how the then political dimension to the unrest once again brought about community division, fear and economic consequences.
Let there be no more civil unrest to a country broken so often by civil uprising and now by a dangerous pandemic.
Yours sincerely
Frank Short
