Shut the influx of New Guineans or we start shooting

By Leonard Fong Roka

‘Halt the influx of Redskins into Bougainville or we start shooting!’ Say, this is the words of the politically weak of Bougainville. In fact the men who drove Bougainville and Papua New Guinea into an armed conflict were these very lot; the ignored bunch of people by the elite.

Long time serving BRA man, Leo Takinu, from Kupe says that our leaders have so sold us away. Firstly, through the Peace Agreement, they told us to give up our guns so Bougainville can be a gun-free and democratic society. But, the problem is: when you take away and destroy my hard-gained weapon, what do you give me?

Leo Takinu, BRA Kon'ampai Platoon

The PNGDF did not give the guns as a X-Mas present, we killed and took them.

We want a gun-free Bougainville, but a gun-free Bougainville not under the Papua New Guinean deathly claws. It’s true, guns have nothing to do in Bougainville, but for us to destroy these weapons, where is the protection we long fought and died for on our island?

So far, since the establishment of the ABG not a leader talked about policy frameworks with PNG so has to have Bougainvilleans rebuilding Bougainville from the scratch. The Bougainville Peace Agreement so clearly outlines that where need or problems arises; both have to sit and analysise and sort out so as to keep the peace going. But, none has been vocal on this.

In 2010, a New Guinean married to a local woman but was not here during the crisis was killed in cold blood. He was killed because he was doing fine in business, and later won a security contract with the Arawa gold essay. To the killers, they said they did justice to Bougainville. But, for us open minded few; we say it’s the bad side of ignorance of ABG on the people of Bougainville.

Hundreds of Bougainvillean teachers, for example are in PNG when Bougainville schools are short of teachers. We say that we lack intellectual capacity, but look up some top jobs in PNG, there are Bougainvilleans behind the wheels.

Nothing is hard here, create a law in the PNG government to harden employment opportunities to Bougainvilleans for the sole purpose of getting Bougainvilleans helping back their island. But, instead of coming up with such simple strategies we import the cockroaches into our island to fill the gap.

ABG is allowing them to come as preaches in the churches, businessmen, bilum sellers in Buka town, News paper vendors, and holiday makers and so on. These simple things that a Bougainvillean ought to be doing! We are keeping an eye on this.

They are coming without even compensating us for the lives lost. We export our students there, and they are marrying and bringing them here. By bringing them here, remember there are Bougainvilleans whom their father or mother is from PNG but married to us before the conflict and we killed him or her here, what will these Bougainvilleans say to us?

What retributive justice have we done to these sort of Bougainvilleans who a parent was a redskin and we killed here by saying his redskin father is a nobody on Bougainville?

And one child of these children has said that the moment Bougainville is independent, any marriage to a PNGean after the signing of the Bougainville Peace Agreement, will live on a legal street of broken bottles.

He stated that laws will be created that will protect us. Any non-Bougainvillean that arms a Bougainville must go for death penalty or deportation.

But for me, if my relative comes home with one New Guinean, I will kill his or her New Guinean in honour of the 15 000 lost Bougainvilleans that we still are not respecting.