Solomon Islands, 2000 — dissident coup
Event Summary
Before dawn on 5 June 2000 militants of the Malaita Eagle Force, joined by mainly Malaitan members of the police, stormed the Honiara home of Prime Minister Bartholomew Ulufa'alu of the Solomon Islands and took him hostage while other groups seized the police armoury and headquarters. The takeover grew out of the ethnic conflict known as the Tension, in which the Guadalcanal based Isatabu Freedom Movement had driven tens of thousands of Malaitan settlers from their homes and the Malaita Eagle Force had formed as a counter-militia. The Eagle Force said the government had failed to address the crisis and forced Ulufa'alu to resign in exchange for his release; he stepped down within days, and parliament then elected opposition leader Manasseh Sogavare as prime minister at the end of June.
The Malaita Eagle Force retained de facto control of the capital, and the conflict continued until the Townsville Peace Agreement of October 2000 and, later, the 2003 Australian led Regional Assistance Mission. Ulufa'alu was not physically harmed and returned to parliament as an embittered opposition leader.
Researched Details
Researched
Independent research, added record by record. Hover any label for what it means.
Sources
Editorial Note
Cross-Reference
Only one dataset carries it. One of the three reference datasets we check against carries this event; the others do not list it. That is not a contradiction — the datasets cover different periods and use different thresholds — but it means the record has had less outside corroboration.
Identifiers for finding this same event in the other datasets:
- Cline Center id
94006052000
How the match is made is described in crossref-report.md.
Outcome and Target
Coup Atlas research identifies the target as: Prime Minister Bartholomew Ulufa'alu, taken hostage and forced to resign; not physically harmed.
Baseline coding: Incumbent executive removed from power. Recorded leader fate: deposed; not physically harmed. The baseline file does not name individual targets; researched names are kept in a separate layer.
Baseline Dataset Citation
Baseline Source-Document Entries
The Christian Science Monitor
The Independent
The Globe and Mail
The Nelson Mail
This is the citation trail carried by the baseline dataset, grouped by outlet and rejoined from the line-wrapped original. Coup Atlas has not independently re-checked every document; read the original before citing a specific claim. URLs the import damaged beyond safe repair are shown as plain text and listed in citations-report.md. How this list is built →