Tonga on Friday declared a state of emergency and reportedly prepared to ask New Zealand and Australia to send troops after eight people were killed in the Pacific kingdom’s worst riots to date.
The government gave police and military sweeping powers to prevent any repeat of Thursday’s violent rampage, authorising them to ”use such force as may be reasonably necessary to preserve public order”, the decree said.
Soldiers and officers will be able to impose a curfew, ban meetings of more than five people and stop and search people without a warrant during the 30 days the emergency is in force.
The move came after angry and drunken youths demanding democratic reforms in the tiny semi-feudal nation torched buildings, looted shops and overturned cars in a frenzy that achieved sudden political change at a deadly cost.
Eight bodies were found in the ruins of two burned-out buildings in the capital Nuku’alofa’s main business district on Friday as armed police and soldiers sealed off the area that foreign diplomats said had been 80% destroyed.
A statement issued by the country’s Lord Chamberlain said King Siaosi Tupou V was ”greatly distressed that a small but dangerous criminal element” had caused deaths, injury and extensive property damage.
”His Majesty’s government is taking decisive action to restore law and order to the kingdom. Every measure of the law will be followed to track down and prosecute the perpetrators and those who incited and agitated this mindless criminal destruction.”
The death toll from the riots rose to eight late on Friday when two bodies were found in the wreckage of one of the first buildings torched — a supermarket owned by Prime Minister Feleti Sevele, the Tonga-Now website reported.
Another six bodies were earlier found in the debris of a burned-out office building. They were believed to be rioters and looters who became trapped in the inferno.
Cabinet meeting
Tonga’s Cabinet met in an emergency session late on Friday with Sevele expected to announce a request for Australia and New Zealand to send up to 200 troops and police, reports said. The foreign military personnel were expected to secure the main airport and key infrastructure.
Both New Zealand and Australia, the regional powers in the South Pacific, put troops on standby on Friday, but officials from both governments refused to confirm if any formal request for help had been made.
Earlier, Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer, speaking at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Vietnam, said both countries were standing by to respond to a Tongan call for help.
”We have prepared defence force personnel in Australia to go to Tonga if necessary, and the New Zealanders have done the same,” Downer said, stressing that Wellington should take the lead in any such operation.
The unrest erupted when the legislative assembly met for the last time this year and looked likely to adjourn without making a decision on expanding democracy.
Calm was restored on Friday after an emergency meeting of the Cabinet, nobles and elected commoners agreed to the pro-democracy demands.
Legislators elected by popular vote will represent the majority in Parliament at the next election in 2008, ending centuries of rule by nobles and people appointed by the royal family.
”A semblance of peace has returned to the central business district of Nuku’alofa. That is holding,” the prime minister’s spokesperson and adviser Lopeti Senituli.
Tonga, a kingdom of about 115 000 people spread over 171 islands, 2 000km north of Auckland, has witnessed growing demonstrations over the past year.
Public protest reached a peak in 2005 with a six-week public service strike. A royal-owned house and government cars were torched and school classrooms wrecked during the strike.
Two months ago, the new king pledged to make ”appropriate changes” without promising absolute democracy after succeeding his father, King Taufa’ahau Tupou IV, who died on September 10 after a long illness. — Sapa-AFP