Australia warns PNG over hiring of mercenaries

Australia warns PNG over hiring of mercenaries

CANBERRA (AFP): Australian Prime Minister John Howard yesterday warned Papua New Guinea against using mercenaries to crush a civil war after reports that foreign troops had landed in the war-torn island of Bougainville.

Howard said it was not in Papua New Guinea's interests to deploy mercenary troops in the mineral-rich province, where disputes over land ownership and mining profits turned bloody nine years ago.

The prime minister said the Australian government would consider a number of options for action after reports that mercenaries landed on Bougainville last Saturday and that the rebel Bougainville Revolutionary Army (BRA) had issued an order to shoot them on sight.

"It really is against that country's medium- and long-term interests to use mercenaries to wipe out the BRA, the only way you can solve that problem is by genuine negotiation," Howard said in a television interview.

"We'll continue to do a number of things to try and bring home to the PNG government the folly of the course in which we believe that government has now embarked," he said.

Howard said the United States, the United Kingdom, New Zealand and Pacific Island nations shared Australia's concern about the action taken by Papua New Guinea.

PNG Prime Minister Julius Chan said on Saturday that PNG would bid to buy out the enormous copper mine on Bougainville over which the troubles erupted. The Panguna facility is 53.6 percent- owned by Australia's CRA.

Chan referred to the foreign soldiers as "military training initiatives" and said they were part of, but not exclusively related to, "a significant and radial initiative to find a satisfactory and lasting solution to the Bougainville crisis."

Chan said buying out CRA would allow the government to come up with new arrangements for compensation and a reconstruction package for the landowners, the provincial government and all the people of Bougainville.

Travelers

The department of foreign affairs and trade has warned Australians to avoid all travel to Bougainville, including the capital Buka, and told Australians living on or visiting the island to leave.

"Press reports that members of the Bougainville Revolutionary Army have orders to shoot on sight 'anybody without a clearance' must be taken seriously since there is a danger they could apply to any foreigners in Bougainville," the department said in a statement.

Sydney-based BRA spokesman Moses Havini said Saturday that reports from the ground said about 170 mercenaries had landed at six points on Bougainville.

However, BRA claims, like those of the Papua New Guinea Defense Force, cannot be independently verified.

Havini said the sightings confirmed reports that 40 white and 150 black mercenaries, mostly combat veterans from South Africa, were to be flown in by Sandline International, an associate of British company Executive Outcomes.

The Department of Foreign Affairs said the Australian High Commission in Port Moresby would try to contact the 16 Australians who were understood to be on Bougainville, mostly civilian and religious aid workers.

The U.S. embassy in Port Moresby has also advised Americans to leave Bougainville amid reports of threats to foreigners.

The U.S. embassy advised Americans to "depart as soon as possible, and pending departure, exercise increased caution", the statement said.