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AUSTRALIA: TROOPS BEGIN PATROLS IN TONGA November 18, 2006
Zainab Osman
(SomaliNet) Australian troops have begun patrolling Tonga's international airport in an effort to restore calm, as dozens of Australians prepare to flee the strife-torn South Pacific nation.
About 50 Townsville-based troops of 1RAR and 34 Australian Federal Police (AFP) today joined a deployment of 60 military personnel and 10 police officers from New Zealand. The deployment also will be on standby to evacuate about 300 Australians estimated to be in Tonga.
The airport has been closed to commercial flights since Thursday, when rioting destroyed 80 per cent of the central business district and left at least eight people dead.
The riots erupted after Tonga's Parliament went into recess for the year without voting on proposed democratic reforms to dramatically boost the proportion of elected MPs, and slash those appointed by the king.
The Prime Minister's office and other public buildings were attacked, shops were looted and cars overturned as hundreds of youths rampaged.
The trouble in Tonga follows destructive riots in the Solomon Islands capital Honiara in April, continuing gang violence in East Timor and the recent coup threats in Fiji, heightening concerns about failed states in the Pacific region.