Witness in International Murder Investigation Found

Dan Eaton
Stuff.co.nz
________
Auckland (New Zealand):
The Press yesterday found the freelance New Zealand photographer, Bryn Evans, in Auckland after an international police plea for help to identify and find him.
He was wanted as a witness in an international murder investigation into a vicious Solomon Islands ethnic killing.
On Tuesday, Australian and New Zealand police supplied the media with three photos of the man they wanted to identify from grainy video footage shot by Malaita Eagle Force (MEF) rebels who staged a successful coup in the civil war-torn Solomons in 2000.
Police in the Solomons, Australia and New Zealand wanted to identify the man as a potential witness to the bashing and shooting of a Solomons man.
"It is me (in the photo)," Evans said yesterday. "I was dragged away before it (the killing) happened, but what it was all over, which was pretty common knowledge, is we were actually ambushed."
Canberra-based federal agent Marcus Tawton, of the Australian Federal Police's Pacific desk, said the murdered man had been identified as James Kuki, but no other details were available.
Jan 19, 2006