Foreign troops head to Tonga, 8 dead in riots
Reuters
NUKU'ALOFA - The death toll from violent riots in the Tongan capital rose to eight on Friday and Australia and New Zealand agreed to a government request to send in a joint force to protect the airport and boost security.
Australian media said Australian Prime Minister John Howard and his New Zealand counterpart, Helen Clark, announced the move in Hanoi, where they are attending an Asia-Pacific summit.
The joint force would comprise more than 100 troops and about 50 police officers under New Zealand command, Australian Associated Press (AAP) reported.
Earlier, a spokesman for Tongan Prime Minister Fred Sevele said Nuku'alofa was calm on Friday a day after pro-democracy protesters torched and looted up to 80 percent of the buildings in the city's business district.
Soldiers and police cordoned off streets in the centre of the capital as the government enacted emergency powers to secure government offices, oil depots, shops and the hospital.
"We're in control of the situation," spokesman Lopeti Senituli said. "Thankfully, nothing serious has happened today. It's all calm."
Rescue workers found two more bodies late on Friday, believed to be members of a mob that attacked a supermarket. Firefighters had earlier recovered six badly burned bodies from a building.
In its request for help, the government urged Australia and New Zealand to contribute troops and police to back up the island nation's civil defense services and the Tonga police force.
AAP said Howard told reporters Australia and New Zealand, as the biggest countries in the region, had a responsibility to help.
STABILITY OF REGION
"It's a very necessary responsibility," he said. "It's too important to the stability of the whole region for us to be less than willing to respond to a request ... to a country that looks to Australia and New Zealand in its hour of need."
Among the buildings damaged on Thursday were the prime minister's office, the financial department, offices of power company Shoreline, which is partly owned by King George Tupou V, the town's only bank and Chinese-owned shops and businesses.
The rioting in Tonga began after parliament went into recess for the year without voting on proposals for sweeping democratic reforms to Tonga's semi-feudal system.
Late on Thursday, the government bowed to the protesters and agreed to new elections in 2008 in which a majority of the parliament would be directly elected by popular vote. At present, nobles and appointed MPs outnumber elected representatives.
New Zealand and Australia have condemned the violence and warned their nationals in Tonga to stay away from large gatherings.
Air New Zealand said it had cancelled flights to Tonga for a second day on Friday, and would cancel flights scheduled for Saturday and Sunday.
Tonga, a group of 170 coral and volcanic islands about 2,000 km (1,250 miles) north of New Zealand, saw unprecedented protests in May 2005, when 10,000 people -- a tenth of the population -- took to the streets demanding democracy and public ownership of key assets.