P.N.G. may send troops against landowners

Press, 8 December 1988, Page 8

P.N.G. may send troops against landowners

NZPA-AAP Port Moresby

Cabinet was yesterday considering whether to send troops to quell violent unrest by landowners who have closed down the giant Bougainville Copper Mine — the Papua New Guinea Government’s largest single source of internal revenue.

The meeting followed the landowners’ apparent rejection of an ultimatum from the Prime Minister, Rabbie Namaliu, to end a campaign of sabotage and arson or feel the “full weight of the internal security forces”.

The landowners are also understood to have refused to talk to a special Cabinet committee headed by the Deputy Prime Minister, Akoka Doi, and would meet only the Provincial Affairs Minister, Father John Momis (who is on the committee), and provincial Premier, Joseph Kabui, both of whom are sympathetic to their demands for billions of dollars compensation. Sources said the Government, concerned at the possible effect of the saboteurs’ use of explosives on foreign investment, was determined to

protect lives and property from the landowners’ "impossible” demands. According to the sources, the decision to send in the military had already been made and it was simply a question of how many troops to send. The precedent has a(_ready been set. Soldiers were sent to help quell labour riots at the Ok Tedi copper mine in September and are currently assisting a major police anti-crime operation in the Highlands. Additional police reinforcements arrived in Bougainville yesterday, bringing total police strength in the mine area to well over 200, almost five times the normal level, amid reports that Police Commissioner Paul Tohian had issued orders to “shoot to kill.” Arsonists struck again overnight, destroying a B.C.L. maintenance building in the commercial centre of the provincial capital, Arawa — the first time they have hit a major population centre. B.C.L.’s secretary, Geoff Ewing, said a large part of the single story building was gutted and costed damage at 350,000 kina (about $NZ671,501).