A local Solomon Islands’ Youth leader in Malaita province says local police officers do not often respond to family violence call outs.
The comment follows the downsizing of the Regional Assistance Mission to Solomon Islands or RAMSI, with a commitment to retaining overseas police officers in the country for the next four years to strengthen the national force.
Loise Loong says her community at Langa Langa have selected her to work with young people who have fallen prey to substance abuse and may times, she has been called on to alert the local police to family problems. In such cases, the local officers are usually ignorant to the problems.
“Once I had a family problem in my village, of which i called the local police - no police came. So I had to call the RAMSI police and then the RAMSI come over to my home.”
Loise Loong says family violence is rife throughout Malaita and is usually fueled by consumption of alcohol or homebrew.
The downsizing of RAMSI has raised questions in the community of whether the local police could provide the much needed protection to villages with similar issues.
Source: http://www.rnzi.com/