AAP General News (Australia)
08-23-2000
PAC:Former BRA commander threatens to resume war
By Kevin Ricketts, Papua New Guinea Correspondent
PORT MORESBY, Aug 23 AAP - Former Bougainville Revolutionary Army (BRA) commander Sam
Kauona has threatened to quit his studies in New Zealand and resume the war on his island
to achieve a referendum on independence from Papua New Guinea.
"If the (PNG) government is not going to give what we want, then I might as well quit
and go back home to help my fellow BRA's fight," he said in a statement to AAP from Auckland
last Friday, and repeated in comments to the Post-Courier newspaper today.
His warning is the most serious setback to two-and-a-half years of negotiations for
a lasting political solution to the nine-year Bougainville war of secession, which ended
in a ceasefire in 1998 after about 20,000 people had died.
The real breakthrough in the search for a lasting peace came on March 23 this year,
when Bougainville Affairs Minister and PNG's founding prime minister, Sir Michael Somare,
acquiesed to the rebel's demands for greater autonomy for Bougainville within PNG and
an eventual referendum on full independence.
However since then some Bougainvillean leaders have complained of lack of progress
in defining these two major issues.
On August 9, Sir Michael promised that a bill amending PNG's founding 1975 constitution
to give North Solomons Province - Bougainville - greater autonomy would be tabled in parliament
in the session that began yesterday.
He said the bill would be cause for celebration on Bougainville before the nation's
celebration of its 25th birthday on September 17.
However Kauona, the former Australian Army-trained PNG Defence Force (PNGDF) officer
who led the BRA in its war against the PNGDF in 1989, has now accused Sir Michael of "playing
smart tricks" with the people of Bougainville and the PNG government of "dragging its
feet".
"I am now seriously thinking of quitting my studies here in New Zealand to go back
to Bougainville and resume command of the Bougainville Revolutionary Army," he said in
Auckland in a statement received by AAP.
"I have to go back home and achieve what Bougainville has aimed for.
"The people want nothing less than a referendum as their just reward for the lives
lost in this war."
Kauona said he also was thinking of renewing his relationship with former BRA political
leader Francis Ona, who has shunned the current peace process.
Ona and former BRA rebels live in a "no go" zone in central Bougainville, near the
Australian-owned CRA copper mine at Panguna whose pollution led to the 1989 uprising.
The mine remains shutdown.
About 150 Australian, New Zealand, Fiji and Vanuatu defence force personnel are stationed
on the vast island, monitoring the 1998 ceasefire. Australia had hoped to withdraw its
troops last Christmas.
In May, Sir Michael told a Port Moresby conference on Bougainville that a referendum
could be "10, 20, 50 years away" - or not until such time that the people had time to
fairly judge their new autonomy.
Kauona also said Sir Michael had no right to talk about arms disposal on the island.
"We have a plan for these arms and the plan is very clear," Kauona said. "These arms
are Bougainville's property and Sir Michael doesn't have any right to talk about them."
AAP kr/bwl n
KEYWORD: PNG KAUONA
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