30 Apr 2007

Solomons warlord Keke in court over murder of 10 Malaitans

2:00 pm on 30 April 2007

A convicted Solomon Islands warlord Harold Keke is back in court on trial for the murders of 10 Malaitan men on a beach on Guadalcanal's Weather Coast in June 2002.

His former deputy, Ronnie Cawa, is also accused of the murders of the 10 men from Kwaio on the island of Malaita.

The court was told Keke rounded up the Kwaio men up at the beach, asked them who sent them, killed their leader and then ordered his men to shoot the rest of them on the beach.

Keke is currently serving a life sentence for the murder of Cabinet Minister Augustine Geve in August 2002.

Cawa is serving two life sentences, one for the murder of Geve and the other for the murder of Nathaniel Sado of the Melanesian Brotherhood in February 2003.