By Tom Jordan and Norm Dixon
The Papua New Guinea Defence Force has suffered significant setbacks in central Bougainville, the defending Bougainville Revolutionary Army has claimed. In the most important incident, BRA militants recaptured the strategic Tunuru Junction after a five-hour battle. The junction is just 500 metres from the Tunuru Catholic Mission, where up to 200 PNG troops are now apparently besieged.
During the battle, which took place on November 12, PNG troops ran out of ammunition and were forced to abandon their positions. BRA sources reported that "several" PNG soldiers were killed and others wounded. The BRA reported no casualties.
News of the battle was relayed via sideband radio from Bougainville by Melbourne human rights lawyer Rosemarie Gillespie. She said the news of the PNG defeat "is going around Arawa with great speed. Everybody here is delighted."
Earlier, on November 6, the BRA ambushed a truck of PNG troops travelling between the mission and Tunuru Junction.
The PNGDF is still in control of the mission on the outskirts of Arawa and the Itakara Junction, between Arawa and the road to Panguna. The BRA surrounds both, it claims. Tunuru Catholic Mission is situated on a peninsula, the waters around it being too shallow for patrol boats to reach shore, making it difficult for supplies and reinforcements to arrive other than by air.
Gillespie said that both Australian-supplied Iroquois helicopters active on Bougainville are now "out of commission". The first was hit by ground fire south of Arawa on November 7. PNG authorities and the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade confirmed that the aircraft's Australian co-pilot was wounded in the leg by a bullet but did not admit damage to the helicopter.
The "civilian" pilot, whose name is believed to be Jim Henson, lost a substantial amount of blood and was evacuated to Rabaul, then to a Cairns hospital.
Gillespie reported that prior to being hit, the helicopter had flown over Arawa and fired machine guns at the general hospital. Earlier it had hovered over a river crossing where Gillespie had been expected. The PNG government has issued a warrant for Gillespie's arrest on charges of illegal entry into PNG territory, and she believes that her capture has been made a top priority in Port Moresby.
The second Iroquois is reported to have been hit over the southern Bougainville town of Buin on November 9. BRA sources report it "crashed". This has not been confirmed.
Clashes have been reported between BRA forces and PNG troops in several parts of south Bougainville.
Meanwhile, traditional leaders from central and south Bougainville have repeated their demand that PNG troops leave Bougainville. Meeting on November 4, and again on November 7, 40 chiefs called for a neutral peacekeeping force to be deployed, as was agreed to in the Honiara Accord between PNG and the Bougainville Interim Government in January 1991.
The chiefs condemned the PNG blockade of the island, which prevents medicines and other essential humanitarian supplies reaching Bougainville. They called for the creation of a safe corridor between the Solomon Islands and Bougainville. The chiefs also ruled out any resumption of mining at the Panguna copper mine "until independence was achieved by Bougainville".
The chiefs claimed that the PNG army was killing civilians in the "care centres" where refugees have been confined. "If any of the PNG soldiers are injured or killed, the practice has been for the PNG army to go into these care centres and kill some of the people there as a payback."
The BRA continues to claim that PNGDF deaths are much higher than has been admitted by Port Moresby. It says that the PNGDF is quietly burying the dead "or even dumping the corpses at sea".