By Norm Dixon
The international human rights watchdog Amnesty International says Papua New Guinea government troops and their allies are continuing to murder, torture and rape suspected opponents and non-combatants on the island of Bougainville.
In Under the Barrel of a Gun: Bougainville 1991-1993, released on November 19, Amnesty says at least 60 people have been executed by PNG forces since 1991.
The report expresses concern at reports of the use of the Australian-supplied Iroquois combat helicopters in human rights violations.
AI calls for the Australian government to halt further supply of helicopters and recommends that it suspend all military aid to PNG until there are thorough investigations into these allegations and the results are made public.
The PNG government should allow humanitarian organisations access to the island, the report urges, and end the impunity of those committing violations. Because Bougainville has been virtually sealed off, the violations are largely hidden from the world. PNGDF troops and local military-backed "resistance" forces have been free from scrutiny.
The report found that since 1991 that "possibly many more than" 60 people "have been extrajudicially killed by government soldiers, some of them after having been beaten or cut with knives. Other victims have been tied to the backs of trucks and dragged along the road before being shot and killed ... Dozens of people are reported to have been subjected to beatings and torture, which has included being slashed with knives, having fingers or toes cut off, or being burned with lighted cigarettes. There have been persistent reports of rape and other forms of sexual abuse."
The report includes details of several atrocities by the PNGDF, including the massacre of 11 people on March 12, 1991, in Iagit village, a massacre of an estimated 17 people in Aita on May 18, 1992, and the torture and murder of Ken Savia, a minister in the Bougainville Interim Government, in February 1993.
The report found that many human rights abuses were designed to terrify civilians and force them to submit to central government and military authority. "Dozens of people, including the elderly and young children have reported being fired at from the air or from patrol boats."
Information about human rights violations included in the report was drawn from a wide range of sources, including victims and their relatives, church and aid workers, human rights activists, and both supporters and opponents of the independence movement in Bougainville. The report said that many of the reported violations have been thoroughly documented and substantiated by eyewitness, documentary or forensic evidence.
There were "persistent reports of human rights violations being inflicted upon the residents of government-controlled 'care centres'". Despite PNG government claims that these centres house refugees fleeing from the Bougainville Revolutionary Army, Amnesty found that "the bulk of available information indicates that those living in the centres have been forcibly located there by government troops, often after their villages have been burned or otherwise destroyed. Villagers living in care centres on Buka Island and in Buin have reported that they are not allowed to work in their food gardens unless escorted by PNGDF members ...
"Residents have also alleged that during late 1990 and 1991 PNGDF soldiers killed people living in the care centres as 'payback' or revenge for the deaths of PNG soldiers during combat with BRA forces. Others have reported rape and other forms of sexual abuse in care centres during this period. Similar patterns of abuse have been reported by residents of care centres in southern Bougainville during 1992 and 1993."
Amnesty found "considerable evidence" that Australian-supplied helicopters have been used as gunships and "have been directly involved in the infliction of human rights violations upon the civilian population".
Despite repeated requests for investigations into these allegations, the PNG government has yet to provide the Australian government with any reports. Despite this, the Australian government in August 1992 agreed to provide another helicopter to the PNGDF.