BY DOUG COOPER

SYDNEY, Australia - The Papua New Guinea government of Prime Minister Julius Chan officially ended an 18-month cease-fire on Bougainville March 21 and moved to tighten its six-year military blockade. The blockade has prevented medicine and food from being received, leading to an untold number of deaths.

Bougainville Revolutionary Army fighters and others have been fighting to secede from Papua New Guinea since December 1988, when a dispute over royalties to local landholders and environmental devastation closed the giant CRA-owned Panguna gold and copper mine. A Bougainville independence movement developed initially prior to Papua New Guinean independence from Australia in 1975.

Chan's announcement followed a series of military actions by the PNG Defense Force (PNGDF). These included an unprovoked January 3 attack on a high-level delegation returning to Bougainville from December multilateral peace talks in Cairns, Queensland, sponsored by the Australian government. Another assault involved a January 25 massacre of 12 people in the village of Simbo.

On February 1 the home and office of Bougainville Interim Government spokesperson Martin Miriori in Honiara, capital of neighboring Solomon Islands, was firebombed.

In the week prior to Chan's announcement, 12 PNGDF soldiers were killed in action.

The Chan government came to power in 1994 with the backing of Canberra and pledged to end the war. Alexander Downer, the new conservative Australian foreign minister, "regretted" Chan's decision, saying Canberra "does not believe there can be a military solution to the Bougainville problem." Downer's stance is a continuation of bipartisan pronouncements made prior to the electoral defeat of the federal Labor Party government March 2. Canberra continues to be PNG's major source of all forms of military aid.

The Chan government stepped up pressure on the government of Solomon Islands - which it accuses of providing a haven for Bougainville rebels - through an April 14 military raid on the Solomons village of Kariki and in calls for the extradition of Miriori and others. On April 30 Miriori, who had refugee status in the Solomons, was flown out of Honiara on a special Australian government jet and then to the Netherlands on regular flights. His departure followed the refusal of both the Australian and New Zealand governments to grant him political asylum.  
 
 
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