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.
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.