By Linny Folau in Honiara

A Gun Free Monument was unveiled on Sunday 25 July at Rove Park, Honiara, to mark the anniversary of the arrival of the Regional Assistance Mission to the Solomon Islands RAMSI in the Solomon Islands on 24 July last year.

The site is a land-mark for the success of RAMSI's peace keeping operation, whereby 3,730 firearms and 306,851 rounds of ammunition were destroyed and buried.

To mark the first anniversary of the peace keeping operation the Gun Free Monument was unveiled by the Defence Minister for Australian, Senator Robert Hill and the Defence Minister for New Zealand, Mark Burton, and was witnessed by the Prime Minister of the Solomon Islands Sir Allen Kamikeza and hundreds of Solomon Islanders, and foreign journalists.

Present at this unveiling ceremony were Police Commissioners from Samoa, Fiji, Tonga, Cook Islands and Papua New Guinea.

Sir Allen Kamikeza told the crowd that the Gun Free monument should serve as a constant reminder of the importance of a Gun Free society and for all Solomon Islanders to work together to restore peace and security for future generations of Solomon Islanders. Ben Mcdevitt, the Commander for the Participating Police Force for RAMSI stressed the significance of the monument which he said symbolised a new and better future for the Solomon Islands.

"It has been an extraordinary experience because just a year ago the Rule of Law in the Solomon Islands was replaced by the Rule of Guns". He said that during the Gun Amnesty last year the strong and united voices of mothers, wives and daughters calling on their fathers, husbands and sons to surrender their guns was a vital part in the handing over of the weapons that has so rampaged not only the city of Honiara but the whole country in general.