[CPEO-MEF] MUNITIONS, GLOBAL: "World War II Era Weapons Still Threatening Lives and Development in the Solomon Islands"

[Lenny Siegel <Lsiegel@cpeo.org>]

World War II Era Weapons Still Threatening Lives and Development in the Solomon Islands

by Catherine Wilson 
Inter Press Service   
October 6, 2025
    

SYDNEY, Australia , October 6 (IPS) - Last century the remote Solomon Islands was the stage for some of the most intense battles fought during the Pacific campaign of the Second World War. But while Allied troops departed on the heels of victory, the military forces of both sides left a massive legacy of unexploded ordnance (UXO) which is still scattered across the country and others in the region.

In September, ageing UXO was highlighted as a “multidimensional threat to sovereignty, human security, environment and economic development” by Pacific Island leaders during their annual summit held in Honiara, the Solomon Islands’ capital.

... 

Today the islands harbour abandoned tanks and fighter planes and sunken battleships in tropical waters attract diving tourists. But every year islanders are killed and injured by the accidental detonation of ageing ordnance.

…

For the entire article, see
https://www.globalissues.org/news/2025/10/06/41243

—

Lenny Siegel
Executive Director
Center for Public Environmental Oversight
A project of the Pacific Studies Center
LSiegel@cpeo.org
P.O. Box 998, Mountain View, CA 94042
Voice/Fax: 650-961-8918
http://www.cpeo.org
Author: DISTURBING THE WAR: The Inside Story of the Movement to Get Stanford University out of Southeast Asia - 1965–1975 (See http://a3mreunion.org)




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