By Norm Dixon
Opposition is growing to Papua New Guinea's impending military offensive against rebel strongholds in Bougainville. Most harmful to Port Moresby's cause has been criticism voiced by Theodore Miriung, Premier in the PNG-appointed Bougainville Transitional Government (BTG). The Catholic Church in PNG has also expressed its opposition to PNG prime minister Julius Chan's war.
Miriung told reporters on June 25 that PNG's offensive would result in "zero" results. "The end result will be that lives will be lost, people will be injured and ordinary Bougainvilleans will be dislodged from their villages", he said. Miriung repeated his call for an end to war and urged both sides to return to the negotiating table.
Reflecting the deep support for independence on the island, Miriung openly backed a referendum for the people of Bougainville to decide whether they should remain part of PNG. He predicted that if such a vote was held, a majority would support independence. "We are an island apart from all others. We have enough common sense and enough resources to run our own affairs", he said.
Miriung is a former judge who once acted as the Bougainville rebels' legal adviser. In 1994, after differences with the BRA, he left. He was appointed Premier of the puppet BTG by Port Moresby. Despite joining forces with Port Moresby, Miriung has consistently opposed a military solution to the Bougainville crisis.
Miriung's support for a peaceful settlement between PNG and the pro-independence Bougainville Interim Government (BIG) has strained relations between Port Moresby and the PNG-backed BTG, exposing the latter's lack of power. According to PNG-based journalist David Robie, the military has placed restrictions on travel by Miriung and other members of the BTG, including an indefinite ban on travelling to mainland Bougainville. Miriung is based on Buka Island to the north of Bougainville.
Relations have been strained even further after Miriung revealed that PNG Defence Force troops summarily executed eight young men at a "care centre" at Sipai in northern Bougainville on June 19. The men, who had defected from the BRA to join the pro-PNG resistance two years earlier, fell out with conservative chiefs who called in troops. The executions will be investigated by the military.
Miriung also hit out at the conditions in government-controlled "care centres", where tens of thousands of internal refugees are being held. He pointed out that the camps were "severely" short of food and medicine. Miriung's statements embarrassed Port Moresby's political and military chiefs, who have ordered villagers in Bougainville's south and centre to report to the camps or face being caught in the "cross fire". His revelations give the lie to the PNG's claims that the BRA is preventing villagers from leaving the targeted areas. The truth is that villagers fear the repression and squalor of that is rife in the government concentration camps.
On June 26 the Catholic Bishop of Aitape Brian Barnes added his voice to the growing opposition. Until recently Barnes was the president of the influential Catholic Bishops Conference of PNG and the Solomons Islands. Barnes said the offensive would fail and only civilians would suffer. He proposed that dialogue be renewed.
Unwinnable war
The simple fact that the war on Bougainville is unwinnable — due to the people's widespread support for independence and the treacherous terrain and impenetrable vegetation — is apparent even to sections of the PNG ruling class.
David Robie, writing in an Asia-Pacific Network feature on June 21, reported that one of PNG's influential daily newspapers, the National, editorialised that the government had "again lost any sense of a solution to the Bougainville crisis ... The national government and the prime minister are now in the invidious situation of being damned by a substantial number of Papua New Guineans regardless of which approach they follow". The National accused the government of leaving Premier Miriung "in limbo" by not supporting him against military pressure.
The Australian government also believes a military solution is impractical. Canberra does not want to be forced to bankroll PNG's ineffective counter-insurgency. Australian foreign minister Alexander Downer told parliament that a military offensive might worsen the conflict and he instructed Australia's high commissioner in Port Moresby to express Australia's concern to the PNG government and PNG Defence Force commander.
Sir Julius Chan responded by telling Downer to mind his own business and snubbed the Australian high commissioner when he tried to convey Canberra's concerns. The Australian government, however, has not moved to withhold its military aid that makes the PNG government's aggression toward Bougainville possible. Australia is PNG's major military supplier and trainer.
This financial year $20 million in Australian military aid has been transferred to PNG. Canberra also approved the sale of an extra $200,000 worth of military supplies to the PNGDF after Chan, in March, unilaterally called off a cease-fire and cancelled planned peace talks. The 1300 troops and police preparing to begin the offensive will be using arms and equipment supplied overwhelmingly from Australia including Iroquois helicopter gunships, patrol boats and motor launches, automatic rifles, small arms and ammunition.
While "Operation Highspeed II" has not yet moved into full swing there have been several skirmishes. Max Watts, a freelance journalist in regular contact with the BRA, told Green Left Weekly that rebels had launched counter-actions against PNG troops throughout Bougainville.
A June 22 press report claiming that 13 BRA fighters had been killed has been denied by the BRA, although it could not rule out that PNG troops had killed civilians. On June 23, BRA fighters damaged the Australian-supplied PNG patrol boat 02 at Morila Point in the south. The damage was done using a reconditioned Second World War vintage cannon. Stranded PNG soldiers were evacuated by an Iroquois helicopter.
The war continues to spill over in the Solomon Islands. Watts reports that since March the PNGDF has systematically raided villages in the northern Solomons and seized at least eight two-way radios, leaving villagers unable to alert Solomons police of PNGDF raids. Heavily armed PNG troops landed on Gizo Island, a day's boat travel inside the Solomons/PNG border, in mid-June. The troops harassed villagers and interrogated a journalist from the Solomon Islands Broadcasting Corporation.
On June 26, Chan rejected out of hand a proposal from the prime minister of the Solomon Islands, Solomon Mamaloni, that a joint committee be established to resolve the crisis. Chan demands that the Solomons stop "interfering" and instead apply its resources to investigating the movements of "rebels and arms".