Bougainville - Bougainville Revolutionary Army (BRA)

BIG/BRA is led by Jospeh Kabui and Sam Kauona, former leaders under Francis Ona. The BRA have broken away from the former truck driver turned president. The BRA are part of the peace talks and are credited with giving DP a tense and less than peaceful send-off in Arawa. The BRA started as a rag-tag group of determined rebels who forced concessions from the main government in PNG. When Francis Ona put his foot down and refused to negotiate with what were his former enemies, the Kiwi/Aussie delegation provided funds for the military leader Sam Kauona to attend. Francis says he was paid $17,000 to start talking peace. The Bougainville Interim Government (BIG) is the political side of the BRA. They declared independence in May of 1990. The PNG Government reacted by imposing a complete economic and communications blockade. For now the rebels are fighting a bush war without any outside help. The island of Bukato is under government control as are many areas of the island of Bougainville, but the BRA still controls areas in the south and center of the island. At last count 67,300 Bougainvilleans are currently living in 49 government-run care centers in Bougainville. The BRA have taken hostages (usually government defense soldiers) and have been accused of executions. For now, the BRA has an office in Buka and Arawa and requires that all visitors get their permission before landing on Bougainville. They are not crazy about journalists.

There is no real animosity between the two factions of Ona and Kabui because most of the rebels are related to each other.

Australian Foreign Affairs and Trade

Web site: http://www.dfat.gov.au/geo/spacific/png/bougainville/