Six missionaries taken hostage by Solomon Islands warlord Harold Keke are all dead, an Australian diplomat said this morning.
"It is with real regret that, when I asked about the six Melanesian brothers, I was told by Keke that they were dead," Mr Nick Warner, head of the Australian-led intervention force said in Honiara.
Mr Warner said he had been told of the missionaries' deaths by Keke during a meeting at Mbiti village, on the Weathercoast southwest of the capital, earlier today.
He had no details of how or when the Anglican Melanesian Brotherhood ministers died.
The hostages were shown on Australian television last month smiling and sharing a meal with Keke in his jungle stronghold.
Keke released several hostages last month as a gesture of goodwill before the intervention force landed. It is not known whether he is holding any more hostages.
The deaths are the first confirmed since the 2,225-strong force of police and troops, the largest military deployment in the South Pacific since World War Two, landed last month to restore order in the near-bankrupt Solomons.
