BY JOHN HOUANIHAU
War legacies, more broadly, are a critical component of the Solomon Islands and United States bilateral relationship.
US Embassy Chargé d’affaires in Honiara, Dan O’Hara, said this when responding to the question of repatriation of families of Solomon Islanders who have died from World War II UXO, or the victims who have survived.
Speaking in an exclusive interview, Mr O’Hara said that the US has been and remains committed to identifying and remediating UXO here in Solomon Islands and other countries.
“We have to work together with any receiving country. And we call it receiving and sending countries under the Vienna Convention. So here in Solomon Islands, the United States is the sending country, and Solomon Islands is the receiving country,” he explained.
Known as the “treaty on treaties”, the VCLT establishes comprehensive, operational guidelines, rules and procedures for how treaties are drafted, defined, amended and interpreted.
According to O’Hara, the US has to work with receiving countries on war legacy cooperation around the world.
“And here, at a specific request from the Solomon Islands government a little over a decade ago, we’ve been prioritising the UXO.
“In the past decade, it’s an example of true partnership between our countries on this UXO priority, and it’s the foundation of future cooperation on a range of UXO or war legacy issues.
“And that UXO contamination, again, is a big, big, big piece of that. That’s why the United States is the single largest funder of humanitarian UXO clearance work worldwide, globally, across the world. Nobody funds UXO work around the world more than the United States does. We are the largest donor to humanitarian mine action globally, full stop,” O’Hara said.
He emphasised that the US has been working with governments to make progress on their priorities.
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