By Norm Dixon
SYDNEY — Australian human rights lawyer Rosemarie Gillespie, just returned after four months living and travelling in rebel-held areas of Bougainville, has dismissed claims by the Papua New Guinea government that it is in control of the island.
Speaking to Green Left Weekly on March 5, Gillespie said that "the Bougainville Interim Government and the Bougainville Revolutionary Army control about 80% of the land area of the island ... While the PNG army has an advantage as far as firepower and equipment are concerned, that is no match against a people who are fighting to defend their land. They are determined to fight on, to win independence."
Gillespie travelled extensively in central and southern Bougainville. "Everywhere I went the landowners — who are traditionally women — and the people were supporting the BRA. They fondly referred to them as 'our young ones'. It is the close cooperation between the BRA and the rest of the people that has been responsible for the strength of the resistance ... The BRA use mostly homemade single shot guns while the PNG army has sophisticated weapons supplied by Australia — mortars, SLR submachine guns, automatic rifles."
Since PNG troops landed at Tunuru Catholic Mission on the outskirts of the capital, Arawa, they have bombarded the town with indiscriminate mortar fire.
"I picked up some of the pieces of mortar and some of them were quite clearly made at St Marys [an Australian government-owned armaments factory in Sydney's western suburbs]", Gillespie told Green Left Weekly. "The helicopters are still doing the same things they have from the beginning. There have been many instances of helicopters firing on unarmed vehicles entirely contrary to the conditions that were ostensively laid down by the Australian government."
Following its incursion into Arawa on February 14, Gillespie said, "the PNG army has turned Arawa into a battleground. You can hear the mortars and gunfire day and night. The PNG army only control a small area in the centre of Arawa ... The BRA control other sections of Arawa. The rest of Arawa is an area where PNG patrols and BRA patrols move about. There are frequent shoot-outs and occasional ambushes. The whole place is a war zone."
Gillespie has yet to adjust to being out of Bougainville. Despite being at home in the Sydney suburb of Bondi, she still reacts instinctively to the sound of aircraft.
Gillespie slipped across the sea to the neighbouring Solomon Islands on the weekend of February 27-28. Prior to her departure for Bougainville in October, the Solomons government had withdrawn her visitor's visa and issued a warrant for her arrest for illegal residency. Rather than fight the cancellation of her visa at the time, she decided that the eded medicines to Bougainville was her top priority.
Once back in Honiara, she succeeded in having the cancellation of her visa reversed and the deportation proceedings and the arrest warrant withdrawn. "However, while I was in the process of sorting those things out, I was technically present illegally ... I surrendered voluntarily into the custody of the police until everything was sorted out. I was fined SI$300 [A$110], which I paid before I left."
While she was in custody, the PNG government asked the Solomon Islands government to hand her over to answer charges relating to her involvement in the Bougainville conflict, including illegal entry into Bougainville. The Solomon Islands refused the request. Gillespie arrived back in Sydney on March 2.
"It was probably an advantage to be in police custody", Gillespie explained. "I was safer sleeping in the cells than sleeping in a hotel ... I had been warned that there was a risk that I could be snatched by PNG agents and whisked over to PNG."
Gillespie called on the Australian people to support the struggle of the Bougainville people and oppose the Australian government's support of PNG's war there. The struggle "is a revolution to preserve traditional land rights, to preserve the environment which was being destroyed by the Bougainville Copper Limited mine, a revolution so that people will not be forced to sell their labour if they don't want to ... It is about preservation of their culture, their way of life. Independence is an integral part of that."