Bougainville News 10/27/97 a.m. Via NY Transfer News Collective * All the News that Doesn't Fit source:VIKKI@lexsun.law.uts.edu.au Sun Oct 26 20:37:50 1997 The National (PNG) Newspaper - 27 October, 1997 Rebel leader hurt in crash By PETER KASIA PORT MORESBY: Top Bougainville rebel leader Sylvester Vane is nursing serious injuries at the Sohano Hospital following an accident last Monday. Reports reaching The National indicated that Mr Vane and some of his fellow rebels were proceeding to a peace meeting when the vehicle they were travelling in ran off the road and overturned. The report, however, did not give the location of the accident or any details of other casualties. A source from Buka described Mr Vane's condition as being "very serious". Mr Vane was recently reported to be involved in the current peace meetings with the security forces and officials of the Bougainville Transitional Government (BTG). Meanwhile, a National Government negotiation team will travel to Bougainville on Thursday this week to assess the current peace process on the island. The trip was to have taken place last week, but was put off to this week because the delegations from Australia and New Zealand had not arrived. They will arrive here tomorrow and on Wednesday will have briefings with the government team before going to the island on Thursday. Topics or the agenda for the talks were not available. ================= Five more Aussie aircraft coming CANBERRA: Australia will do whatever it takes to help Papua New Guinea combat its drought, Foreign Affairs Minister Alexander Downer said yesterday. He said Australia will this week send two Caribou aircraft, a Hercules transport plane and two Black Hawk helicopters to help ferry relief food supplies. These come on top of the RAAF Hercules and Black Hawk that began transporting food supplies to some of the worst-hit drought areas last week. "This really is a very major problem for PNG ... We have to help them," Mr Downer told the Nine Network. "They really don't have resources themselves to be able to feed people, so we as another country, neighbour, as a long-standing friend, have to provide assistance and we have to be generous in doing that." He said Australian assessments showed about 500,000 people were now seriously affected by the drought. Asked what Australia's obligation was, Mr Downer said: "That is our obligation, whatever it takes." Mr Downer will visit PNG next week. Meanwhile, New Zealand would inject $NZ250,000 (K229,000) into Papua New Guinea's drought relief program, the government in Auckland said yesterday. New Zealand's Foreign Affairs and Trade Minister Don McKinnon announced the contribution after a meeting with the Deputy Prime Minister Chris Haiveta at the Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting in Edinburgh on Saturday, a statement from his office said. The funds would be used by the Red Cross to provide relief in PNG which has suffered serious water shortages and crop damage. Meanwhile, the British High Commission has donated K10,000 for disaster relief. The money was handed over by High Commissioner Brian Low to Finance Minister Iairo Lasaro at Morauta Haus in Waigani last week. The money came from the British Department of Emergency Aid for International Development. =============== Enuma has a case to answer: Court By MORESI RUAHMA'A PORT MORESBY: The five army officers charged with mutiny during Sandline crisis have a "case to answer'', a military court martial has ruled. The court ruled on Friday that there was more than sufficient evidence against the five accused - Major Walter Enuma, Captain Bola Renagi, Capt Belden Namah, Lieutenant Michael David and Second Lt Linus Osoba. Rejecting submissions by defence counsel Powes Parkop, presiding judge Mark Sevua said mutiny is an offence defined adequately and clearly in section 53 of the Defence Act. "I rule there is evidence of the charges against you and therefore call on you to answer to the charges,'' Justice Sevua told the five officers. Mr Parkop had made no-case submission claiming that the proceedings be dismissed on the basis that mutiny was not an offence defined by law and no-one could be convicted of such an offence. He had also questioned the validity of the appointment of PNGDF Commander Leo Nuia saying he was not lawfully the commander and consequently whatever act occurred against him on July 28, 1997, could not amount to a mutiny. Therefore the five defendants did "not have a case to answer'', he had submitted. The court however ruled that attempts to "overthrow or resist lawful authority or disobey lawful authority or impede the performance of any duty or service" amounted to mutiny. The defence counsel last week made four submissions in which he also submitted that proceedings be dismissed on the basis that the offence of mutiny is not an offence that is defined in law and hence a person cannot be convicted of such an offence as provided for in sect 37(2) of the National Constitution. The defence argued that definition of mutiny failed to provide what should be done in order to commit the offence of mutiny. Arguing a failure to comply with the Defence Act, Mr Parkop said the Commander of the Defence Force had failed to institute an investigation prior to laying charges against the defendants, which denied them a natural justice. The court, however, told the defendants that they were given natural justice by not being arrested and detained which the commander could have done under the Military Code of Discipline. "The accused were not arrested and detained, therefore no investigation was required,'' said the Judge Sevua, adding that the defendants should be thankful of this. He said that before any investigation is done a person must be arrested and detained under sect C18 of the Military Code of Discipline. "Or if he is not arrested he must have been charged with a breach of service before an investigation is conducted,'' the Judge said. ================== Sir Wiwa denies Sandline claims PORT MORESBY: Governor-General Sir Wiwa Korowi has refuted claims that he was behind moves by the Army calling on the former government to resign over the Sandline deal. Sir Wiwa was responding to a statement made before the Justice Kubulan Los Inquiry into the Sandline affair by Deputy Police Commissioner Ludwig Kembu, that Sir Wiwa, Chief Justice Sir Arnold Amet, and some constitutional office-holders where behind sacked Army commander Jerry Singirok's call to the former government to resign on March 17 this year. In a statement released at the weekend, Sir Wiwa also said that he had been wrongly implicated in a report compiled by the National Intelligence Organisation earlier this year. "I will not remain silent and see my good name and the Office of the Governor-General tarnished in an issue I had no part in," Sir Wiwa said. He added that the report had associated his name with the Sandline crisis and that he was implicated as supporting the former Army commander. "As a Christian leader, I had no hidden agenda whatsoever towards the last government and I feel totally disgusted by (these) unfounded and baseless reports, and that my name and the Office of the Governor-General have been used to dramatise the Sandline saga in which I frankly had no part to play," Sir Wiwa said. ================ Man charged with incest on B'ville RABAUL: A Bougainville man has been charged with incest for allegedly raping his daughter, Bougainville police have said. Provincial Police Commander Joel Kean said the suspect, from Naupan village in the Solos area of Buka Island, was arrested and charged with incest by Buka police after he had allegedly raped his 17-year-old daughter in a coconut plantation. Mr Kean said the victim had reportedly gone to the coconut plantation at Solos with her father (the accused) to look for betel nut last weekend when he committed the offence. Mr Kean said the police are treating the case seriously, with the aim of preventing similar cases in the future. "We are treating the case very seriously because such incidents are morally degrading and bring outright shame to our society... And I appeal to the public not to allow such unacceptable behaviour by grown up people, especially fathers, in our traditional society," he said. In other developments, Mr Kean said the province was very quiet since the signing of the Burnham Truce, adding that reconciliation meetings which started on Oct 10 were going very well without any interruptions. He said the most positive development resulting from the reconciliation meetings was the free movement of people between rebel-controlled areas and government-controlled areas including Buka. "The peace process which is currently in progress after the signing of the Burnham Truce is promising... A lot of people from rebel-controlled areas are freely moving out to government-controlled areas including people coming with their garden produce from the mainland to sell at the Buka market," he said. Mr Kean said the parties involved in the reconciliation meetings include the rebels, Bougainville Transitional Government representatives, civil servants, civilians and security force members. They had their first meeting at Siarra near the Buka Passage on mainland Bougainville. "The Siarra reconciliation meeting on Tuesday was a moving one in which all concerned parties for the first time met each other with tears and pledged to promote peace on Bougainville," he added. Mr Kean said other important reconciliation meetings are being planned in Arawa, Tinputz and other main centres. "Promoting freedom of movement of people through reconciliation meetings was an important component of the Burnham Truce. And we are very happy to see this concept picking up well," he said. Sources in the BTG said a delegation from the Prime Minister's office will be travelling to Bougainville early next week to assess the situation on the island. ================================================================= 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-10.28.97-11:59:23-25811