BOUGAINVILLE NEWS - Postcourier 3/9/97 id TAA22410; Thu, 11 Sep 1997 19:26:38 -0400 Via NY Transfer News Collective * All the News that Doesn't Fit sender: "Vikki John" News from Postcourier newspaper, Papua New Guinea 3 September, 1997 Ona urged to give talks a go OPPOSITION Leader Bernard Narokobi yesterday appealed to rebel Bougainville leader Francis Ona to attend the New Zealand talks. And he urged both Prime Minister Bill Skate and Mr Ona to attend with a spirit of openness instead of adamance. Mr Skate last week stated that Independence for Bougainville was not negotiable and also sounded caution on autonomy in fear of what other provinces would request. Mr Ona had sent word to New Zealand Foreign Minister Don McKinnon to declare Bougainville independent at Roreinang, South Bougainville. The foreign dignitary was on a fact-finding tour to determine how well the Burnham declaration had been received and responded: ``That's just not possible''. ``I want to encourage Francis Ona not to be afraid but to attend the next round of talks in New Zealand,'' said Mr Narokobi, saying previous pro-secessionists John Momis and Leo Hannet had been received and were successful now. ``He will be surprised that the rest of PNG (people) have big hearts, are very understanding and are very forgiving.'' He said that as long as the peace talks were approached with two extremes - Ona's independence for Bougainville and Skate's ``non-negotiable stance - ``we will not get very far''. Mr Narokobi said he believed that in the Melanesian spirit they would reach a solution - ``maybe not what each one of us likes but what the general consensus would prefer''. ``In our negotiations, there's always a giving and taking and at the end of the day, everyone wins,'' he said. Mr Narokobi has also sounded a message to the Buin people - especially the Laguais - that Sir Michael Somare, Mr Peter Barter and he would like to be invited back with the five freed Security Forces hostages to thank them. =========== Havini tells Ona to get rid of Aussie `meddlers' THE leaders of the so-called Bougainville Interim Government (BIG) appear to be at loggerheads over the apparent proclamation of independence, to have taken effect on Monday September 1. BIG Australian representative Moses Havini, based in Sydney, said in a statement yesterday Francis Ona did not advise him or other leaders before making the proclamation. Mr Havini said Mr Ona had been influenced in making the unilateral declaration by ``two Australian expatriates who are very close and very influential to Mr Ona personally, even more so than other BIG or BRA leaders.'' Mr Havini, after a fax query, sent the following: ``The two Australians are Ms Rosemary Gillespie who has some association with Bougainville but is not the legal adviser to Mr Ona. However, she seems to have assumed the role in the last couple of months. ``The legal and political adviser to Mr Ona is lawyer Mr Reuben Siara. He was not fully advised of what was going on. He is in the Solomons with his family on humanitarian and health grounds. The other Australian is Mr John Braby (I have never met him) who is from Brisbane.''. In the earlier statement, Mr Havini, referring to the proclamation, said: ``This is a slap in the face by Mr Ona - not to trust his own people but listen to advice from people who are not even Bougainvillean nationals connected to the cause or who have personally experienced human loss as a result of the nine-year war.'' ``It also makes a mockery of Mr Ona's leadership, to be listening to outsiders instead of his own Bougainvillean advisers. ``This is not an academic exercise. We are talking about people's lives, ending the war collectively and achieving the people's political aspiration through an accepted process. The days of gung-ho exploiters are over, be they mercenaries or misfits outside of Bougainville. ``The proclamation has sent total confusion among Bougainvilleans as they do not know whether it is a reaffirmation of the unilateral declaration of independence in 1975, a revised version of May 17, 1990 or a totally new one.'' Mr Havini said ``outside meddlers'' should leave it to Bougainville people to settle the conflict. Mr Havini said it was not until 7.30pm Monday that a copy of the proclamation was sent to him. =================== ICRAF sees court role in Sandline THE Individual and Community Rights Advocacy Forum (ICRAF) is preparing a submission to the second Sandline Inquiry to consider leaving matters of constitutional and criminal law to the courts. ICRAF executive officer Powes Parkop said yesterday that the Prime Minister had the powers under Sections 18 and 19 of the Constitution to refer matters of constitutional law straight to the Supreme Court. Similarly, the Police Commissioner and the Public Prosecutor had powers to refer matters of criminal law to the criminal courts for prosecution. Mr Parkop said that if the inquiry commission did not have prosecution powers it might seem a waste of time for it to inquire into matters which should instead be referred to the courts. His remarks followed last Friday's decision by Waigani District Court to strike out charges of unlawful assembly against him and three other NGO leaders Jonathan O'ata, John Napu and John Kawowo. The prosecution had applied for an indefinite adjournment, on the grounds that the Public Prosecutor had not yet decided whether or not to proceed with the charges. But the defence had already made an application for a no-case submission and the magistrate opted to have the matter struck out. Mr Parkop said the prosecution ``simply did not have any evidence''. He added: ``The case itself was more political than anything else. They did not have a case from the beginning as it was really to satisfy the government of the day.'' He said that if soldiers and NGO leaders could be referred to the courts for their role in the Sandline crisis, the same should apply to politicians. He said also that the NGOs had ``no problem'' with extending the inquiries terms of reference to include the question of whether there was collusion between them and members of the Defence Force. ============== PM plans to`shelve' Defence Force inquiry, claims Opposition THE OPPOSITION will only support the shelving of the Defence board of inquiry if the issues are transferred to the Sandline commission of inquiry. Opposition Leader Bernard Narokobi said this yesterday after hearing reports that the Skate Cabinet was reportedly considering shelving the inquiry. ``Having three inquiries running at the same time could be an over-kill situation and there is a danger that the evidence given before one body/forum could have the tendency to prejudice the outcome of the work of another forum,'' he said. He said that if evidence given to the defence inquiry was reported in the media, it could prejudice the outcome of another inquiry. He said there might be a need to review the Defence inquiry terms to try to consolidate these with the Sandline terms of reference. This could free at least one judge to do other work. He cautioned Prime Minister Skate not to allow himself to be compromised by meeting with lawyers in the Sandline Inquiry. =================== For further information, please contact: Bougainville Freedom Movement PO Box 134, Erskineville. NSW. 2043 Australia Ph: (+61-2) 9558.2730 ================================================================= NY Transfer News Collective * A Service of Blythe Systems Since 1985 - Information for the Rest of Us 339 Lafayette St., New York, NY 10012 http://www.blythe.org e-mail: nyt@blythe.org ================================================================= nytpac-09.11.97-19:26:35-532