RAMSI Participating Police Force Commander, Denis McDermott has strongly refuted allegations that the PPF broke the rules of engagement in their response to the April riots last year.

Claims that PPF officers were instructed to shoot people in the neck with rounds of ‘beanbags’ are simply untrue, Mr McDermott said in a statement released today.

“The PPF did not have such equipment in the Solomon Islands at the time and no one has ever encouraged our officers to shoot people in the neck or back.”

Mr McDermott, who recently took over command of the PPF from Will Jamieson, said he was disappointed to see some local media outlets report the allegations without checking first with RAMSI on the facts.  

“If they had checked we would have been able to tell them that the allegations were not true.”

Mr McDermott said the ultimate test of whether the PPF and the SIPF had acted in accordance with the rules of engagement was the number of casualties suffered by the public during the period public disorder he said.

“The simple fact is there was no loss of life during the events of April 2006 and no members of the public were injured,” Mr McDermott said.

“In contrast 40 police officers sustained injuries, some serious,” he said.

Mr McDermott said that the police in dealing with demonstrations are often confronted with difficult circumstances and are trained to be very careful to avoid creating a situation where force might have to be used.

He said the Australian Federal Police’s Professional Standards Unit had also investigated the allegations and found that there was no substance to the allegations.

Professional Standards is a branch of the AFP that deals with complaints about members. It comes under the supervision of the Commonwealth Ombudsman who is independent and has responsibility for making a final assessment of the evidence obtained in the investigation of any complaint.