Kinnock tells of dramatic Solomon's escape

After a three-hour flight to freedom in a chartered light aircraft, the MEP and wife of former Labour leader Neil Kinnock said she was relieved to be safe after "a surreal kind of experience", but she remained deeply concerned over the threat of civil war in the islands.

Ms Kinnock, accompanied by fellow MEP John Corrie, was in a party of six which flew to Papua New Guinea - the first people to leave the islands since the coup began on Monday. Both MEPs will return to Britain via Australia this weekend.

It took the pilot of their twin-engined Otter plane two attempts to leave because of gunfire from marauding armed rebels on the airport perimeter, near the capital city of Honiara on the islands, 1,600 miles north east of Sydney, Australia.

"We started to take off and then headed back to where we started. The pilot said there was a faulty light on the panel. The second time everything was all right," said Labour MEP Mrs Kinnock.

"Only later did John tell me the pilot was concerned the first time round in case the plane had been hit. I had heard gunfire but I assumed it was coming from the bay, where the armed militia had commandeered a navy patrol boat. In fact they were firing from the edge of the airport."

Mrs Kinnock and Conservative colleague Mr Corrie, who had abandoned plans to visit Fiji because of the coup there, were invited to the Solomon Islands to act as EU mediators as tension mounted in the long-running violent inter-island feud between natives of Guadalcanal and Malaita.

But soon after they arrived, lawyer Andrew Nori led a coup, placing prime minister Bartholomew Ulufa'alu under house arrest.

"We arrived and we were just ambling around, although I was very concerned that things were clearly close to getting out of hand. There was a real threat," Mrs Kinnock said. Then the coup started and the MEPs were confined to their hotel.

"It became completely lawless. The police just seemed to concede to the gunmen of the Malaita Eagle Force under Andrew Nori. There were armed men roaming around with home-made weapons and the streets were blocked and the airport closed."

Nevertheless, both MEPs insisted on meeting the prime minister in an attempt to fulfil their "mediation" role.

"Although he was under house arrest he was brought to our hotel. In came this benign man, guarded by two awful armed guys. We assured the prime minister of our support for the democratic process," she said.

"Then we met the coup leader Andrew Nori, a very plausible man. We told him our views and warned him that EU aid to the Solomon Islands will stop unless they lifted their deadline for the prime minister to resign and allowed the due democratic process to determine the future through a vote of confidence in parliament.

"If the aid stopped it would be a complete disaster for the Solomons, they don't seem to realise that."

"I am very relieved to be out, but still very concerned at the potential for the crisis escalating. This is an ethnic conflict rooted in poverty and a sense of grievous injustice," she said. "It is important that we in the EU should do more than we do in these situations and do it faster."

Both MEPs are on the European parliament's development committee, and will be pressing for the about £40 million in EU aid - worth 25% of GDP to the Solomon Islands - to be put on hold if the conflict carries on.

Mrs Kinnock also reported that the deadline for the prime minister's resignation had been lifted, and there were increasing hopes that Mr Nori would halt his action until the parliament had time to discuss the crisis.

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