Australian troops began a peace mission to the lawless Solomon Islands yesterday, splashing ashore at a beach where US Marines spilled their blood against the Japanese in one of World War Two?s most crucial battles.

The South Pacific?s biggest military deployment since the war kicked off in the tropical dawn when an Australian air force C-130 Hercules disgorged soldiers and equipment at the impoverished island nation?s main airport.

It picked up pace as amphibious landing craft laden with members of the 2,225-strong force and trucks ploughed onto Red Beach, where 61 years ago the US 1st Marine Division launched its first offensive against the Japanese on Guadalcanal. ?They are welcome. We want peace,? said one elderly man waiting since before dawn at the airport in the capital Honiara.

The peacekeepers and police also include contingents from New Zealand, Fiji, Tonga, Samoa and Papua New Guinea. Hundreds of people have died during five years of ethnic conflict between militia from Guadalcanal and Malaita islands.Prime Minister, Allan Kemakeza fled into hiding on Wednesday because of fears former militia members, who frequently extort money from the government, might make a last-minute stab at derailing the deployment by killing or kidnapping him.

Low-key approach

He is believed to have returned to Honiara yesterday, shortly before the arrival of Nick Warner, the Australian head of the intervention force. Warner said up to 600 troops, police and civilians were on the ground in Honiara.

?Today you will see some joint patrolling by our police and the Royal Solomon Islands Police. You?ll see some static guarding of facilities and some close personal protection of key individuals,? Warner told Australian television. Warner was confident that law and order would be restored quickly. ?I don?t think it?s going to be difficult,? he said. The first Australian vehicle to hit Red Beach was a military bulldozer, which tore through undergrowth under coconut trees to clear a path for trucks offloaded from the Australian naval transport HMAS Manoora, anchored around one km offshore.

Red Beach was where US marines landed on August 7, 1942, at the start of the Battle for Guadalcanal which turned the war in the Pacific against the Japanese. More than 7,000 Americans and 32,000 Japanese died in the five month battle.

Once peacekeepers secure Honiara they may then head to island provinces such as the Weathercoast, where warlord Harold Keke holds sway and terrorises locals. ?He?s a criminal. We?re really hoping that when the Australians arrive, they go out immediately and arrest this man,? said Jonathan Visule, a 40-year-old refugee.

But Keke, who has called a ceasefire, remains defiant, saying corrupt politicians have wrecked the Solomons not his militia. ?My aim is independence,? Keke told Australian television. ?If we were criminals or rapists or thieves, we would not be justified in standing up for our rights (...) but as we are right we are justified in keeping our arms,? he said.

Under the intervention plan, former militia members will be given an amnesty to hand in an estimated 1,300 illegal weapons. There is overwhelming public backing for the force, which is called Operation Helpem Fren in the pidgin English that loosely unites the 450,000 islanders and their 60 different languages, living around 1,800 km northeast of Australia.

But both New Zealander and Australia cautioned their troops to take a low-key approach, not wanting the intervention to be seen as neo-colonialism in the South Pacific. ?We must be sympathetic to the interest and needs of the Solomon Island people,? New Zealand Prime Minister, Helen Clarke told her troops yesterday.

Michael Christie