REBEL RADIO BACK ON AIRWAVES

http://www.postcourier.com.pg/20020627/news.htm

PORT MORESBY (Pacific Media Watch): Bougainville rebel leader Francis OnaÕs clandestine radio station Radio Free Bougainville has resumed broadcasting during the PNG election amid renewed tensions between ex-combatants, reports the Post-Courier.

The rebel station had not transmitted in four years following a decade-long secessionist war with mainland Papua New Guinea.

The war, which led to as many as 20,000 deaths, was sparked by the Ona-led rebellion against the huge Australian-owned Panguna copper mine on the island of Bougainville.

From its hidden jungle outpost, Radio Free BougainvilleÕs pro-independence broadcasts became a powerful psychological weapon against the PNG government. When it ceased broadcasting in 1998, many assumed the rebel station was too run-down to transmit.

But according to sources in Bougainville and the nearby Solomon Islands, Radio Free Bougainville returned to air on June 17, just two days after the start of national polling. That same day OnaÕs troops extended their "no-go zone" in central Bougainville by five kilometres.

The aggressive move prompted neighbouring ex-combatants to re-arm themselves, and on June 19 they broke open containers of firearms destined for United Nations weapons inspectors. That night the usually reclusive Ona took to the airwaves to talk about independence, sources told AAP.

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