Bougainville Update - 7/6/96

[Sasha Baer <sashab@xxxxxxxxx>]

Title -- PNG: Govt gets drilled by Australian oil man
Date --  28 May 1996
Byline -- David Robie
Origin -- Asia-Pacific Network
Source -- InterPress Service , 24 May 1996
Copyright -- InterPress/APN
Status -- Unabridged
-------------------
From: newsdesk@xxxxxxxxxxx

       Copyright 1996 InterPress Service, all rights reserved.
          Worldwide distribution via the APC networks.

                      *** 24-May-96 ***

Title: PAPUA NEW GUINEA: Government Gets Drilled by Australian Oil Man

By David Robie

PORT MORESBY, May 24 (IPS) - The prevailing mood of discontent in Papua New
Guinea may be best summed up by a recent incident whereby a foreign investor
>from a former colonial power has been widely lauded for criticising a
post-independence government.

Fed up with government's failure to curb violent crime, high unemployment
rates and reports of abuses of power by the police force, ordinary and
prominent citizens in the South Pacific nation are rallying behind an
Australian businessman who dared to allege corruption in the Sir Julius Chan
government.

Trevor Kennedy, chairman of Oil Search Ltd, not only accused Chan's
administration of mismanaging the economy, but went as far as to say that
the biggest threat to the country's future was the government's lack of
focus and discipline.

His scathing criticisms came during his company's annual general meeting
earlier this month, and since then he and the prime minister have been
engaged in a public war of words with supporters in each camp calling for
the resignation of the other.

Kennedy said his major concern and that of the Papua New Guinean people was
''an absence of resolve'' on government's part to deal with pressing social
issues, its capricious policy changes, and the deteriorating state of law
and order.

He also warned that in the months leading up to parliamentary elections,
constitutionally due by next year, ''corrupt vote- buying and the politics
of convenience'' would undermine the social and moral fabric of the country.

Kennedy went on to allege that government officials were deliberately
ignoring the bad logging practices of Malaysian companies and consequently
Oil Search risked becoming ''a victim of increasing landowner militancy
arising out of bad forestry practices''.

Oil Search is a partner in the Kutubu and Gobe oil well development in the
country's rugged Southern Highlands. It has paid taxes and royalties to
Papua New Guinea totalling almost 685 million kina (about 570 million
dollars) since the petroleum pipeline came on stream in 1992.

Kennedy was a key economic adviser to former Prime Minister Paias Wingti who
was ousted from office during 1994 in a court ruling over a parliamentary
manoeuvre that had backfired.

Cabinet ministers have risen to the defence of the prime minister, dropping
subtle reminders that Kennedy hails from the former colonial power that
ruled Papua New Guinea (PNG) until independence in 1975.

Commerce and Industry Minister Nakikus Konga described the Kennedy
criticisms as an ''attack'' on the people of Papua New Guinea.

And while addressing more than 1,000 villagers at the at Moveave village in
Gulf Province, Chan asked why big overseas corporations always wanted to
''knock down'' Papua New Guinea. ''What corruption are they talking about?''
he asked. ''If they say we are corrupt, let them prove it to us.''

But prominent community leaders have defended the oil company chairman.

Elder statesman Sir Paulias Matane this week was quoted in the national
press as saying it was ''refreshing to hear the truth'' publicly spoken.

''The public and commentators have raised these issues over and over
again,'' Matane said. ''The only thing that is new is that a foreigner has
now publicly raised them.''

National Council of Women president Dame Josephine Abaijah also said the
issues raised by Kennedy -- including the rising crime rate -- were the
concerns of the majority of Papua New Guineans, and has called on Chan to
step down as leader of a ''lame and limpid'' country.

She said Chan had claimed ''without shame or concern'' that the crime rate
had dropped drastically. Yet in the absence of statistics, daily news media
reports indicate the crime rate is spiralling.

Earlier this month, two officials of the Constitutional Review Commission
were murdered outside their home in an armed hold-up which went tragically
wrong.

According to Abaijah, the prime minister was so obsessed with travel to
other nations that he no longer had time to deal with ''internal bread and
butter issues''.

She cited poor infrastructure, and 20 years of government promises and
rhetoric, saying Chan had refused to accept responsibility and had ''lost
control of the country''.

Similar charges were leveled at the government last year by founding Premier
Sir Michael Somare who spoke of ''shattered dreams'' over a country now
going broke.

In the run-up to last year's 20th anniversary independence celebrations last
September, Somare said he could not believe that Papua New Guinea had
deteriorated to such a state.

''The people responsible for creating this mess owe an apology to Papua New
Guinea and its inhabitants,'' he said. ''This is not the same country that
was worth fighting for.''

While its mining, petroleum and timber industries have developed
spectacularly since independence from Australia 21 years ago, a series of
landowner compensation claims, a secessionist war on the island of
Bougainville, spiralling crime and economic decline have brought PNG to its
knees.

Papua New Guinea enjoyed healthy growth levels of up to nine and ten per
cent in the early 1990s. But it has been in crisis for the past two-and-half
years.

In a drive for foreign investment, the Chan administration floated the kina
currency in 1994. It slumped by almost 40 per cent before stabilising at
about the value of the Australian dollar. In the meanwhile, prices have
soared by up to 45 per cent.

The economy has been bailed out by a 540 million dollar World Bank rescue
package linked to a structural adjustment programme which Kennedy claims is
now not being followed by the government.
(END/IPS/AP-IP-IF/DR/CPG/96)


Origin: Manila/PAPUA NEW GUINEA/
                              ----

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The Australian - Thursday 6 June, 1996
======================================

PNG EXCLUDES REBELS FROM AUTONOMY DEAL

by Mary-Loiuse O'Callaghan, South Pacific Correspondent

The Prime Minister of Papua New Guinea, Sir Julius Chan, has agreed to grant
PNG's break away province of Bougainville a degree of autonomy in a proposed
agreement which excludes the rebels who have been fighting to secede from
PNG for the past eight years.

Sir Julius, who lifted a ceasefire on the island in March, once again
rejected a proposal for representatives of the Bougainville Revolutionary
Army and its political wing, the Bougainville Interim Government, to hold
peace talks outside PNG with other Bougainvilleans.

The secessionists have insisted that such talks, chaired by the United
Nations and the Commonwealth Secretariat are a prerequisite for any
negotiated settlement of the crisis.

Instead, Sir Julius has agreed to try to persuade the PNG parliament to
extend the life of the Port Moresby backed Bougainville Transitional
Government beyond its original term, due to end when the national elections
are held in PNG in the middle of next year.

The BTG was established by Sir Julius in 1994 as part of his original
attempts to find a peaceful solution to the Bougainville issue.

In a memorandum of understanding signed in Port Morseby after a day of talks
with the head of the BTG, Mr Theodore Miriung, a former legal adviser to the
BRA, Sir Julius committed his Government to negotiating a level of autonomy
for Bougainville.

"Both parties agreed to deliberate further on the level and scope of
autonomy for Bougainville" the memorandum said.

It said the "details" would be worked out later.  But it is understood that
there is still a considerable gulf between the level of autonomy Sir Julius
would be prepared to concede and that being proposed by the BTG.

Both sides agreed, howcver, to work together to access the funds set aside
for restoration work on the island, where essential services have been
disrupted for most of the crisis.

Tuesday's agreement was expected to be rejected by both the BRA and BIG.

The peace conference co-ordinator for the rebels, Mr Mike Foster said last
night that any agreement on autonomy would remain a "grand idea" while
conflict continued on the island.

"The bottom line is that the (rebel) BRA-BIG have not been consulted and
there can't be peace unless they are included in the process", Mr Foster said.

Neither the PNG Government nor Mr Miriung have publicly mentioned the fate
of the PNG soldier being held hostage by the BRA, despite the deadline for
his safe  release having passed last Saturday.  Sir Julius asked Mr Miriung
to try to negotiate the release of the soldier, Sergeant Samuel Petueli, but
it was not clear whether he was able to make contact with those holding his
captive last week.

Meanwhile, Sir Julius has also accused the authorities in the neighbouring
Solomon Islands of actively assisting BRA rebels to cross into Solomons
territory on the border with PNG.

In a statement issued in Port Moresby, Sir Julius defended the actions of
the PNG Defence Force in "pursuing" rebels into the Solomon Islands, despite
the fact that the Solomons Islands Government was demanding compensation for
at least 18 alleged border incursions by PNG forces in the past two months.

"The ease with which rebel elements commute to and from between Bougainville
and (the) Solomon Islands cannot be possible without the assistance of the
Solomon Islands Field Force" Sir Julius said.

"The PNG Government has evidence of the Solomon Islands Field Force's
complicity."

Sir Julius called on the Solomon Islands to hand over known BRA "activists"
to PNG as a sign of good faith.

The Solomon Islands issued a protest note last Sunday after a PNG patrol
boat fired on a remote border village, the most serious border incident
since two Solomon Islanders were killed in a cross-border
raid by PNG troops in 1992.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Contact Details:
================

Vikki John (BFM)     +61-2-558-2730   email: V.john@xxxxxxxxxx
Moses Havini (BIG)   +61-2-804-7602
Max Watts            +61-2-818-2343   email: MWATTS@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
(Journalist specialising in Bougainville, East Timor and West Papua issues)

Bougainville Freedom Movement
P.O. Box 134, Erskineville, NSW 2043, Australia

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Regards Sasha

Sasha Baer
International Amateur Radio Network
Bougainville Freedom Movement
Royal Volunteer Coastal Patrol
Voicemail: +61-2-513-5614
sashab@xxxxxxxxx
http://www.wr.com.au/sashab/



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