Red Cross Bougainville claim queried
By Norm Dixon and Tom Jordan
The Solomon Islands government is prepared to help transport desperately needed medical supplies into Bougainville. The offer comes after claims by the head of the PNG Red Cross, Loani Henao, on October 6 that no PNG airline was prepared to fly a load of 100 boxes of medical supplies and drugs into Arawa.
The Bougainville Revolutionary Army is insisting that the supplies be airlifted, rather than be delivered by road, because the PNGDF has previously misused the Red Cross flag to cloak military operations.
Human rights lawyer Rosemarie Gillespie approached the Solomon Islands government after hearing Henao's claim. The minister for tourism and civil aviation, Nathaniel Supa, said his ministry was prepared to assist provided the PNG government, PNG military and the Bougainville Revolutionary Army guaranteed in writing the safety of the aircraft and personnel involved.
"A solution exists to the apparent impasse over delivery of urgently needed Red Cross medical supplies to central Bougainville", Gillespie said in a statement issued in Honiara. "This is no time for political point scoring when people are dying because of lack of medicine. The acute shortage of medicines ... has been caused by the blockade imposed on the island by PNG using Australian-supplied patrol boats and helicopters."
The Solomons has two airline companies with the capacity to deliver the supplies. Nathaniel Supa said his government had a moral obligation to agree to the request to airlift medical supplies on humanitarian grounds. The Bougainville Interim Government has already indicated its willingness to give the appropriate assurances to allow Solomons aircraft to deliver the medicines.
Gillespie is in Honiara arranging to deliver a load of medical supplies from the Australian-based Humanitarian Aid organisation. On October 6, the PNG government refused her request that it open a "corridor of compassion" to allow vaccines, antibiotics and medicines through PNG's militarily enforced blockade.
Gillespie said that a serious outbreak of measles in the Solomon Islands has made the situation most urgent. Thousands of Bougainville children were vulnerable because they had not been immunised.
Humanitarian Aid for Bougainville has 10,000 doses of measles vaccine and antibiotics ready for shipment, but the PNG government steadfastly refuses to relax the blockade.