Newsgroups: bit.listserv.seasia-l
Date:         Tue, 13 Oct 1992 15:03:03 +1000
From:         lulu@COOMBS.ANU.EDU.AU
Subject:      PNG/BOUG:CONFERENCE REPORT 2/2

BOUGAINVILLE - TOWARDS A RESOLUTION

[Evelyn Hogan, Times of Papua New Guinea, 8 October 1992]
continued....
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Last year Mrs Soavana-Springgs, from Tinputz, took part in language
workshops on Buka and spent some time on the main island. She spoke to the
conference of the potential for drawing the council of chiefs into the main
government structure. She said from what she had seen groups operated very
well when the chiefs were backed by one or two educated people.
   In the care centre the people live under military rule and chiefs are
given the responsibility to maintain order and ensure equal distribution
[of supplies and services].
   Women, who traditionally have an important role in Bougainville's
matrilineal socieites, had been marginalised by the crisis. They had also
suffered greatly. Many had lost husbands and were left with sometimes four
or five children to care for. She argued that the women should be involved
in the restoration.
   Mrs Soavana-Spriggs vividly described the psychological impact of the
war on the children, which needs to be remedied.
   Leo Hannett, former Premier of North Solomons Province, lamented that
more than 40 well-educated Bougainvillenas had been killed during the
crisis, leaving few leaders to take new initiatives. But this
underestimates the depth of talent in the population and the new generation
of leaders growing out of, not just the crisis in Bougainville, but more
generally in all of Papua New Guinea. There are new leaders who are closer
to their traditional elders than the first generation of university
graduates. They are more practically oriented with a broader range of
professional and technical training.
   Nick Peniai, an engineering graduate who is chairman of the South
Bougainville Interim Authority, is one of this new generation.
   Mr Peniai reported that when Minister Ogio visited the South
Bougainville area in late September, he could not believe how much had been
achieved by the interim authority in just two months, not only in the
revival of health services and schools, there had been a political
reconciliation process involving the chiefs, the former BRA (who are now
resistance workers), the PNG Defence Force and the interim authority, the
young men who were formerly in the BRa and being drawn into practical
activities of restoration.
   Mr Peniai is a complex man of gentle toughness. With fingertips
calloused playing [the] guitar, the grinding of back teeth belies an
underlying tension.
   Trim and healthy after four years of subsistence living without liquor
or cigarettes, he is lucky to be alive at all. As reported by Dominic Kakas
in The Times of Papua New Guinea (August 20 1992), in March he was one of
seven taken prisoner with Anthony Anugu, former MP for South Bougainville,
to the BRA camp at Panguna. After Anugu and two others were tortured and
killed, Peniai cheated death and escaped with the other four captives.
   He returned to South Bougainville to help lay the foundation for
reconciliation and restoration. Because of BRA attacks on their leaders,
Buin and Siwai chiefs had already invited the PNG Defence Force in to [the
island? ...text deleted in fax transmission].
   The conference brought Peniai's aunt, Therese Minitong, who had been
forced out to Australia in March 1990, back to Canberra. She was consulted
by him as "the mother of the land".
   He said, in the summing up to [sic] the conference, "I have come through
more than anyone. I have lost two brothers and amother through the
activities of the BRA. Any more delay will be another death".
   Mr Eigilio said the saddest thing about the conflict was the disunity
among the people. He said, "First we are against the [mining] company, then
the PNG government, then we were at each other's  throats: clan against
clan, families against families, brothers against brothers."
   The conference brought together those who shared this intense experience
of suffering - both pro and anti-secessionist. They all expressed the need
for peace and continuing dialoge amongst all parties to the dispute. Over
time a process of reconciliation including other Papua New Gineas is needed
as well.
*******************************************
Lulu Turner
Dept of Political & Social Change
Research School of Pacific Studies
Australian National University
GPO Box 4, Canberra  ACT 2601
AUSTRALIA

tel: (06) 249 0173
fax: (06) 257 1893
e-mail (Internet): lulu@coombs.anu.edu.au
*******************************************
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