By Norm Dixon
SYDNEY — David Alley is a quietly spoken church minister from a parish just outside Auckland in New Zealand. To look at him, you would never guess that he could ever pose a threat to the "national security" of any country. But the Papua New Guinea government thought differently when he attempted to deliver much-needed medical supplies to the blockaded island of Bougainville last month.
Alley spent a harrowing two weeks under PNG military guard in Buka, threatened with jail. Prior to his detention, an order was issued to the PNG military to sink his yacht at sea should it be sighted.
Alley told Green Left Weekly that he felt an affinity with Bougainville because he was born on the island. Having heard a speech by PNG Prime Minister Julius Chan in which the PNG leader assured his audience that Bougainville was no longer blockaded, Alley decided he must do something to help the people of Bougainville. He decided to attempt to swim across a rough stretch of open ocean to some islands off the New Zealand coast and asked people to sponsor the attempt. He gained enormous publicity and raised over NZ$10,000 to buy medical supplies.
"The problem now was how to get them in. The publicity fired the imagination of a family who owned a yacht", Alley explained. The owners of Living Water offered to sail to Bougainville to deliver the medicines. They prepared the ship at enormous expense, spent their life savings and mortgaged their home so that the vessel was able to make the arduous 3000 nautical mile journey.
Alley then set about organising all the necessary visas and paperwork. PNG officials in New Zealand granted permission for the journey and assured Alley everything was OK. Alley very deliberately organised the trip in such a way that he could not be accused of seeking to aid the rebels of the Bougainville Revolutionary Army, who control the central part of the island.
"We avoided the Solomon Islands [the PNG government considers the Solomons government sympathetic to the Bougainville independence struggle] and south Bougainville, so no-one can say we have in any way aligned ourselves with the independence movement. We steered a course west of Bougainville and stayed 100 miles offshore so that no interception with the BRA or any rebel forces could be accused ... The local bishop, Samson Mangung, arranged with the military safe entry to the port of Buka and the stamping of our passports", Alley said.
But the warm welcome was short lived. After the military authorities told Port Moresby that the yacht had arrived, their tune changed. "They then said they had been searching for the ship for three days with an order to sink it from the Foreign Office, which meant Sir Julius Chan himself has ordered the confiscation of our vessel while at sea with a family on board. They said we must be imprisoned immediately and the ship impounded for disposal."
The order was against international law, Alley added. Under the terms of the Geneva Convention, any ship can go into any port for three days without being apprehended. The New Zealand High Commission in Port Moresby did nothing to help.
After several days, senior PNG military officers returned from the main island and admitted permission had been given for the yacht to dock and ordered the release of the crew. However, the yacht was not allowed to leave Buka. Alley convinced military officers to allow the medical supplies to be delivered to Teop Island, where they would be distributed by the church in the south.
While they were away, Alley said, things turned sour again. A military vessel was dispatched to find them, and further accusations of breach of entry and drug-running were made by Port Moresby. The antics of the authorities showed there were clear divisions amongst the PNG military on Bougainville. Some clearly opposed Port Moresby's policy of total blockade and had begun to sympathise with the plight of the people.
"Right through Bougainville there was this incredible sentiment that we want to help but we can't — we will lose everything, we will lose our job, we have already had our pay slashed and our families are dependent on us back home. People would whisper to you on the tracks, 'Please tell the world what's happening here, because we don't believe the truth is getting out'. The world is being told there is no blockade, the war's over."
Again cleared after presenting the written permission of the military to deliver the medical supplies, Alley and the crew of the Living Water, under cover of going fishing to replenish the yacht's food supply, made a run for it one night, zigzagging until they reached Australian waters. "It took 10 days against a head wind and navigating reefs to get out of PNG waters. For six days no-one in New Zealand or Australia knew what had become of us."
Alley believes the PNG government deliberately chose to scapegoat a yacht which had done everything according to the law to enter PNG-controlled areas of Bougainville. This was to set an example to anybody who might attempt to run the blockade to aid rebel areas of the island.
The PNG message was clear, Alley told Green Left Weekly: "Don't deliver medical supplies to a people we want to bring to their knees and keep on their knees until they submit to the moneyed interests of firms that have lost profits by the closure of the [Panguna copper] mine ...
"We escaped somewhat shattered but free. Even though we are only one family and we don't have a lot of impact, our treatment is a microcosm of the way the Bougainville people are being treated. It's about time that the Australian and New Zealand governments realised that the aid provided by them is being mischannelled into military suppression of the indigenous people."