Newsgroups: bit.listserv.seasia-l
Date:         Tue, 13 Oct 1992 15:43:36 +1000
From:         lulu@COOMBS.ANU.EDU.AU
Subject:      PNG/BOUG: more on conference(long) 1/2

BOUGAINVILLE REPRESENTATIVES DESCRIBE RETURN OF SERVICES, LOCAL GOVERNMENT
AUTHORITY

[Pacific Report, vol.5 no.19 (Oct 10), p3]

Details of the current situation on Bougainville Island, where the Papua
New Guinea Government is dealing with a secessionist movement, were put
before a conference in Canberra this week organised by the Australian
National University's Research School of Pacific Studies.
   Nick Peniai, chairman of the South Bougainville Interim Authority told
the conference that the killing of Anthony Anugu and four others (Pacific
Report Vol 5 No 7) by the Bougainville Revolutionary Army (BRA) had been
instrumental in influencing the people of South Bougainville to call for
Papua New Guinea to return and provide security for the people.
   Peniai said he had been held captive in the same group by the BRA but
had escaped before Anugu and the four others were killed.
   He said restoration of services in the area, apart from some bottleneck
problems with the PNG administrative centre for Bougainville in Rabaul, was
"progressing very smoothly".
   He said the people felt that throughout Bougainville "the chieftaincy
was the only solution for bringing back peace".
   "The independence issue is not pressing. As soon as peace and services
are restored we can come to discussions with the PNG Government and all
parties, including the [self-styled] Bougainville interim government".
   Questioned about what had happened to secessionist support in South
Bougainville, Peniai said: "Let me make it clear. Independence is not the
pressing issue. Right now we want peace and services."
   "Only when there is peace and harmony can we discuss the third round of
talks with the PNG Government."
   Peniai said the PNG security forces were not directly involved in the
restoration of services but provided security for staff on the ground.
   He said the South Bougainville situation was different from that in
Buka, because "we had already set up our Interim Authority under the
direction of the chiefs when the security forces came in/"
   Health services were restored in the area, with 14 of the 41 health
centres open and with 45 staff compared to the previous 130.
   Youth groups had been organised to maintain the facilities and, Peniai
said,  "we want to actively involve the former BRAs, and not get outside
contractors."
   A doctor from Rabaul visited on a fortnightly basis, since there was no
resident doctor, he said.
   Schools, which had been used as care centres for dislocated populations,
were reopened on September 28. Forty-five teachers had resumed duty in late
June and had been undergoing refresher courses.
   In the works section, civil engineers were at work and many were
involved in road maintenance, restoration of airfields and building staff
houses designed by a graduate architect.
   A financial management system had been established and a cash office was
in operation.
   Peniai said law and order was a priority but progress had been slow
because of misunderstandings between the various authorities. A system of
village constables had been established.
   The military situation was described as "pretty idle" apart from some
sniper shots at road builders.
   Peniai described the political structures established in South
Bougainville.
   The Interim Authority, of which he is the elected head, reports to the
Minister of State for Bougainville, with a District Council of Chiefs below
the Authority and the various Colleges of Village Chiefs (CVC) below this.
   Each of these colleges comprises the chiefs of four to five villages.
   Peniai said that although the CVCs had "been in place since time
immemorial", with the failure of negotiations there had been a return to
traditional values and beliefs and the revival of the CVCs.
   "Bringing back normality and peace within the community is a must and
the ingredients should come from the ground, not be based on opinions from
somewhere else. Any peace proposal formulated outside, without the
understanding of the people, is not worth it", Peniai said.
   He added that the overwhelming majority of BRA supporters lacked
post-primary education, and that it was very hard for educated elites to
tell them what to do.
   "But they very easily fall under the wings of the chiefs, who have the
right and the wisdom to make decisions."
   Peniai said that where the modern way had failed in South Bougainville,
traditional values were working.
   He said there was an active campaign to promote the view that for any
secession to come about PNG had to be involved and the issue had to be
addressed in a diplomatic way. Until that phase, the aim was to get people
involved in restoration.
   Rehabilitation courses and workshops were being run for everybody who
had been through the crisis, Peniai said, with the aim of bringing back
peace.
   Joe Egilio, MP for Central Bougainville, told the conference how his
involvement in Bougainville politics had come about.
   He said he had basically "kept quiet" until the PNG security forces
withdrew.
   "From the start I supported the Bougainville interim government until
the Endeavour [a New Zealand naval vessel] talks, with the hope that PNG
eventually would deal with the interim government, in the absence of any
legal government on the island.
   "But the BRA were very uncooperative with the interim government... and
I gradually withdrew and concentrated my efforts with the Council of Chiefs
in my own district.
   "We've been looking for answers outside, ignoring the fact that the
answers were within our society, with the chiefs and the big men in our
places."
   Egilio said the access to shipping services for the export of cocoa had
been a deciding factor in bringing PNG back into his area of Central
Bougainville.
   People from Wakunai and Tinputz had been unable to export their cocoa
because the rights were always being given to the Kieta people, Egilio
said.
   While the interim government had given assurances that ships would be
coming from the Solomon Islands to enable the export of cocoa, he said it
was not until he went to Buka to ask the PNG administration for ships that
they started coming. And after they were arranged within days, everyone
wanted ships.
   But, Egilio said, disunity was the saddest part of the Bougainville
crisis.
   "We need to bring back unity in our own people before discussions with
PNG or internationally. For true peace we have to be honest with ourselves,
ad make our own peace."
   Former North Solomons Province Premier Leo Hannett, who chaired a
conference panel discussion on Bougainville "plans and hopes", said the BRA
had been given their chance to provide alternative government and "some set
of goals ... on a golden plate" with the withdrawal of PNG forces.
   "If the people are going back to PNG it is because they [the BRA] have
failed to offer anything better", he said.
   However, he warned that "unless the PNG Government changes its outlook,
the same problem will occur again if there is still the same insensitivity
to the needs of the people."
   Moses Havini, Australian representative of the BRA, told the conference
that the following items were necessary for the resolution of the conflict:

1.  United Nations involvement - for the special rapporteur of the Human
Rights Sub-Commission to explore the failed Endeavour and Honiara accords.
2.  Fulfillment of the UN request for a review of the peace process, and
for each side to submit its own agenda to the other.
The BRA's comprise:
(a) an immediate cease-fire between all parties.
(b) the holding of the planned Bougainville conference
(c) a neutral peace-keeping force, and
(d) the conduct of a referendum on self-determination through the good
offices of the UN or the Commonwealth Secretariat.

3.  Negotiations must acknowledge international experts on conflict
resolution - the UN, the Commonwealth Secretariat, the World Council of
Churches, the International Commission of Jurists, the Pacific Conference
of Churches would be welcome.
4.  The implementation of any agreement would have UN observers to ensure
no foul play.

   Havini said that any political solution had to be protected from
retribution or paybacks from PNG.
*******************************************
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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