Six Anglican missionaries who were taken hostage four months ago in the Solomon Islands by warlord Harold Keke have been killed, a senior member of their Anglican order said Aug. 11.
The deaths are the first known since an Australian lead force of 2,225 police and troops arrived to try to restore order in July.
The six members of the brotherhood set off from Honiara, the capital of the Solomon Islands, last April to look for another member of the order, Brother Nathaniel Sado, who is not thought to have been murdered.
Keke was thought to have seized the six men to use as human shields in case the peacekeepers attacked his forces. It is believed they were later killed by one of the warlord’s lieutenants.
“These were six innocent brothers who went out in faith and love in search of their brother,” Carter said. “It seems too much to bear that they should have been murdered in cold blood.”
The Melanesian Brotherhood is an order of evangelists founded by a Solomon Islander in 1925 that ministers mostly in Melanesia and Australia. Two members and five novices of the order were taken hostage by Keke last June but later released, Carter said.
The Associated Press reported that Australian officials said Aug. 12 that Keke surrendered to Australian-led peacekeepers in the South Pacific islands. A full investigation of Keke’s crimes, including the murder of 50 people last year, is now under way, Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer told Parliament.
(RNS)
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