PNG denies UN access to Bougainville

PNG denies UN access to BougainvillBy Pip Hinman The Papua New Guinea government stepped in to stop a special United Nations rapporteur on summary executions from visiting all of Bougainville, including the areas controlled by the Bougainville Interim Government (BIG) and Bougainville Revolutionary Army (BRA). The PNG government claimed that the helicopter which was to take the UN mission to Arawa, and central and south Bougainville, had broken down. Francis Ona, leader of BIG and BRA, said on October 26 that the PNG government showed its guilt by hiding allegations of summary executions and other human rights violations on Bougainville. The UN mission had been hoping to talk to civilians about the impact of the PNG-imposed six-year blockade on Bougainville. Ona said that as many as 500 people from all over Bougainville with testimonies of suffering, witness statements to executions and massacres, had gathered to meet the UN mission. The UN rapporteur will be presenting a report to the UN Commission on Human Rights in March 1996. According to Ona, If [the PNG government] is serious about restoration programs, [it] should welcome UN mediation and investigation of the truth. Suppression will only delay the peace process. To deny justice will only foster even greater violence than we have already experienced.