Fighting escalates in Bougainville

Fighting escalates in Bougainville

PORT MORESBY (Reuter): Fighting on Papua New Guinea's Bougainville island has intensified with one soldier and two separatist rebels killed this week, a government spokeswoman said yesterday.

Renewed violence on Bougainville, wracked by a seven-year secessionist war, has dashed hopes of a cease-fire proposed at peace talks between Bougainville politicians and the rebels' Bougainville Revolutionary Army (BRA) in Australia last month.

Eleven soldiers and rebels have died in fighting on the island since July despite attempts by a transitional government to restore normalcy and services to the island.

Fighting on the island, 800 kilometers northeast of the Papua New Guinea mainland, flared up last weekend when government troops shot dead two BRA members and wounded rebel commander Paul Bobby.

Bobby and the two rebels were attempting to ambush a truckload of soldiers en route to Buin in the island's south.