Here I share the life and dead of my father who was killed at the peak of the conflict in 1993 on this very date 18 of March at 3PM at Kapanasi hamlet of Siae Village in the North Nasioi LLG in Central Bougainville.
Dad: John Roka
My dad was born John Kalago at Manopo Village in Bali island of Talasia district of West New Britain in 1954. Later he adopted John Roka.
He was educated at home and later was studying to be a Catholic missionary but due to the economic boom in Panguna he left for Bougainville. He was apprentice at the Panguna Mining School and worked the the BCL's Light Vehicle Workshop as an auto-mechanic.
He met my mother (blood niece of later rebel leader, Joseph C. Kabui), whilst a student at Arawa High School in the late 1970s. They married in 1977 and I was born in 1979 in Arawa.
Ma: Threse and granny, Theophil Roka
To his own world-view, dad loved Bougainville much and did not bother even to bring his family across to his relatives. Kieta and Kieta cultures is what he enjoyed all through his working life and into the crisis.
We had our home in the early 1980s in Kavarongnau hamlet in the Tumpusiong Valley of Panguna District. But in the later years, our nuclear family to the liking of my grandfather who was from Kupe-Topinang villages we resettled at Kupe in a land purchased by my grandma years back from her in-laws.
Here we lived as the crisis unfolded in 1988.
My dad was a always sympathetic to the early militants fighting in Panguna. He was saying their actions was good for our future. For in the early militancy my uncles were in from the start.
In early 1990, the PNGDF evacuated the Kupe villages to Kaino village turned a care centre. Here we lived. Here, my BRA relatives from Panguna came to visit and for clothing, medicine and a break. The care centre assisted them (it was a all-Panguna affair then).
But, in late 1992 a radio message was transmitted through the Red Cross in Arawa for him to go home where his elder brother Joe and a brother behind him, Patrick, were knifed to death at home. They were killed defending their little brother over a sex-affair row at home, Manopo.
So dad left through the Solomon Islands.
The night before he departed from Kieta, dad told my aunty Durinu with a laugh, 'I am leaving through Honiara and shall return through Buka. When I arrive here, it is you who will kill me'.
He was away when the PNGDF recaptured parts of Kieta on the 21 October 1992. Without him, mom cared for us in the jungles of Kupe where the PNGDF mortar shelling was a routined tradtion.
Then one day, dad got into air. He sent a message (Toksave) through Radio Bougainville that operating from Rabaul that he was coming. No body knew which route he was following.
To our shock, he arrived home on the 15 March 1993. A few BRA men from Kupe on patrol met him but ignored him for they knew the sort of a man. He did came through Buka, Wakunai and Arawa. This was the coastal areas controlled by the PNGDF and BRF.
The next day, a self-appointed BRA colonel, BI, secretly wrote a letter to a BRA faction from Kongara to execute him for he was 'a threat to Bougainville freedom'.
So the next day, 17 March 1993, a bunch of them arrived home and they called him that a BRA team was to interview him. Mom followed dad to Totaisii near the Rumba SDA Mission station outside Arawa. He was interviewed by late Otii, a BRA man from Kongara.
In the afternoon they returned. On their way home, mom told him that she not feeling well, thus they need to come home quickly and we escaped into Arawa. All dad said was, 'This is our home'.
Very early in the morning of 18 March 1993, dad prayed a prayer I never heard of:
'Lord, thank you for giving me my wife, Threse
and my children Leonard, Justin
Jessica, Dollorose and Theonilla.
Bless our home and the land
You gave us.
There are times I feel bad towards them. I say
Sorry for this moments'
After this praying, he ordered us to kill a pig. We did that. And we were preparing and cooking this food stuff till midday when a pair of errand boys arrived, one was armed but the order was a little kid and told mom that Ishmael Toroama (BRA commando) wanted to interview him.
So, dad lifted Theonilla who was our last born and held her tightly. Patted some of us and left without having the taste of food he wanted. Mom and and a uncle followed him to Piruana where the interview was to take place.
At Piruana, not a sign of Toroama. They waited. In the late afternoon armed men arrived and went straight for a kill. People fled but mom stood back in defence around my dad. She brushed away punches aimed at my dad. Guns aimed at dad she shielded off so one as to reaim again. She, in a gesture of love at the face of death, never heard of across Bougainville, stood by in no fear of death. The BRAs struggled often calling at her that, ' This is not your father's nephew'.
But later, dad peacefully said to mom: 'Leave me to death.If you both die, what will happen to our children?'
To the power of these words, mom was swept away by the blood hungry men. Then BRA 'C' Coy commander Steven Topesi's brother, Diu'tepaa fired a shot that penetrated dad's skull from the back and out of his face and dad landed heavily on a rocky lawn. Seeing that he was still struggling at his last seconds, Henry Dupinu from Karikira fired a second bullet through his chest and rested was dad.
My uncle, Steven Perakai, got himself out of the bushes and held his elder grief striken sister and ushered her home.
The BRA men got some by-standers at gun point and ordered them to bury dad are few metres from where he landed. We were not allowed to take the body home.
Theonilla and son, Clinton
Jessica's daughter, Cathy and Roka home in Panguna
Jessica Roka
Dollorose Roka and Roka cocoa plantation
...20 years today since you've been gone in the name of Bougainville freedom, dad, but still yesterday is here around me...remember us as we strive to be the agents of change to the land you did love the most and tainted it with your innocent blood for our good...
John Roka is survived by mother, Threse, sons Leonard Fong Roka and Justin Roka and daughters, Jessica Roka, Dollorose Roka and Theonilla Roka. Followed by six grand children, from primary teacher Justin and Buka wife, Jessica and husband and Dollorose and husband.
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