Ex-police boss remembers crisis

THE Bougainville crisis was an emotional experience – it was a time when Papua New Guinea lost not only police officers but thousands of civilians too, says a former senior police officer who was there.
John ToGuata was the divisional police commander for New Guinea Islands in the 1990s during the Bougainville conflict between 1988 and 1998.
“I was based in Rabaul and being a divisional commander, Bougainville obviously became part of my responsibility,” he said.
For ToGuata, this week’s Remembrance Day brought back memories of his fallen comrades.
“As the provincial police commander at that time, we were doing what was called forward arrangement.,” he said.
ToGuata said they had a forward base in Rabaul but then as the commander, he was directly responsible for the situation in Bougainville.
“That was when normal clinching and then after that the police mobile squad had to come in because it was a call out.”
He saw the crisis from its beginning to the end and was there when both servicemen and civilians were killed.
He also became part of the negotiation of the peace process that started in Bougainville and then went to Burnham military base in Christchurch, New Zealand, and came back to PNG
“The crisis to us was not expected because we did not expect things to turn out like that. Normal policing could not handle the situation.”
ToGuata said the Government called in the Defence Force to help control the situation.
He said the jail in Bougainville was destroyed with the officers killed and so “we remember them today”.
“My first policeman was killed on the Buka passage when he tried to meet the BRAs across the passage.
“They never found his body as he fell into the very fast flowing passage there.”
ToGuata said he lost 37 police officers under his command during that time.
“For the CS officers, they were at the Buka correctional service institution and were killed in action. The prisoners ran away and some were also attacked and killed,” he said.
“So to us it is emotional to remember our fallen ones.”
ToGuata commended the commissioner and the department for making the day special.
He added that they remembered their fallen men and women not only of the crisis but also of the war.
“It is like another version of the ANZAC day as it is emotional.”
He said it was estimated that between 15,000 and 20,000 people died during that 10-year crisis.
“It is emotional for me and for the people who have been part of it and the country as well,” he said.