Comments on: Bougainville president-elect Ishmael Toroama – rebel, peacemaker, farmer https://asiapacificreport.nz/2020/09/23/bougainville-president-elect-ishmael-toroama-rebel-peacemaker-farmer/ Independent Asia Pacific news and analysis Fri, 25 Sep 2020 03:07:30 +0000 hourly 1 By: Nigel Matte https://asiapacificreport.nz/2020/09/23/bougainville-president-elect-ishmael-toroama-rebel-peacemaker-farmer/#comment-16861 Fri, 25 Sep 2020 03:07:30 +0000 https://asiapacificreport.nz/?p=50881#comment-16861 My dad was also a civilian killed in the Bougainville Crisis by PNGDF, his name is Kevin Lalai Kokiai, I found records of him recorded on Amnesty Internationals Data Base Online. After he was killed my dad’s brother Justine Kokiai joined the BRA and became a platoon commander of the BRA in central Bougainville but specifically in Manetai, Vito Village, Torau Constituency.

I’d like to share my story but I don’t know whom to contact.

If anyone is interested in my story please contact me on this email address: nmatte481@gmail.com, or search my name on Facebook: Nigel Matte (Nai) and Linkedin: Nigel Matte

]]> By: Vikki John https://asiapacificreport.nz/2020/09/23/bougainville-president-elect-ishmael-toroama-rebel-peacemaker-farmer/#comment-16852 Wed, 23 Sep 2020 11:36:23 +0000 https://asiapacificreport.nz/?p=50881#comment-16852 Congratulations to Ishmael Toroama the new President of Bougainville. A freedom fighter of the Bougainville Revolutionary Army (BRA) who stopped Rio Tinto and its subsidiary Bougainville Copper Ltd (BCL) by blowing up the electric pylons at the Panguna mine in 1988. Rio Tinto and BCL were making mega bucks without any regard for the environment or the people of Bougainville. The BRA are the first Indigenous People to shut down one of the biggest mining companies on this planet. Sadly Rio Tinto and BCL retaliated by sending in the PNG Defence Forces, supported by Australia and Australian tax payer dollars. Rio Tinto and BCL turned the island of Bougainville into a sea of blood by imposing a military blockade using Australian helicopters decked out as gunships to strafe villages on Bougainville, navy boats supplied by Australia to keep journalists and human rights workers out so no medicines or medical teams could enter Bougainville in order to keep Rio Tinto and BCL’s filth from being exposed. They, Rio Tinto and BCL have been exposed. The death of up to 20,000 people on Bougainville caused by Rio Tinto and BCL as well as the hiring of mercenaries from Sandline Inertnational who were stopped in March 1997, just shows the disgusting, greedy , racist behaviour that the Rio Tinto and BCL mining companies are all about. They are corporate thugs who were stopped thanks to the Bougainville Revolutionary Army (BRA). VICTORY TO THE BRA.

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