HONIARA, Solomon Islands (AP) — Solomon Islands police are hunting for a mass grave believed to hold 11 militants killed in a shoot-out with supporters of a local warlord, a senior officer said Monday.
A police team left the capital Honiara over the weekend following reports that a mass grave had been found by priests in the remote Weather Coast region, 75 miles southeast of Honiara.
A relative of one of the suspected victims told the Associated Press that local church members had found a mass grave containing the 11 men. The man spoke on condition of anonymity.
Rumors of the killings have been rife in recent days on the violence-wracked Pacific nation 1,600 miles northeast of Sydney.
Deputy Police Commissioner Wilfred Akao said that the police team also will search for evidence that the men were killed in a gunfight with supporters of local warlord Harold Keke.
Also Monday, Australia’s Foreign Affairs Department warned its citizens against traveling outside Honiara.
“Australians in Solomon Islands should maintain a high level of personal security awareness and monitor developments that might affect their safety,” the department said in a statement.
As many as 200 people died and 20,000 fled their homes during four years of ethnic violence that culminated in a June 2000 coup in the Solomon Islands. Though a peace deal was signed, violence remains common.
The fighting was triggered by natives on the main island of Guadalcanal forming a militia to drive out migrants from neighboring Malaita island, whom they accused of taking land and jobs.
