File spoon-archives/marxism.archive/marxism_1996/96-06-marxism/96-06-26.161, message 322


Date: Wed, 26 Jun 1996 10:35:50 -0700
From: Sasha Baer <sashab-AT-magna.com.au>
Subject: Bougainville Update - 26/6/96


Sydney Morning Herald, June 26, 1996
===================================
WAR IS DOOMED, SAYS PORT MORESBY'S MAN

By GREG ROBERTS

In an embarrassing development for the Papua New Guinean Government, the
Premier of Bougainville, Mr Theodore Miriung, supported calls for
independence for the strife-torn island and said the military offensive was
doomed to fail.

Government-controlled "care" centres housing an estimated 50,000 people -
close to a third the island's population - were suffering severe shortages
of food and medicines, Mr Miriung told the Herald by telephone from the
island of Buka.

He described as "evil" the apparent extrajudicial killings by the PNG
military last week of eight former members of the separatist Bougainville
Revolutionary Army (BRA).

Mr Miriung, a former judge and a senior chief, is a highly respected
Bougainvillean who heads the PNG Government-appointed Bougainville
Transitional Government based on Buka.

His attack is particularly galling for the Prime Minister, Sir Julius Chan,
because his appointment last year was intended to boost the Government's
stocks and he was seen to support its centralist policies.

But Mr Miriung said the military offensive launched by Port Moresby last
week would not succeed in its aim to eradicate the BRA.

"I believe the results of this operation will be zero for the national
Government. The end result will be that lives will be lost, people will be
injured and ordinary Bougainvilleans will be dislodged from their villages."

Mr Miriung said a referendum should be held to determine whether
Bougainville should remain part of PNG, and he believed the majority of
islanders, who had suffered much during the seven-year conflict, would opt
for independence.

"We had been on this island for 25,000 years without anyone overlording us
until stupid mistakes by [former colonial powers] Great Britain and Germany
put us with New Guinea," he said.

"We are an island apart from all others. We have enough common sense and
enough resources to run our own affairs."

Mr Miriung said the care centres were suffering "chronic" shortages and many
of the people forced to find refuge in them would go hungry.

He accused the Government of making "inhumane" decisions, citing last
month's refusal to allow the French aid group, Medecins Sans Frontie`res, to
operate in BRA-controlled areas, and the restriction of the Red Cross to
Buka and the town of Arawa because the military feared medicines would find
their way to the rebels.

The island was suffering a crisis in health care, Mr Miriung said. There
were acute shortages of drugs to fight potentially fatal illnesses such as
malaria, health-care workers were not being paid and health centres were
badly under-resourced and run down.

The killing of the eight young men near the village of Sipai last week was
unpardonable: "It is evil for the security forces to kill people instead of
charging them with something so they can go through the available legal
processes," he said.

He believed the Government should establish a Human Rights Commission to
investigate claims of abuse against both the military and the BRA.

Repeated attempts to obtain a response from the Government to Mr Miriung's
remarks failed yesterday. Sir Julius said last week that "everything humanly
possible" was being done to feed the people in care centres.

Heavy fighting was reported late yesterday between rebels and the military
near Luagu village in southern Bougainville as the offensive continued.

The PNG military commander, Brigadier-General Jerry Singirok, began meetings
with senior Australian defence personnel in Canberra yesterday to brief them
on the offensive.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Contact Details:
===============
Vikki John (BFM)     +61-2-558-2730   email: V.john-AT-uts.edu.au
Moses Havini (BIG)   +61-2-804-7602
Max Watts            +61-2-818-2343   email: MWATTS-AT-fisher.biz.usyd.edu.au
(Journalist specialising in Bougainville, East Timor and West Papua issues)

Bougainville Freedom Movement
P.O. Box 134, Erskineville, NSW 2043, Australia

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Regards Sasha

Sasha Baer
International Amateur Radio Network
Bougainville Freedom Movement
Royal Volunteer Coastal Patrol
Voicemail: +61-2-513-5614
sashab-AT-magna.com.au
http://www.magna.com.au/~sashab/



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