Solomons special place for Kiwi cop
After 14 years bringing stability to the Solomon Islands, the Regional Assistance Mission to Solomon Islands has been wound up.
Inspector Terry van Dillen, now based in Lower Hutt, spent almost four years in the islands and said Ramsi, which ceased operations on June 30, did a great job in bringing back peace after deep-seated land disputes caused disquiet.
He still keeps an eye on news coming out of the Solomons and said they still had a long way to go to establish lasting stability, with crime and the lack of infrastructure big problems.
Van Dillen did three stints in the Solomons, first arriving in 2005 on a six-month tour as part of New Zealand’s Ramsi contingent.
Ramsi was deployed in 2003 after racial and political tensions boiled over into widespread rioting and crime. Warring tribal gangs and hostility towards the Chinese population fuelled tensions. New Zealand police and their international partners encountered a completely different situation to what they were used to.
‘‘You want to do things the Kiwi way but they have a different mentality and things tend to happen much slower. You’ve got to be much more patient and flexible. Sometimes you just have to take a big deep breath.’’
None of his training or years of rural and urban policing experience in New Plymouth, Hawera or Auckland could have prepared him for the Solomons.
‘‘It’s a third-world country. Power and other infrastructure can just disappear and things never go as planned.’’
He found himself back in the Islands months later when rioting broke out again and a deployment meant to last weeks turned into months.
The smoke he saw coming from Honiara as he landed was from burning buildings and vehicles in Chinatown, and armed gangs were spreading violence and disorder.
Tensions subsided and after a short time back home, van Dillen returned to the Solomons in 2006 and began more than three years as a police operations adviser.
His wife, Sharyn, and three children joined him and he said his family loved their experience.
Natural disaster response also became part of his job when the 2007 earthquake and tsunami struck resulting in 52 deaths and the destruction of more than a dozen villages.
New Zealand has committed to continue providing advisers and money to the Royal Solomon Islands Police Force and while he was now settled in Lower Hutt, van Dillen has not counted out returning to the islands with the New Zealand Police.