Transcript
HELEN HAKENA: Yesterday [Wednesday] here at the Peace Park there were several hundred people to hear what they [the ex-cmbatants] were going to say and it was great that our leaders of north Bougainville, particularly Buka, they were there to curb the situation. They told them not to attack the business houses, because the Chinese businesses are renting houses from Buka people. So there was a lot of tension yesterday and we could see police from Arawa here in Buka. They were working as well, they were checking boats that were coming across from mainland Bougainville to Buka Island. They were checking them for possible gun smuggling across.
DON WISEMAN: A lot of tension but some good work discouraging these ex-combatants from going further. Do you think that the problem is solved?
HH: The problem with ex-combatants - they are some ex-combatants who have signed the peace process, who are speaking about peace. They do not want any violence, but there are those that are linked with some other factions that are causing problems for our people here, particularly for business men, for developers who are coming into Bougainville.
DW: Now there have been concerns for some time about Asians coming in and running a number of businesses. What are the businesses that are exclusively for Bougainvilleans?
HH: Bougainvilleans should be doing retailing and running restaurants, small bars and restaurants and doing marketing on the street, but the Asians are doing that as well.
DW: But they have customers don't they, so clearly Bougainvilleans want these shops run by the Asians.
HH: Yeah, Bougainvilleans own shops that are being used and rented by Asians, which is great as well, they are giving us money for renting the shops but the Asians are coming in big groups. There are so many of them that are here now and the own so many -
DW: And this is happening throughout Bougainville?
HH: The Asians are more located here in Buka. In some parts of Bougainville they [the ex-combatants] are really very strong. They do not want the Asians to go to south Bougainville or even central Bougainville.
DW: So why did the ex-combatants from south Bougainville come north to Buka?
HH: They are concerned that there are so many of them [Asian businesses] here and they are scared they might go into their areas as well. So our leaders in Buka told them yesterday [Wednesday] the Asians are in Buka because there is peace here in Buka and because there is respect for people coming from outside, because there is law and order in Buka - that's why the Chinese people are here. And most of these Chinese people they are married to women from south Bougainville, but still they are located here in Buka. Our constitution states that anyone outside of Bougainville who is married to a Bougainvillean is a Bougainvillean, so that is why some of these Asians, or most of them, have come in here, because they are married to Bougainvilleans.
DW: What do you think is the solution here?
HH: The solution would be they have to respect the Asians that coming here. The government has come up with a new law for investors coming into here - they should partner with Bougainvilleans , they should not run their own businesses. It's in the law, it is the law. They voted that several years that any Asians, or any foreigner, coming to Bougainville should partner with a Bougainvillean businessman or woman.
DW: Now these ex-combatants, they arrive, they've got guns, plenty of guns it would seem, yet there have countless efforts to remove the guns from the communities, they haven't been very successful, but we also know that ahead of the referendum in 2019 there has got to be more control of these guns that are illegally held in the community. So the fact that you have a situation like this where the guns are brandished to try and make a point is a bit scary isn't it?
HH: Yes it's scary, it's scary. The government should try to move ahead with, not total disarmament, but try their best to control the use of guns, control the number of guns in circulation by maybe registering those guns that are being held in the hands of civilians or ex-combatants. So that we know who owns those guns.
