Lest we forget our fallen soldiers

LAST month, I visited the ce­metery at Taurama Barracks to lay a wreath on the grave of my adopted son, Major Donni Bou­we.
I was staggered to find that not a single plaque or other identification re­mained on the headstones, many are tilte­d, askew and all over the place.
The cemetery has ap­parently been ravaged by a bush fire and what ap­pears to be a stage is littered with broken beer bottles and other debris.
One wonders whether a register of the servicemen’s names and location of individual grave sites exists.
Shame on you, commander.
Is your memory of the service given by the soldiers and the sacrifice of those who died in Bou­gainville so unimportant to you?
Following my visit to Taurama, I visited Bo­mana, Bitapaka and Lae war cemeteries with my brother from Australia and witnessed the beautiful haven created by the Australian War Graves Commission that allows the remains of their servicemen to rest in peace and the people of Australia to know that their men who sacrificed their lives are remembered and honoured by the people of Papua New Guinea.
Is the service and sacrifice of our own soldiers in our own country so trivial as to allow this abomination to happen ?
Is the sadness and grief of our mothers, fathers, wives and fa­milies so fleeting?
I will donate K5,000 subject
to other retired officers doing likewise if the PNGDF commander comes up with a plan as soon as possible to restore the cemetery to its rightful state.
I also humbly ask the head of the ADF in PNG to consider assisting the PNGDF in creating our own peaceful haven in our barracks nationwide to honour our own fallen comrades.

Col (rtd) Ian Glanville
Via email