An alert - on the 16th April 1996 we heard that Papua New Guinean armed
forces had raided a village on the Solomen Islands. the Solomen government
have dispatched a hight powered team to investigate. It is known that
supplies are run from the Solomen Islands to their besieged sister people
on Bougainville. The unknown war continues.
The following is from the transcript of a radio interview with the Rev. Don
Alley on 7 August 1995.
The Rev. Don Alley was brought up on Bougainville. When he wanted to return
in 1995 with a consignment of desperately needed medicines there was a
difficulty. The island was (and still is ) under a military seige imposed
by the Papua New Guinea Government.
Initially Prime Minister Sir Julius Chan of Papua New Guinea gave him
permission to take the medicines in. But Alley says "There are a lot of
lies being told. We were told by Sir Julius that there was no blockade,
that medical aid can go pouring in now."
Alley got the medicines in, received a large ceremonial welcome from the
beseiged. But then had problems when he returned to the government held
territory. "We were arrested within half an hour... threatened with long
term imprisonment. This was an order that they said came from .... Sir
Julius Chan himself. Whether or not he wrote the fax, we saw it. We
demanded and got a copy of it...." "We were surrounded by machine guns on
the yacht... they were Papua New Guinea soldiers in uniform."
Then Alley was told by a pilot "and this was verified by the military, they
had been searching for us for three day with orders to sink us." This was
because "they thought we had carried a lawyer across from Australia.
(Rosemarie Gillespie, a barrister who represents the beseiged community and
who is currently (April 1996) giving evidence to the United Nations Human
Rights Commission in Geneva, Switzerland, on behalf to the Bougainville
people.)
Alley said they finally realised that the Papua New Guinea government
"wanted to teach the world a lesson - do not try to get medicines into
Bouganinville." I have seen proof "that Australia recommended that a way of
getting the copper mine open (a giant polluting mine owned by RTZ of the UK
via its subsidiary CRA in Australia - a mine shut down by the local
independence movement) was to deny medicines to a nation until they came
to their knees. I found by trying to carry my medicines in that not only
was there a blockade, but they really did not want medicines to get into
Bougainville."
When asked by the open interviewer if the Government wanted them "to die",
Alley replied: "Yes. They actually want them so brought down that they will
stop fighting and open the mines."
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