The following is taken from:
The Age
16 November 2009
Original Article Link

Solomons soccer riot leads to 16 arrests
The Age
16 November 2009
Ilya Gridneff

A soccer referee's unpopular decision sparked riots and looting in the Solomon Islands at the weekend, showing that ethnic tensions remain high despite years of relative calm.

A building was destroyed in the capital Honiara and a Chinatown shop was looted in echoes of trouble that led to the Australian-led Regional Assistance Mission to the Solomon Islands (RAMSI).

Alarmed authorities put RAMSI forces on alert but extra police and military personnel were not required as the trouble failed to escalate.

New Zealander Peter Marshall, Royal Solomon Islands Police commissioner, said 16 men had been arrested for their involvement in the melee with most charged with theft and receiving.

"Like many parts of the world, fans weren't too happy with an umpiring decision at the end of the game," he said.

"The Solomon Islands football administration building was burnt, three cars had their windows smashed and a fire truck attacked," he said.

"Three police (officers) were struck by rocks," he said.

"The crowd moved from the ground into the nearby Chinatown area and items were stolen from a shop," he said.

"It was a spontaneous combustion, if you can put it that way, in the overall scheme of things it could have been much worse," he said.

Marshall said there were thousands of supporters at the Solomon Cup game between Honiara and Malaita but the trouble involved only a hundred people when the referee refused to award a goal to the Malaita team.

From Tuesday there will be a two-week soccer tournament in the Solomons - involving all the provinces competing against each other.

"Particular games between particular provinces are obviously planned for with extra support, so yes, we prepare for games where there is potential for incidents like this," he said.

Years of ethnic tensions and political unrest, mainly between Malaitans and the indigenous Guadalcanal people, led to the deployment of RAMSI in 2003 to restore law and order and good governance.

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