Wednesday, March 12, 1997 - 11:00
By Norm Dixon
Fighters of the Bougainville
Revolutionary Army (BRA) are on "red alert" in preparation for
attacks by South African mercenaries hired by the Papua New Guinea government.
The pro-independence Bougainville Interim Government has reported that the
mercenaries have already been involved in skirmishes at several locations.
PNG Prime Minister, Sir Julius Chan, 'Bougainvilleans had no right to their island'
Mercenaries were spotted on February 28 and March 1,
conducting reconnaissance flights over Bougainville in two Iroquois combat
helicopters donated to the PNG Defence Force by the Hawke Labor government.
BIG Australian spokesperson Moses Havini reported that on
March 1, grenade launchers were fired at villages below. Radio Australia
reported on March 3 that the missions involved at least four operatives of
Sandline International, the British company linked to the South African-based
Executive Outcomes mercenary outfit.
On March 3, PNGDF soldiers led by mercenaries fired three
mortar rounds near the Bougainville capital, Arawa. Villagers report that PNGDF
soldiers, led by mercenaries, have taken up positions 25 km from the abandoned
RTZ-CRA copper mine at Panguna.
In response, BIG President Francis Ona warned that
mercenaries would be shot on sight. According to Bishop John Zale, a BIG
representative in the Solomon Islands, BRA fighters are not intimidated by the
threat of mercenary intervention.
The firepower at the mercenaries' disposal does not worry
the BIG, Zale told the Melbourne Age on March 2: "Back in the days
when all this started, the BRA had only bows and arrows. Then they managed to capture
some weapons and learned how to use them. But while the PNG forces were always
better equipped and trained, our boys have always beaten them."
Opposition is mounting in PNG to Prime Minister Sir
Julius Chan's escalation of the war. The Individual and Community Rights
Advocacy Forum (ICRAF), one PNG's main NGO bodies, is to sponsor a
constitutional challenge to the hiring of mercenaries.
ICRAF director Powes Parkop told Chan in a letter,
"Any decision to hunt down and kill hardcore BRA leaders or members or,
for that matter, anyone on Papua New Guinea, would be in breach of the
Constitution ..."
A similar challenge is being prepared by opposition
politician Rimbink Pato. The government of the Solomon Islands has threatened
to take a case to the International Court of Justice.
John Momis, the member of parliament who nominally
represents Bougainville, said he was "flabbergasted" by Chan's hiring
of mercenaries. It could only result in all Bougainvilleans uniting against the
PNG government, he warned. The Port Moresby-appointed Bougainville Transitional
Government also expressed reservations.
A group of nine MPs, led by former PM Sir Michael Somare,
has demanded Chan's resignation over the mercenary contract.
Chan's government is deeply divided on the Bougainville
conflict. The dominant position of Chan, his deputy Chris Haiveta and defence
minister Mathias Ijape favours an all-out military solution. PNGDF commander
Brigadier-General Jerry Singirok has been in Singapore and Hong Kong
"shopping" for Black Hawk helicopter gunships fitted with
remote-control M-16 machine guns, fixed-wing aircraft from Spain, training for
pilots and ground crew, weapons, ammunition and other military gadgets such as
sophisticated radar and night-vision equipment — all on the advice of the
"consultants" from Sandline/Executive Outcomes.
The softer line, being pushed by PNG provincial and local
government affairs minister Peter Barter, is that there cannot be a military
solution and that negotiations with the BIG are necessary. Barter is favourable
to a lifting of the blockade and a restoration of services to rebel-held areas.
The blockade has cost the lives of at least 10,000 Bougainvilleans.
Meanwhile, Canberra continues to refuse to cut the
Australian military and "budgetary" aid to Port Moresby. The lobby
group Aid/Watch on March 5 backed calls by the Bougainville Freedom Movement
for all Australian aid to PNG to be suspended until the Bougainville war ends.
Australian "aid" only allowed Port Moresby to prolong the war and to
commit human rights violations, the group said.
Pressed on whether Australia would cut its $320 million
annual aid to PNG, foreign minister Alexander Downer could manage only to say
that "at this delicate time it is important that we keep our options open
and continue to work behind the scenes". Opponents of the war are becoming
increasingly frustrated at Canberra's mock outrage.
BRA Commander Sam Kauona says that Australia was
"seriously implicated" in creating the nine-year conflict. BIG
President Francis Ona pointed to Australia's continued funding of the PNGDF,
supplying Iroquois combat helicopters and allowing Australians to pilot them.
"I don't trust Australia", Ona told the Age on February
28. "They are the ones supplying assistance and information to the PNGDF.
The only way for there to be peace is for Australia to recognise independence
for the people of Bougainville."
Kauona added that Australia should provide urgent
assistance directly to the people of Bougainville, impose sanctions on PNG and
support an international peacekeeping force to replace PNG troops on
Bougainville.
The prime minister of the neighbouring Solomon Islands,
Solomon Mamaloni, slammed the Australian government on March 4 over its
"double-faced" attitude. He said Canberra's criticism of PNG's resort
to mercenaries was not genuine. He said he suspected that Australia's lack of
action was based on its desire to see the Australian-owned Panguna copper mine
reopened.
He also condemned the Howard government's refusal to aid
Bougainvillean refugees in the Solomons and its policy of channelling aid
through Port Moresby.
The BIG has rejected the announced plan by the PNG
government to buy RTZ-CRA's 54% stake in the Panguna mine. Francis Ona said the
plan was a "shady and crooked deal" designed to hand over
Bougainville's mineral wealth to companies linked to the mercenary forces, just
as has happened in Angola and Sierra Leone, where Executive Outcomes operated
in the past.
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