From: "Vikki John" <VIKKI-AT-lexsun.law.uts.edu.au>
Date:          Wed, 3 Sep 1997 13:03:38 GMT-1000
Subject: M-NEWS: (Fwd) THE AGE - Asia Online: Rebels will shoot Australian troo


------- Forwarded Message Follows -------

Subject:       THE AGE - Asia Online: Rebels will shoot Australian troops, chief warns

> 2 September 1997  
> 
>                        Rebels will shoot Australian troops, chief
>                        warns
>                        By LINDSAY MURDOCH,
>                        international affairs
> 
>                        correspondent, Canberra
> 
>                        Bougainville's top rebel leader yesterday
>                        vowed to shoot Australian troops if they
>                        attempted to carry out a plan to remove
>                        his representatives from the war-ravaged
>                        island.
> 
>                        The threat by Mr Francis Ona, the supreme
>                        commander of the Bougainville
>                        Revolutionary Army, has put in doubt the
>                        mission ordered by the Australian
>                        Government as well as talks aimed at
>                        ending the island's nine-year war that
>                        were scheduled to be held in New Zealand.
> 
>                        A spokesman for the Foreign Minister, Mr
>                        Alexander Downer, said last night the
>                        minister urged Mr Ona to "put aside his
>                        bellicose rhetoric" and work towards a
>                        peaceful future like other members of his
>                        movement.
> 
>                        The spokesman said Mr Ona's was only one
>                        of a variety of views in the BRA and its
>                        political wing, the Bougainville interim
>                        government, on efforts to end the war.
> 
>                        During talks with PNG leaders in Port
>                        Moresby last week, Mr Downer committed the
>                        Australian Defence Force to extracting
>                        rebel representatives from Bougainville
>                        and transporting them to the New Zealand
>                        talks.
> 
>                        The spokesman said last night that
>                        "discussions on logistics" for the mission
>                        were continuing.
> 
>                        Speaking on a satellite telephone after
>                        yesterday issuing a new proclamation of
>                        independence for Bougainville, Mr Ona
>                        warned that any Australian military
>                        presence on the island would be seen as a
>                        hostile act.
> 
>                        He said Australians must be blamed for a
>                        lot of people being killed on the island.
>                        "There is a danger if they come here," he
>                        said. "They are not neutral."
> 
>                        Asked whether he would order his fighters
>                        to open fire on Australians, Mr Ona said:
>                        "We can't hold on to see the Australian
>                        Government invading Bougainville."
> 
>                        Mr Ona's authority as rebel commander has
>                        never been challenged since he led a
>                        land-owner uprising against the
>                        Australian-owned Panguna copper mine in
>                        the late 1980s.
> 
>                        But several of his most senior political
>                        and military officers disagree with his
>                        hardline stand and want peace talks.
> 
>                        Mr Ona, a reclusive former mine truck
>                        driver, also said yesterday that any
>                        future talks must be held on Bougainville
>                        and not in New Zealand or anywhere else.
> 
>                        Mr Ona's three-page declaration included
>                        accusations that Australian-supplied
>                        helicopters and planes had been used to
>                        "shoot at our people", towns and villages
>                        had been bombed with Australian-supplied
>                        mortars and Australian-made bullets
>                        "killed our people".
> 
>                        The declaration said Australia saw
>                        independence as a security threat.
> 
>                        "Our right to self-determination, to
>                        determine our own political future, is
>                        written into the Charter of the United
>                        Nations, written with the blood of peoples
>                        who have given their lives in the struggle
>                        for freedom," Mr Ona said.
> 
>                        His outburst followed comments by PNG's
>                        new Prime Minister, Mr Bill Skate, last
>                        week that independence for Bougainville
>                        was non-negotiable.
> 
>                        Mr Downer's spokesman said the minister
>                        regretted that Mr Ona did not join some of
>                        his associates to meet New Zealand's
>                        Foreign Minister, Mr Don McKinnon, last
>                        Friday.
                                         
>
>                    Published by The Age Online Pty Ltd ACN 069 962 885
>                                c1997 David Syme & Co Ltd
> 
> 


-- 

     /~\    /\          /\      /\              Ciao... )|(     =P-)
    / . \  / / ____    / /_    / /_    __  __          (o o)
   / / \ \/ / / __ \  / __ \  / __ \  / /_/ / ,-----ooO-(_)-Ooo-----.
   \/   \__/  \____/  \____/  \____/  `--- /  | N.Braumann-AT-tu-bs.de |
  \_____________________________________/_/   `---------------------'


    ++++ stop the execution of Mumia Abu-Jamal ++++
      ++++ if you agree copy these lines to your sig ++++
        ++++ see http://www.xs4all.nl/~tank/spg-l/sigaction.htm ++++