By Norm Dixon
The Bougainville Revolutionary Army has hit back hard against Papua New Guinea troops following their occupation of parts of the capital, Arawa.
The Bougainville Interim Government's Honiara spokesperson, Martin Miriori, told Green Left Weekly that on the evening of February 24, a truck carrying PNG troops from their camp at Tunuru Catholic Mission to Arawa town three kilometres away was ambushed by BRA fighters.
Fifteen PNG troops were killed or injured in the encounter, Miriori said. One BRA fighter was killed and another injured. According to press reports on February 26, the PNG government admitted the deaths of eight soldiers. All the weapons on the truck were captured by the BRA, including M-16s and heavy machine guns and ammunition.
Throughout Bougainville and adjacent Buka Island, the BRA has stepped up activities against the PNGDF, Radio Free Bougainville reported on February 22.
RFB said many former BRA guerillas who were forced to surrender to the PNG forces have now gone back to the jungle to rejoin the rebels. At least one captured BRA fighter has escaped from custody.
RFB said that former BRA fighters were fed up with PNG rule and especially with the constant mistreatment and abuse of women and children.
Rebels on Bougainville have also claimed that three people taken prisoner by PNG security forces during the recent attack on Arawa have been shot dead after being tortured.
The three are Ken Savia, a leading member of the Bougainville Interim Government, Gabriel Tameung of Kieta, and Mr Toromura of Siwai.
Radio Free Bougainville said Savia was last seen on February 14 being tied with a rope and dragged behind a vehicle at the Arawa supermarket car park. The rebel radio says Toromura and Tameung were believed to have been killed a few days later after being tortured.
Fighting has been reported in the Buin and Siwai areas of south Bougainville between BRA members and PNG troops. The BRA also claims there has been fighting between PNG troops and Bougainvilleans who had been previously assisted PNG security forces against the BRA.
The office of Prime Minister Paias Wingti claimed on February 25 that PNGDF troops had landed at Siwai in south Bougainville and taken control in an attempt to cut off supplies to rebel areas from the Solomon Islands. The area was undefended by BRA fighters, PNG reported. Miriori told Green Left Weekly that report was inaccurate. About 40 PNG troops had landed at the deserted Toionamapu plantation, 10 kilometres south of Siwai, on February 20. Siwai town is not in PNG government hands.
The occupation of the plantation compound was not very significant, Miriori said. "What the PNGDF does is land on a spot and stay there for months and months in the hope that they will frustrate people and they will give in.
"In regards to the contingent at Tunuru, all they are occupying is just the commercial area of central Arawa. Otherwise three-quarters of Arawa township is BRA-controlled ... The Toionamapu group is in much the same situation as the ones in Tunuru and Arawa. Where the BRA is all over the place, they cannot move. They know once they move into the jungle, they are highly vulnerable because that is the BRA's home ground."
The BRA remains in control of the key central Bougainville towns of Kieta and Koromira and the mining town of Panguna.
Miriori told Green Left Weekly that reports he received on February 26 describe Arawa as a "battleground". "Since the army went in, there is heavy bombardment taking place day and night. The surrounding villages have all been deserted. The people have moved further up into the hills, further inland to live in makeshift shelters. Only the BRA remains."
The PNGDF troops in Arawa have committed human rights abuses, Miriori charged. "The women staff and patients that were kidnapped at the Arawa General Hospital when the army first came in are now being kept at the White House [the former provincial administration building] ... It is reported that these women are undergoing a lot of sexual abuse. The BRA in the surrounding area have heard the women screaming in that building ... They have been seen being escorted to the river and at no time have the women been left on their own."
About 60 staff and patients were taken from the hospital on February 14 by PNG troops. Miriori believes they are being held hostage. "It is not clear where the rest of those people have been taken. The men are kept in a separate place [from the women]."