SUMMARY

In the context of the intra-state conflict between the Government of Papua New Guinea and the Bougainville Revolutionary Army (BRA) (see Papua New Guinea: Bougainville, Government of Papua New Guinea was responsible for violations of human rights including sporadic one-sided attacks and "disappearances" of civilians. In some of the attacks government forces were joined by the Resistance Forces, a government-backed Bougainvillean paramilitary group.

According to Amnesty International revenge killings by government troops whose relatives had been killed by the BRA were common. Clan or family members of the supposed perpetrators were killed as "payback". The government forces also targeted former member of the BRA. The victims were often shot or killed in mortar attacks.

In many incidents the Government of Papua New Guinea did not take any immediate action to investigate the killings. Jerry Singirok, the then commander of the PNG military, said that while civilians would be safe as long as they did not "participate" in rebel operations, he could not rule out the possibility of innocent people being killed.

It should be noted that investigations of human rights abuses were inhibited. Media and international human rights monitors were restricted in their access to Bougainville and there were no local human rights organisation at the time of the conflict. Therefore, it is likely that the number of victims of one-sided attacks reported by UCDP underestimates real casualties.

The Government of Papua New Guinea first became active as a one-sided actor in UCDP data in 1992, when the one-sided violence resulted in over 25 civilian deaths. The threshold was reached by the end of December that year when attacks by the government had resulted in 27 deaths.