Papua New Guinea Prime Minister Paias Wingti's handling of the Bougainville crisis has come under heavy fire from his own foreign affairs minister, John Kaputin.
The criticisms were contained in a letter Kaputin sent from Brussels, which was published by the PNG Post Courier on April 15. The seven-page letter, dated March 21, expressed disappointment at the cabinet's decision to delay an invitation to a EC-ACP (European Community/aid recipients) joint assembly team to visit Bougainville. It also attacked Wingti's address to parliament in which he said there would be no truce and that security forces would remain on the island.
Kaputin described the contents of Wingti's Bougainville address as "completely irrelevant" and "merely foolish". He added that the National Security Advisory Committee, made up of the heads of the security and intelligence services, had usurped other sources of advice and decision-making. This was a measure of the extent to which constitutional and political leadership in PNG had failed.
Kaputin said he found it "difficult" to "protect and promote" PNG's national interests abroad. He said that before he left Port Moresby for Brussels, both Wingti and his deputy Sir Julius Chan had personally assured him that a formal decision to issue an invitation to the EC-ACP team was "virtually a foregone conclusion".
The cabinet decision showed these assurances to be "worthless", he wrote, and his efforts to safeguard PNG's national interest had been badly undermined. Kaputin said serious doubt had been cast on his personal integrity, the government's reliability and PNG's reputation — not only among members of the ACP-EC joint assembly but also in the countries they represent.
"The decision", Kaputin wrote, "flies in the face of the repeated assurances contained in Wingti's address to the Parliament that conditions in the North Solomons Province are becoming more normal and secure.
"It raises questions about your claim that there is no blockade around Bougainville, that humanitarian aid has always been allowed into the province, and that the media has also been granted access."
Kaputin said he did not believe a military solution to the crisis was desirable or moral. There was no alternative to a political resolution of the conflict.
It was also "misleading and unhelpful, both to understanding and eventual resolution of the crisis, to refer to members of the Bougainville Revolutionary Army and their allies as criminals".
Kaputin added that his task had been made more difficult by the "insensitivity" displayed in PNG towards opinion in other countries, particularly the Solomon Islands. Relations between the two countries have become very tense following repeated border violations by PNG soldiers in which shots have been exchanged with Solomon Islands police. There have been several heated exchanges between PNG and Solomons leaders on the handling of the Bougainville crisis and its spill-over effects into Solomon Islands.
Meanwhile, an international non-government organisation based in Spain has called on the Spanish government to recognise Bougainville's independence as soon as possible, and urged the rest of the European Community countries to do the same.
Amigos de Los Indios made the appeal as it launched an international campaign in support of independence and the rights of the Bougainville people on April 22.
It urged Wingti to immediately stop his government's military offensive on Bougainville, lift the blockade of the island and let humanitarian organisations enter the island freely.
The organisation also called on Australian PM Paul Keating to take action on human rights violations by the PNG security forces on Bougainville rather than "helping them commit atrocities" by arming and funding the PNG security forces.
The Bougainville Revolutionary Army announced that it wants a peacekeeping force set up under the United Nations Charter to prevent human rights violations on Bougainville.
The proposal is contained in a draft peace plan, prepared by international lawyers, sent to Wingti on April 23. The plan also calls for a cease-fire by all parties to allow a United Nations-supervised body to move onto the island to oversee a complete laying down of arms before negotiations start.
But the commander of the PNG Defence Force, Brigadier General Bob Dademo, rejected the proposal, saying his troops will stay on Bougainville without any conditions being imposed on them.
Rebel leaders have also appealed to the PNG-appointed North Solomons Administrator Sam Tulo and other Bougainville leaders to jointly sponsor the peace proposal.
Interim government leaders say that such a jointly signed document could also serve as a treaty between groups on Bougainville to bring back normality on the island.
Bougainville Interim Government spokesperson Martin Miriori said genuine peace can be found only if all Bougainville leaders work as one. Miriori said the crisis will not be solved with military force.
[Pacnews via Pegasus]