BY BOB AIKEN

SYDNEY, Australia - A major new offensive by Papua New Guinea (PNG) troops on the island of Bougainville has run into stiff opposition from the Bougainville Revolutionary Army (BRA).

In the largest build-up of the seven-year war some 1,800 PNG troops, police, and support staff are now on Bougainville attempting a pincer movement against BRA-held territory in the center of the southern part of the island. According to sources close to PNG prime minister Julius Chan, PGN's goal is to "wipe out" BRA, "destroy forever" its goal of an independent Bougainville, and re-take the giant Australian-owned copper mine at Panguna, which has been closed since the start of the war.

The offensive comes Chan's government ended an 18-month cease-fire on Bougainville in March, threatening that BRA's "darkest hour had come." Chan became prime minister in early 1994 on a platform of a rapid, peaceful solution to the Bougainville war.

The Australian government has distanced itself from this latest offensive. Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said he feared that "an attempt to achieve a military solution... will simply exacerbate the situation." However the Australian government in Canberra continues to supply the PNG government in Port Moresby with around A$20 million (A$1=US $.79) in military aid each year, by far its largest supplier.

The Papua New Guinea armed forces are essentially Canberra's creation. In order to protect Australian capitalist interests, which dominate the country, it has spent A$500 million in military aid to its former colony since granting independence in 1975. It has armed, trained, financed, and advised PNG armed forces throughout the fighting on Bougainville, and Australian- supplied helicopters and patrol boats are a central part of the war effort. Australian advisors also continue to play a central role in the Port Moresby administration.

In recent years Canberra has sought to broker a negotiated settlement to the conflict, short of independence for Bougainville. For instance, representatives of BRA and the pro- independence Bougainville Interim Government met with representatives of the Port Moresby-appointed Bougainville Transitional Government (BTG) for talks in Cairns, Australia, last December.

Theodore Miriung, who was appointed Bougainville premier in the BTG administration last year, has condemned Port Moresby's new offensive. In an interview with the Sydney Morning Herald, Miriung said, "I believe the results of this operation will be zero for the national government. The end result will be that lives will be lost, people will be injured and ordinary Bougainvilleans will be dislodged from their villages."

He called for a referendum to determine whether Bougainville would remain as part of Papua New Guinea, saying he believed a majority would opt for independence.

"We had been on this island for 25,000 years without anyone overlording us until stupid mistakes by [former colonial powers] Great Britain and Germany put us with New Guinea," Miriung said. "We are an island apart from all others. We have enough common sense and enough resources to run our own affairs," he added.

In mid-June PNG authorities ordered civilians still living in BRA-controlled territory to shift to government-controlled "care centers," or "face the consequences." This has swelled the number of refugees living in the 49 "care centers" around the island to 80,000, nearly 40 percent of the island's population.

Miriung, who has been confined to the offshore island of Buka by Port Moresby, has stated that there is a severe shortage of food and medicines in these camps.

A report in the Sydney Morning Herald July 13 cited "aid organization sources" as describing the so-called care centers as "prison camps," with armed guards patrolling the perimeters, and residents requiring permission to leave. A 6:00 p.m. to 6:00 a.m. curfew is in force throughout the island.

BRA claims that it has held it own in heavy fighting during the offensive. Following a bombardment by Australian-supplied patrol boats, a force of 250 PNG troops established a beachhead at the abandoned Aropa airport, south of the capital Arawa, July 8, but has since been forced to withdraw from BRA-held territory.

A report by Bacre Waly N'Diave to the United Nations Commission for Human Rights lists 75 cases of alleged extrajudicial killings by members of the PNG army on Bougainville in the three years to October 1995.

In the most recent reported incident eight youths were taken by PNG troops from a "care center" near Sipai in northern Bougainville and executed June 19.

Bob Aiken is a member of the AWU-FIME union at Capral Aluminum in Granville, Sydney.  
 
 
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