A Window Opened

Bougainville

By Johnson Honimae

Rosemarie Gillespie, The 52

year-old Australian lawyer and human rights campaigner, re-emerged in Honi ara on February 28, four months after she made the dash into Bougainville with

medical supplies.

She had lost several kilos, her skin was sunburnt and her hair looked very untidy. She had been fleeing from village to village because the Papua New Guinea soldiers wanted to catch her.

Nobody really knows how she got in or out of Bougainville but there is word she was escorted by members of the Bougain ville Revolutionary Army (BRA) across the treacherous few kilometres that separate Solomon Islands from the troubled island of Bougainville.

As she stepped out on to Honiara’s main Mendana Avenue to board a taxi, Gillespie was spotted by the watchful eye of an immigration officer. A warrant for her arrest was still in force when her visitors’ permit was cancelled in October after she tried to persuade some Solomon Islands women to join her on her humanitarian mission to Bougainville.

She was arrested by the immigration officer and with the help of her local lawyer, Francis Waleilia, Gillespie vol unteered to spend a night in the cell room of the CentralPolice Station in Honiara, in exchange for the lifting of deportation procedures against her and warrant for her arrest. Charges would also not be laid against her.

But a few hours before her flight to Australia, and much to the surprise of

her lawyer, Gillespie was standing,

wearing a borrowed shirt and lavalava , in the docks of the the Solomon Islands

High Court.

She was being charged with illegally entering Solomon Islands. But because of ler lawyer’s sharp cross-examining of prosecution witnesses, the charge was thanged to one of unlawful presence in he Solomon Islands. Gillespie pleaded fuilty to the charge and was fined

Jss100.

That was not the end. Gillespie was lot going to leave Solomon Islands with icr name blackened. Minutes before heck-in time for her flight on March 2,

Four months after she disappeared into Bougainville, Gillespie returns to tell her story

the deportation proceedings and the warrant of arrest were lifted in the Honiara Magistrate’s Court.

But as she boarded the Solomon Airlines flight to Brisbane, which was delayed by a few minutes because of her, it is still not clear whether she is a

prohibited immigrant .

The Director of Immigration, Stephen Siapu, is firm that she is a prohibited immigrant since her visitors’ permit was cancelled last October. Her lawyer, however, maintains she is free to come back to the Solomon Islands. Only the courts will decide her fate. The Solomons Voice newspaper posed the question,

“Can Gillespie Return?”, on its front page.

One person who will definitely answer in the ngative is PNG High Com missioner in Honiara, Frank Miro. Two days after Gillespie left, Miro handed a strong protest note from his government to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Honiara. Port Moresby had wanted Gillespie extradited to stand trial, but because there is no extradition arrange ment between the two countries, this was not possible.

“PNG respects the laws of the Sol omon Islands,” said Miro, “but we thought she was dealt with leniently.”

Gillespie lost little time getting her message through the media. As she was driven to the airport in an immigration department vehicle and escorted by her

lawyer, immigration and police officers,

she told a reporter she had achieved what she had wanted to. “I have opened a window on Bougainville for the world to see the human rights abuses by PNG soldiers and the shortage of medicine on the island.” She said she had stayed longer than she had wanted to on Bougainville because of the “lies” PNG was telling on the situation on the troubled island.

Gillespie did not agree she was a heroine “The heroes and heroines are the men and women on Bougainville who have the courage and endurance in the face of hardship.

“They are fighting for their indepen dence, to protect their land rights and traditions.”

She accused Australia of supplying PNG with helicopters and patrol boats which are now being used to take innocent lives on Bougainville.

Gillespie claimed PNG soldiers were occupying only 15 to 20 per cent of Bougainville and had a very small part of Arawa town which was turned into a battle ground after the villagers had fled to the mountains.

Gillespie called on PNG to allow journalists into Bougainville, even to the BRA-controlled areas because “I have been there and nothing has happened to me”.