By Norm Dixon
Papua New Guinea's Australian-supplied Iroquois combat helicopters and their Australian and New Zealand "civilian" pilots have again been involved in a serious abuse of human rights, the Solomons Star newspaper has revealed. One of the helicopters was directly involved in the illegal abduction of a Solomons citizen following the PNG Defence Force commando raid on the Solomon Islands village of Komaliae. Two people were killed by PNG soldiers in the September 12 raid.
Francis Beiaruru, kidnapped by PNG troops during the raid, was held for six days. He told the Solomons Star that as he was dragged away he heard the gunshots that killed his pregnant wife and his father-in-law and wounded his young daughter.
He was taken to a waiting canoe and then across the border. Once in PNG territory, the Solomons Star reported, Beiaruru "was taken in a helicopter piloted by two white men to Wakunai ... for further questioning".
While at the PNGDF's Wakunai camp, Beiaruru said he was forced at gunpoint to recite "prepared words" into a tape recorder. He was made to say that the Komaliae villagers had fired the first shots at their attackers. He told the Solomons Star that he had little choice to but to say something to avoid being killed.
Other statements made under duress included "We from Solomon Islands don't want you BRA to come to Solomon Islands", and "Solomon Islands is helping BRA and is not good to the PNG government".
PNG defence minister Paul Tohian, in response to the charges of mercenary involvement, refused to take up the matter with the Australian and New Zealand governments. "To drag in a third party complicates things", he said.
The Bougainville Interim Government's representative to Australia, Moses Havini, told Green Left Weekly that the use of the Iroquois helicopter suggested that the military operation against the Solomons had support from levels of the PNG government much higher than have so far been admitted to.
The latest revelation that the helicopters have again been used by the PNGDF to commit human rights violations has been ignored by the commercial media in Australia. It strengthens further the calls for an end to all military aid to PNG.
The helicopters were given to PNG in July 1989 on condition that they not be used as gunships. That condition was flouted almost immediately. The craft have been used regularly to shoot innocent people from the air and to strafe villages. Reports from Bougainville n continuous use over central Bougainville.
At least two massacres have involved the aircraft, the most infamous being their use to dump the bodies of six executed Bougainvillean Christians. The Australian government has consistently turned a blind eye to these violations.
The Australian government has approved the use of Australian mercenaries to fly the helicopters by waiving provisions of the Foreign Incursions and Recruitment Act to allow recruitment of pilots in Australia.
Radio Free Bougainville on September 24 reported that the PNG raid on the Solomons was only the start of several days of destruction. PNG security forces killed two people within Bougainville between September 13 and 15. John Tapatomang and his wife were shot at point blank range by soldiers. Five villages were destroyed during this period and hundreds of people were forced into the jungle.
The renewed military activity by PNG troops on Bougainville has resulted in as many as 400 refugees entering the Solomon Islands to seek safety, the Pacnews news service reports.
Solomons Prime Minister Solomon Mamaloni, in a letter to PNG Prime Minister Paias Wingti, says the presence of these refugees adds another dimension to the problems being experienced by the Solomon Islands because of the Bougainville crisis.
The Wingti government will continue the previous government's belligerent policy. Defence Minister Paul Tohian said on September 30 that PNG troops would not be withdrawn from their footholds on Bougainville.
Moses Havini said Tohian's statement confirms that "the consensus of both the new and old government is the idea of an all-out military option. I have no reason to doubt that this idea is being supported by the Australian government."
He said that the situation on Bougainville since the last attack on the Solomon Islands was quiet, but "this may be the lull before the storm". Havini warned that the PNG and Australian governments "would still like to see the [Bougainville crisis] ended by the end of the year through an all-out military option".
Meanwhile, the first shipment of medicines earmarked to be transported openly through the blockade of central Bougainville by the Australian Humanitarian Aid for Bougainville organisation was flown to the Solomon Islands on October 2. Human rights lawyer Rosemarie Gillespie also left for the Solomons to organise a boat to take the medical supplies through the blockade.