History of Oceania in general

Bougainville fights for freedom

By the Bougainville Freedom Movement
16 May 1996

WHERE IS BOUGAINVILLE?

Bougainville is just to the north or Australia, at the far western tip of the Solomon Islands archipelago. It is a tropical, mountainous island and is geographically and ethnically part of the Solomon Islands, being seven kilometres away from its nearest Solomon Islands neighbour.

However, at the turn of the century, power-broking European colonial powers made Bougainville part of Papua New Guinea (PNG), despite the fact that Bougainville is 500 kilometres away from the mainland of Papua New Guinea.

Bougainville is a Melanesian village-based society, sustained mainly by food gardens and fishing. Much of the land is owned by women and inherited through the female line.

WHY A WAR ON BOUGAINVILLE?

There is a secret genocidal war on Australia's doorstep, using our taxes to re-open the C.R.A. / R.T.Z. Australian owned copper mine at Panguna on Bougainville. The establishment of the copper mine in 1969 saw 800 Bougainville people landless and another 1400 without fishing rights. The land was seized by C.R.A. mining company and forests were cleared. No law in the late 1960's impelled environmental impact studies for industrial developments. Two hundred and twenty (220) hectares of Panguna's forests were poisoned, felled and burnt, then bulldozed directly down into the river, along with tonnes of rich organic topsoil.

C.R.A. mining company gouged a hole 6 kilometres long, 4 kilometres wide and half a kilometre deep. Over a billion tonnes of poisonous tailings were dumped into the river system. The toxic wastes was poured straight into the Kawerong River then carried down the Jaba River to the coast, leaving a trail of death 35 kilometres long. The fish in the rivers developed ulcerations and died, birds, flying foxes and possums disappeared. The Jaba River became choked with tailings and overflowed its banks, turning flat lands into contaminated swamps.

The people of Bougainville opposed the mine from the very start. The indigenous land owners, primarily women, resisted police and lay down with their babies in front of the bulldozers in an attempt to stop the mining of their land. After 20 years of protests, petitions, lobbying and attempts to negotiate an equitable agreement with C.R.A. and the PNG government, the land owners had had enough. In 1988, the people of Bougainville forcibly closed C.R.A.'s copper mine at Panguna. At the time Panguna was the world's most profitable copper mine. For C.R.A., its shareholders and the PNG government, the mine was a multi-million dollar bonanza.

The PNG government, supported by Australia, responded to the action of the Bougainville people by sending in riot police, and then the military, in an attempt to re-open the copper mine. The Governments of Australia and Papua New Guinea are waging a prolonged and brutal war against the people of Bougainville, with the purpose of re-opening the Panguna copper mine and avoiding secession.

BOUGAINVILLE BLOCKADED BY AUSTRALIA & PAPUA NEW GUINEA

On the basis of Australian military intelligence advice, the Australian and PNG governments have adopted a military strategy with two key aims. The first is to isolate Bougainville from the rest of the world which as been achieved by imposing an air and sea military blockade. The deadly blockade is now in its seventh year and has effectively sealed off Bougainville from the outside world. It is designed to force the people of central Bougainville to submit, by depriving them of medicines, fuel and humanitarian aid. According to reputable reports from health workers and the Uniting Church, the blockade has claimed more than 10,000 lives.

It is barbaric biological warfare on the civilian population of Bougainville. The blockade is illegal under numerous international treaties and conventions that have been signed by both Papua New Guinea and Australia. Little is known about the war on Bougainville due to the blockade which stops the media and international human rights organisations from going to Bougainville. The Australian Government has remained remarkably silent on these violations of international law which they are assisting through the provision of military aid.

The second aim of the military strategy is to re-capture control of the island of Bougainville through military operations and violence. However, central Bougainville, with an estimated population of approx. 100,000 people remains in the hands of the Bougainville Revolutionary Army (BRA). The purpose of the blockade was to increase the hardships of the people in an attempt to turn them against the Bougainville Revolutionary Army. The officially stated purpose was to deprive the BRA of sources of arms. The result was the Bougainville Revolutionary Army (BRA) learned how to make their own guns.

AUSTRALIA'S MILITARY INVOLVEMENT IN BOUGAINVILLE

Australia is heavily involved in the war on Bougainville through training, equipping and financing of the PNG Defence Force operations on Bougainville.

Australia gives the PNG Defence Force (PNGDF) almost $32 million per annum in direct military aid and larger amounts in untied aid, much of which is used to fund military operations on the island of Bougainville. Approximately 2000 personnel, almost half of the entire PNGDF, have been brought to Australia for training since the beginning of the crisis.

Australia also supplies PNG with Pacific Class patrol boats speedboats, Iroquois helicopters and Nomad aircraft, which are all used to maintain and enforce the blockade around the island of Bougainville.

In addition, there are many Australian military advisers on the island, who are involved in directing and advising day-to-day operations, The guns, mortar bombs, bullets and other Australian military equipment used by the PNGDF are either manufactured in Australia or supplied by the Australian military through arms supply agreements.

The war on Bougainville is going into its 7th year. It is the longest and bloodiest war in the Pacific since World War II and has cost thousands of lives.

We must stop Australia's military aid. Our taxes are being used to kill innocent people on Bougainville and suppress their rights. The Bougainville Freedom Movement is working to break the silence in Australia and the world about the dirty war on Bougainville.

A lasting solution must meet the basic human needs of the people for self-determination, self-rule over their island. We call for the lifting of the blockade to allow humanitarian aid to reach the people of Bougainville, the withdrawal of the PNG Defence Forces and a settlement based on the express wishes of the people of Bougainville free of violent threats, assault, torture and murder allowing the Bougainville people the fundamental right to determine their own future.