HONIARA: The Solomon Islands abruptly lifted a two-week-old curfew on the capital of Honiara Friday, as political tensions eased in the Pacific nation
Royal Solomon Islands Police Commissioner Mostyn Mangau announced the lifting of restrictions, which included a ban on vessels entering the port of Honiara from neighboring islands.
“I would like to thank those living in the Emergency Zone for your cooperation during the curfew period and to my hard-working officers for the job well done,” he said.
The nighttime curfew entered into force on November 26 as police struggled to bring three days of deadly rioting under control.
Anti-government protests late last month brought widespread looting and left at least three people dead.
The country’s central bank has put the damage caused by the riots at $67 million, saying 63 buildings in the capital were burned and looted.
Around 200 foreign peacekeepers from Australia, Fiji, New Zealand and Papua New Guinea have been deployed around the capital.
Life has slowly returned to normal, even as political tensions linger.
The protests were sparked by opposition to veteran Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare, who is keen to forge closer ties with Beijing.
The 66-year-old four-time leader sailed through a vote of no confidence in parliament this week, blunting the attacks of his opponents.
His rule is opposed by the leaders of Malaita — the Solomons’ most populous island.
They continue to call for more autonomy and hint at a push for statehood, but so far have not returned to the streets in protest.
The international peacekeeping mission was expected to last just “weeks” according to Australian officials, although no end date has yet been announced.
Solomon Islands lifts curfew as unrest subsides
https://arab.news/8u5yg
Solomon Islands lifts curfew as unrest subsides
- Nighttime curfew entered into force on November 26 as police struggled to bring three days of deadly rioting under control
Italian suspect questioned over Bosnia ‘weekend sniper’ killings
- The octogenarian former truck driver from the Friuli-Venezia Giulia region of northeast Italy, is suspected by Milan prosecutors of “voluntary homicide aggravated by abject motives,” according to Italian news agency ANSA
ROME: An 80-year-old man suspected of being a “weekend sniper” who paid the Bosnian Serb army to shoot civilians during the 1990s siege of Sarajevo was questioned Monday in Milan, media reported.
The octogenarian former truck driver from the Friuli-Venezia Giulia region of northeast Italy, is suspected by Milan prosecutors of “voluntary homicide aggravated by abject motives,” according to Italian news agency ANSA.
Lawyer Giovanni Menegon told journalists that his client had answered questions from prosecutors and police and “reaffirmed his complete innocence.”
In October, prosecutors opened an investigation into what Italian media dubbed “weekend snipers” or “war tourists“: mostly wealthy, gun-loving, far-right sympathizers who allegedly gathered in Trieste and were taken to the hills surrounding Sarajevo where they fired on civilians for sport.
During the nearly four-year siege of Sarajevo that began in April 1992 some 11,541 men, women and children were killed and more than 50,000 people wounded by Bosnian Serb forces, according to official figures.
Il Giornale newspaper reported last year that the would-be snipers paid Bosnian Serb forces up to the equivalent of €100,000 ($115,000) per day to shoot at civilians below them.
The suspect — described by the Italian press as a hunting enthusiast who is nostalgic for Fascism — is said to have boasted publicly about having gone “man hunting.”
Witness statements, particularly from residents of his village, helped investigators to track the suspect, freelance journalist Marianna Maiorino said.
“According to the testimonies, he would tell his friends at the village bar about what he did during the war in the Balkans,” said Maiorino, who researched the allegations and was herself questioned as part of the investigation.
The suspect is “described as a sniper, someone
who enjoyed going to Sarajevo to kill people,” she added.
The suspect told local newspaper Messaggero Veneto Sunday he had been to Bosnia during the war, but “for work, not for hunting.” He added that his public statements had been exaggerated and he was “not worried.”
The investigation opened last year followed a complaint filed by Italian journalist and writer Ezio Gavanezzi, based on allegations revealed in the documentary “Sarajevo Safari” by Slovenian director Miran Zupanic in 2022.
Gavanezzi was contacted in August 2025 by the former mayor of Sarajevo, Benjamina Karic, who filed a complaint in Bosnia in 2022 after the same documentary was broadcast.
The Bosnia and Herzegovina prosecutor’s office confirmed on Friday that a special war crimes department was investigating alleged foreign snipers during the siege of Sarajevo.
Bosnian prosecutors requested information from Italian counterparts at the end of last year, while also contacting the International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals in The Hague, it said. That body performs some of the functions previously carried out by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia.
Sarajevo City Council adopted a decision last month authorizing the current mayor, Samir Avdic, to “join the criminal proceedings” before the Italian
courts, in order to support Italian prosecutors.
