A Stakeholder Perspective on Searches for Security in Papua New Guinea Karl GW Claxton December 1999 A thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy of the University of New South Wales I hereby declare that this submission is my own work and to the best of my knowledge it contains no material previously published or written by another person, nor material which to a substantial extent has been accepted for the award of any other degree or diploma at UNSW or any other educational institution, except where due acknowledgment is made in the thesis. Any contribution made to the research by others, with whom I have worked at UNSW or elsewhere, is explicitly acknowledged in the thesis. I also declare that the intellectual content of this thesis is the product of my own work, except to the extent that assistance from others in the project's design and conception or in style, presentation and linguistic expression is acknowledged. Karl Claxton Canberra December 1999 CONTENTS Abstract i Abbreviations and Acronyms ii Maps v Acknowledgments x Introduction: Purpose and Questions 1 Aims, procedure, and results 1 Outline of the thesis 3 I Chapter One: The Setting: Papua New Guinea in Outline 7 Physical features 8 Human characteristics and history 10 Modern political structures, style, and economy 17 Standard approaches in PNG-studies 26 Conclusion 28 Chapter Two: Papua New Guinea Security Conceptions in Flux 30 Movement away from conventional strategic security analysis 30 Official analysis: a focus on new threats to the state 39 Scholarly analysis: state versus society models 51 Conclusion 57 II Chapter Three: Theoretical Perspectives on Security in Developing Countries 58 Changing conceptions of security: rationale, approaches, and key terms 59 "Third World" security as a distinct subfield 68 The need for a new approach: lack of an analytic core focus 74 To broaden, to deepen, or to extend? 81 A security stakeholders model 86 Conclusion 105 III Chapter Four: "Law and Disorder" - an Overview of Principal Challenges 106 Three key concerns - Raskol crime, separatism, and intergroup conflicts 107 Existing explanations of the Bougainville crisis - Secession or succession? 115 Existing explanations of contemporary highlands warfare - "Tribal fighting"? 136 The overlapping nature of threats 160 Conclusion 161 Chapter Five: Case I: Security Stakeholders in the Bougainville Conflict 163 State institutions 164 Elites 170 Proponents of the nation 195 Communal groups 201 Ordinary individuals 204 Stakeholder interactions 210 Conclusion 215 Chapter Six: Case II: Security Stakeholders and Renewed Highlands Warfare 217 State institutions 218 Elites 227 Proponents of the nation 240 Communal groups 245 Ordinary individuals 250 Stakeholder interactions 253 Conclusion 257 Chapter Seven: Conclusions: Reconceptualising Security in PNG and Beyond 259 Summary and main findings 260 Implications for Papua New Guinea 265 Relevance for theory and for other developing countries 269 Further research 271 Bibliography ABSTRACT The new theoretical literature on security in developing countries can contribute to the understanding of Papua New Guinea's overall security predicament. This study uses such ideas to reconceptualise the country’s security in a more comprehensive way. Since the late 1980s, it has become widely recognised that conventional security analysis, which emphasises the military defence of states against foreign attack, cannot address the most pressing and violent challenges faced in Papua New Guinea. The term "security" is now applied to all manner of problems and goals, in official policy, academic commentary, and public debate. However, such accounts have tended to lack a unifying approach, and provide little guidance as to how the country's security predicament might be re-assessed as a whole. Two unanswered questions are pivotal. Firstly, it is uncertain whether official emphases of new security threats to the state or scholarly accents on security interests beside those of the state offer the superior basis for re-analysis. Secondly, the scholarly accounts are presented in terms of an over- simplified dichotomy of state and societal security, and it remains to be shown what the components and particular security imperatives of each might be. The thesis turns to the specialist theoretical literature for tools to explore these questions. That literature readily explains the general circumstances —especially the structural challenges— faced by developing countries, but lacks a satisfactory analytic core focus for the practical investigation of actual security situations at the more immediate level. This focus is needed to help determine which of a very wide range of potentially relevant problems, goals, actors, and coping strategies should be considered, and how they ought to be explained. The thesis proposes a simple analytical framework to provide such a focus. This emphasises a consistent "search for security", based on the pursuit of a distinct core value, by each of five key categories of security referents or "stakeholders". The thesis begins to test and refine the ability of this model to provide the core focus needed to address the practical questions indicated above. It does so through a survey of the principal challenges shaping Papua New Guinea’s security in the 1990s, and by examining a pair of case studies involving civil war on Bougainville and renewed highlands warfare. Initial results are quite encouraging. The model contributes to a deeper understanding of security in Papua New Guinea by helping guide the more precise disaggregation of state and societal security. This has implications for attempts to assess and improve the country's overall security situation, and may enrich the wider literature on security in developing countries, in turn. i ABBREVIATIONS and ACRONYMS ACFOA Australian Council For Overseas Aid ADB Asian Development Bank ADFA Australian Defence Force Academy AIDAB Australian International Development Assistance Bureau ANGAU Australian New Guinea Administrative Unit ANU Australian National University AusAID Australian Agency for International Development B Billion BCA Bougainville Constituent Assembly BCL Bougainville Copper Limited BFM Bougainville Freedom Movement BHP Broken Hill Propriety Limited BIG Bougainville Interim Government BP years before present BPC Bougainville People's Congress BRA Bougainville Revolutionary Army BRG Bougainville Reconciliation Government BSIP British Solomon Islands Protectorate BTG Bougainville Transitional Government CHNG Central Highlands of New Guinea CIS Corrective Institutions Service CPC Constitutional Planning Committee CRA Conzinc Rio-Tinto of Australia Limited CRC Constitutional Review Commission DCP Defence Cooperation Program DFAT Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade DIB Papua New Guinea Defence Intelligence Bureau DoD Department of Defence ed. edited by EDF Electoral Development Fund EHP Eastern Highlands Province ERP Economic Recovery Program EU European Union FCDB Foundation for Community Development in Bougainville ft feet FLOJ Foundation for Law, Order and Justice Fr Father GDP Gross Domestic Product GNP Gross National Product G17 Group of Seventeen Islands Region MPs IASER Institute of Applied Social and Economic Research IBRD International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (World Bank) ICRAF Individual and Community Rights Advocacy Forum ICRC International Committee of the Red Cross IGFA Intergroup Fighting Act 1977 IGO International Governmental Organisation ILO International Labour Organisation IMF International Monetary Fund INA Papua New Guinea Institute of National Affairs IR International Relations ISA Internal Security Act 1993 JCFADT Joint Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade ii JSCFADT Joint Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade K Kina kg kilograms km kilometres LLDCs Least Developed Countries LLGs Local Level Governments LNA League of National Advancement Party LOSWG Law and Order Sector Working Group M million m metres MA Melanesian Alliance Party MEF Melanesian Environment Foundation MelSol Melanesian Solidarity for Justice, Peace and Dignity MFAT New Zealand Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade MHA Member of the House of Assembly MoU Memorandum of Understanding MP Member of Parliament MRA Moral Re-Armament NA National Alliance Party NANGO National Alliance of Non-Governmental Organisations NCD National Capital District NEC National Executive Council NGI New Guinea Islands provinces NGO Non-Governmental Organisation NGRU New Guinea Research Unit NICs Newly Industrialising Countries NIO National Intelligence Organisation NPC National Planning Council NPLA New Panguna Landowners' Association NS North Solomons NSPG North Solomons Provincial Government NZ New Zealand ODA Overseas Development Assistance OECD Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development ONA Australian Office of National Assessments OPM Organisasi Papua Merdeka OTML Ok Tedi Mining Limited P Tokpisin language Pangu Papua and New Guinea Union Party PAP Peoples Action Party PDM Peoples Democratic Movement Party PIR Pacific Islands Regiment PJV Porgera Joint Venture Limited PLA (old) Panguna Landowners' Association PM Prime Minister PMF Peace Monitoring Force PNG The Independent State of Papua New Guinea PNGDF The Papua New Guinea Defence Force PNGWC Papua New Guinea Watch Council PoM Port Moresby PPCC Peace Process Consultative Committee PPP Peoples Progress Party PSDA Provincial Social