Leonard Fong Roka
NOTE: Oune is a small enclave of people between
the Avaipa (Eivo) and Ioro (Panguna) with their own dialect of the Nasioi
language. They occupy the villages of Onove, Enamira, and Darenai that
surrounds what is now referred to as the Panguna mine’s Upper Tailings zone of
the Kavarong River. Today, the area is commonly called, the Tumpusiong Valley
that is ‘along the dirt’ in Nasioi because of the mine waste the valley was
destroyed with.
The area is home to
the late ABG president, Joseph Kabui and his elder brother, Martin Miriori and
the other notable figure in Bougainville political history, late Luke Robin
whom his killing in the early 1970s alongside his Buin brother, Peter Moini in
Goroka resulted in increase of anti-PNG and BCL demonstrations in the past. And
compared with most of Panguna District, it is the area with most educated people
in the past and even today.
As the mining giant,
Conzinc Rio Tinto Australia (CRA) was clearing the jungles and digging up the
mountains of Panguna in the 1960s, downstream, the Kavarong River dumped waste
in tonnes on Clement Nabiau and his Oune people daily. They were watching as
their food sources in the river and surrounding banks were biologically
mutilated by a force that was beyond their understanding.
Mr. Clement Nabiau
In 1968 when the Oune people organized themselves into a
body, Clement Nabiau was 13 years old.
Then, under the leadership of Catholic missionaries educated
leader from the Avaipa area, Michael Aite (then nicknamed, Makakii (physically
slow growing person)), the people created their village level governing body
called, Oune Mumungsina. The inauguration was witnessed by known leaders of
Bougainville, namely Mr. Moses Havini and his wife and Mr. Leo Hannet. It had
Dupanta village, on the border of Avaipa and Panguna, as its official
headquarters.
Oune Mumungsina, then as an organization of the people,
stretched its influenced to the neighboring villages of Bapong, Pisinau, Damara
and the Kosia area of Avaipa.
To the Panguna people, Aite was a rare leader with his level
of western education, thus many independence movements (cult groups) dissolved
and joined force with the Oune Mumungsina. Aite was now an authority across
Oune, Panguna, and Avaipa and beyond, he had political alliances and support
for Bougainville secession from other parts of Bougainville, also.
By this time, the Panguna mining was fast developing and the
Tumpusiong Valley was engulfed by the washout from Panguna mine site beyond
imagination.
Oune Mumungsina’s first strike against CRA was an order on
the people to uproot the survey pegs marking the area of the Special Mining
Lease (SML) at Onove. Young children like Clement Nabiau were regularly
following the elders to unearthing the pegs and bringing them back to the
surveyors’ camp at Dau, a stream at Onove.
According to Nabiau, the colonial administration response
was a built up of police at the Dau camp. This did not stop the people, so a
kiap, later called a meeting with the disgruntling people. As the Oune people
waited for the kiap’s visit, word reached the leaders that the Guava villagers
with their leader, Oni who had signed the go-ahead of the mining earlier had
said that the anti-mining Oune people will be their house-keepers and cleaners
in the future as they sit and sleep in luxury from the mine benefits.
So the Oune leaders plotted that the coming meeting with the
kiap was now for an attack of the Dau camp, the kiap and the police.
In the planning, the chief of Enamira, late Kuirua, was to
wave a leaf he was holding in the air as a gesture of a start-up-the-fight
order to the people.
So on the meeting day in June 1969, the Oune people went
with clubs wrapped up in leaves and man with bows & arrows waiting on the
edges. Smaller kids like Nabiau had stones in their hands and waited around
listening to the elders’ guidance.
But at the meeting place, Kuirua was there arguing with a
police officer from Nagovis, called Potuga and the people waited when the order
for starting the fight would come. In the delay, three short tempered elders
(ring leaders of the CRA peg uprooting); I’ampama, Karo’aung and I’mu took the
order into their hands, so I’ampama rushed at a kiap’s officer and grabbed his
neck intending to choke him to death. So the fight broke out.
Nabiau helped throwing stones at the police and CRA
employees. To the youngster, the elder I’mu was so powerful. He was throwing
the police officers one by one into the Dau stream against the rocks below.
Neither side wanted to succumb to defeat thus both remained defending with the
Oune ruling physically despite the amount of tear gas thrown on them by the
police.
Later in the afternoon, Karo’aung saw that there would not
be an end to the fight so he gave himself to the police. Seeing what his
partner was doing, I’mu, also gave himself up to be arrested. So the fight
halted with dismay as the leaders surrendered.
The police took the pair to Kieta, then the colonial
government administration headquarters, and were sentenced for six months.
After completing their term, they returned and were welcomed
at Onove village as heroes with a feast and the people’s struggle against CRA
and the government continued.
The next encounter with the colonial government by the Oune
Mumungsina as Nabiau remembers was in Arawa. Then, the Bougainville leaders Fr.
John Momis and Leo Hannet were in New York seeking independence for
Bougainville from the United Nations (UN). The people were glad as they waited
for the pair in New York. But when the news was negative, the Oune people
stormed the government building known as the White House in Arawa in 1974.
There they marched around the White House ordering the
self-government of PNG to get out of Bougainville. But their cries were landing
on deaf and insane leaders from New Guineas and Australians so they went into
hiding of weeping over their island being raped by strangers.
Later on in 1975, Nabiau and his Oune people got another
demonstration order from Dupanta. They were to be hitting Arawa again. Before marching
into Arawa, leaders gathered at Dupanta and planned a sport bazaar that went
for weeks at Onove village. Food was to be brought by respective villages as
far as Nagovis for the people.
People were also grouped into two: one group was to remain
at Onove playing sport and administering food supply for the Arawa group whilst
the next, were to march for Arawa seeking independence from the government and
remain in Arawa for as long as the agreement for Bougainville secession was
reached.
As planned for, the sport bazaar at Onove was launched and
march for Arawa went off! Oune Mumungsina was helped by the Mungkas Association
led by a man called Linus Konuku from Buin. This was a group formed by
Bougainville students in Port Moresby and it provided funds to hire trucks that
transported people from Onove to Arawa. Food was also trucked from Oune.
A week or so, before September 1, 1975, according to Nabiau,
they were transported into Arawa. There they demonstrated ordering the
self-government of PNG to get out of Bougainville.
The police confronted them since the Papuan government
officer, known as Vincent Kekeio hated what the Bougainvilleans were talking
about, with tear gas and baton but they stood despite being chased around the
White House by the police. In this police instigated violence, two police
officers were attacked by the demonstrators; one received a club blow from
I’ampama. Slowly the demonstrators reached calm after days of confrontation
with the New Guinean police.
No government official was there to receive their cries so
after days of meetings with the people on the lawns of the White House, the
frustrated Leo Hannet declared a Unilateral Declaration of Independence (UDI)
and Bougainville was now the Republic of North Solomons on the 1 September 1975.
Bougainville ran under this UDI for a number of days and later they Oune people
were told that what they had being happy about was illegal.
Once again, Nabiau and his people were defeated by
foreigners who were destroying their land and culture.
Demoralized they returned home. The news was shocking for
the sporting people at Onove who played and waited for weeks for good news of
Bougainville being free from the foreigners nearly leading to an internal fight
for the Oune Mumungsina.
With the political fight getting setbacks due mainly to the
lack of educated people for the Panguna area, the Oune Mumungsina targeted now
the Bougainville Copper Limited (BCL).
In the early 80s, the Oune people blocked and occupied the
Jaba Pump Station that pumped the Toi’o River to the Panguna Concentrator since
Kavarong alone was not enough to supply the water to process the ore. Mine
operations were disturbed for some hours.
Nabiau and the elders occupied the pump station for a day
and according to him, BCL bribed the elders thus the protest was called off.
The next protest Nabiau attended was at the BCL head office
in Panguna known as the Pink Palace. This march happened in 1979 and was to
protest for a raise in royalties that the people hoped for an immediate feedback
from BCL.
The Oune people assembled at the Pink Palace with their
petition but the BCL authorities inside bothered not to act swiftly after
receiving the petition as required by the people who were there outside under
the shimmering heat of the sun.
Out of frustration, some of the protestors headed straight
to loot the Panguna’s AEL supermarket in the town section. Nabiau was in the
group drinking soft drinks when the police intervened and chased them with tear
gas and shouts calling them, ‘insane black bastards’.
Nabiau escaped uninjured. But some of his friends were
injured and others were arrested but later released.
After some years of calm but with weeping hearts and a
desire to shut the mine, Nabiau got himself with his Oune people blocking the
port-mine access road at the Camp 10 bus depot area. This occurred in 1981.
The demonstration went for a day with the government and BCL
getting their riot police on Nabiau and the demonstrators for the first time.
Then around 1988, Nabiau was with the Oune people and other
supporters having a seat-in strike blocking access to vehicles at the
pit-access tunnels. Traffic was disturbed again for a day and bus never brought
in workers into the pit area of the mine.
The last demonstration Nabiau and his Oune people organized
was in 1989 and, it was the protest that finally had BCL packing and PNG in
shock; it was the protest that had the late Francis Ona, running into hiding
and later had Bougainville into a anarchy that leaders had struggled to solve.
In early 1989, after listening to all the fights happening
around Arawa, the Oune people saw it right to shut the mine by force. Thus, young men were ordered by elders to
bring all BCL’s plants stationed on the tailings control areas to the Tungsing
creek.
One of Bougainville’s known politician, Martin Miriori used
his vehicle to bring young men to various locations along the Tumpusiong Valley
to bring the plants. Once all plants were brought, section of the Panguna-Jaba
at the Tungsing creek was destroyed.
Again Oune history was repeated. The people plotted for an
attack on the police and assigned a local politician, Wendelinus Bitanuma to
negotiate and if he disliked the talks, he was to wave his handkerchief so that
the men can start attacking the police.
To Nabiau, this was an opportunity to get the all-New
Guinean policemen bathing in their blood for as the police arrived, a local
officer from South Bougainville had secretly told and identified to the
protestors that the police had stocked all tear gases and arms in a particular
van. He told them that when they decided to attack, they must secure in advance
the van with his help.
Traffic was blocked off for hours. Later in the day, police
led by Commander Luke Pango arrived at the scene to negotiate the re-opening of
the road. For the Oune people, local politician Wendelinus Bitanuma led the
meeting with the police.
But Wendelinus Bitanuma never gestured what the men were
waiting for but no one took the order into his own hands and the issue was
sorted by Bitanuma and not by the men.
During the day, the late Francis Ona, who was in a meeting
with the BCL walked out of the meeting and prepared to go into hiding since as
he claimed, ‘They [Oune] have started the fight, so let’s go to war with the
company and PNG’ and militancy began led by attacks by the Oune men.
Clement Nabiau began the commander of the very first
organized militant group formed by the young men from the Oune area and was
called the, RUMBO ONE.
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