the green guerrillas

Tear gas rolled across the river like a benign water spirit.
Our inexperienced eyes see this as a very ineffective smoke bomb, and the camera appreciates the way it captures tropical light.
The next moment, when poison burns our skin, through our lungs, and Burns tears in our eyes, we become more sensible at once.
We stumbled blindly in the bank to the place where the guerrilla stitches were.
\"Now you know what it feels like,\" smirked in a happier way than it seemed necessary.
\"It\'s just a small problem.
\"This is not unexpected.
I know the commander of the revolutionary army of bubougainville (BRA)
From the moment he whispered in the ear of a guerrilla, he intended to play a trick, and the guerrilla group soon disappeared.
Sure enough, 10 minutes after this training patrol, a mock ambush began and Ishmael Toroama rushed into the bushes, M-
When his soldiers used the captured M-
L6 s, the revival of guns and families in World War II-made rifles.
This may be to keep the toe on the \"boy\" that everyone calls a bra.
But tear gas is purely for us, and is a short dose of fierce medicine for the reality of Bougainville Island.
Ishmael likes to distribute the medicine.
Later, when he accelerated his shabby 4x4 hi-
He admitted that he attacked his soldiers with live ammunition during these training exercises. \"Ever hit any? \" I ask. \"Oh yes. \" \"How many? \" \"Twelve. \" \"Twelve!
Seriously injured?
\"Well, yes, very.
\"It is this kind of training that has turned bras into such effective combat effectiveness.
Not half-measures here.
Today is September 1997.
Ending the cease-fire and peace negotiations from the War of Independence in Papua New Guinea has only just begun, with my colleague Alex Smales, WHO and I are shooting bras.
As the Islanders proudly told us, when the war began in 1989, the Papua New Guinea Defense Forces (PNGDF)-
Equipment, training and regular replenishment in Australia
Faced with a group of guerrillas armed with slingshot and archers.
In the workshop in the village, the bra soon began to make shotguns and rifles --
These may be original, but the soldiers who used them made them, so they knew how to make repairs in the wild.
So far, however, most rebels have waved guns captured from the PNGDF.
\"The better the weapons of Baxin, the better for us,\" Ishmael said with a smile, \"because we soon have better weapons.
\"Bras are also starting to develop replication M-They won 16.
The fact that Papua New Guinea is such a reliable weapon supplier for bras is not the only clue to who wins the war.
By the time we arrived on the island, 80 to 90% of the Bougainville cloth was firmly in control, and the number of barracks of the National People\'s Democratic Front was steadily decreasing.
After Baoxin\'s last attack turned into a rout, their top officials admitted they could not win the conflict militarily.
Earlier this year, the government hired mercenaries through the British company Sandline International to expel the military leader of the bra, which was recognized by the government.
The insurgency and public coups within the army soon dismissed the idea, but Ismail was disappointed.
\"Mercenaries have better weapons.
So far, we can have rocket launchers, mortars and AK-47s.
\"The most effective weapon in Papua New Guinea throughout the war is its shooting --to-
The aim of killing the sea blockade is to prevent aid entry and information leakage.
Run three-
Hour Challenge in Australia
For eight years, providing patrol boats and helicopters to the nearest Solomon Islands has been the island\'s only gateway to the world.
It\'s also a way for us, a bone.
Bumpy on a temporary steamboat.
As we stopped at the maritime border to pray, I looked at the petrol tanks around me and below and realized that this was not really the case of being caught by the PNGDF.
A stray bullet is enough to blow us up.
The burnt scar tissue that twisted the character of the guerrilla next to me is itself eloquence.
However, the prayer seems to be valid and we arrived at Ismail in good condition.
The next day, he assured us: \"The way back may not be so easy . \".
The careless mouth means that the PNGDF already knows we are there and is not very happy about it.
Then, \"they are so scared of us now, and they run away when we shoot.
\"Some of Ismail\'s confidence may be bluffing, but the whole island seems to be shared in it.
One of the first things we think about Bougainville is how well everyone seems to be doing.
On the way back from the ambush patrol, Ishmael drove through a variety of places from pineapple, watermelon to tomatoes and peanuts.
When we stopped outside the house in Ishmael, the geese and chickens fled our pedal-free tires;
One of his younger sons gave him a bag full of prawns picked from a nearby stream.
Obviously, it is difficult to starve even during the blockade on this lush island.
But nothing is more important than a simple coconut.
Its meat and milk is almost like a holy gift.
Ishmael told me, \"Bougainville is coconut,\" he cut off the top with a few clever machetes and handed it to me.
\"PNG is trying to hit us, but we are too hard for them.
Coconut is life, no one will destroy life.
\"People must respect such a life that is perfectly packaged --support system.
We sleep in a house built of coconut wood, cover the roof with leaves, and eat food cooked with juice on a burning fire in the Shell (
Spread it over the flames to keep the mosquitoes away).
We use the preservative squeezed out from the wound on the wound, its oil is waterproof our boots, provides soap to wash away the mud, comes back to the lights in the early days, lubricate our guide\'s gun
Most notably, however, the jiuchongge refined coconut oil into fuel for the use of a handful of generators and trucks still operating on the island during the blockade.
The fuel is not only much less polluting than diesel, but also twice as efficient as diesel, Ishmael said.
Anyone willing to squeeze juice from the pulp scraped from the coconut can also buy (
15 nuts per liter)
Put it in the water for three days and then drain the oil and cook it.
\"When we get independence, we really scare Esso,\" Ismail chuckled . \" Then thanks to the Germans who set up coconut plantations here.
Ever since French explorer Louis de villeville landed on the map in 1768, it has bypassed all kinds of colonists like a bad cold.
At the end of the 19th century, it became a German, and then, in 1918, united with Papua New Guinea on the authorized territory administered by Australia.
More than 600 miles from PNG;
There are only 12 Solomon Islands associated with all their ethnic and cultural ties.
When Papua New Guinea became independent from Australia in 1975, calls were made for separation, but until 1989,
The War of Independence broke out.
Since then, an estimated 10,000 islanders have died.
Some were killed by PNGDF in combat or in civilian killings, however, most died because of the lack of basic medical care caused by the blockade, and on this island all hospitals were quickly destroyed, all qualified doctors are dead or gone.
When we visit, everyone has a horrible story to remember --
A wife and baby died in an unattended jungle and a husband was thrown into the sea from Australia
Provided helicopter, a child hit by Damm
Damm bullets, a daughter who was raped by the PNGDF and then dismembered.
However, no one is particularly willing to tell such a story.
Now, Bougainville cloth is winning, and they want to show us their wisdom.
A glance at Ishmael\'s yard is enough to bring the invention home.
Ishmael\'s wife walked around briskly, pouring rice from bowl to bowl, while the breeze of her movements blew away the shell.
A young man shows a Heath Robinson
Type torch, powered by a generator pieced together from various pieces, and wrapped around the handle of the fishing reel.
Meanwhile, the commander showed us the strange sights of his jungle house.
Lying uncoordinated under the palm of his hand is what he calls the container of the gym;
Weight in station-
Lifting machinery.
What is more surreal is the guitar, amplifier and electronic organ in his \"Music Studio\", a cabin with disco lights and glitter --ball.
Here Ismail and some of his people sit together at night to create cheesy songs, usually about conflict, always about Jesus.
Because Jesus entered the life of Ishmael to a great extent.
The big man \"is no longer proud of being a warrior \".
In his house, a group of evangelical posters dwarfs Rambo\'s photos.
He was seriously injured by the Rockets.
Last year\'s grenade told us how Jesus appeared to him.
\"He said to me, you are only one step away from death now.
Please follow me because I am the Lord.
That\'s what he did.
He said he wanted to be a priest when the war was over.
He is not the only one to find God.
Francis Ona said: \"Without Jesus, the Australian government and Papua New Guinea may have beaten me long ago.
Francis is a cheerful 50
One year old, take care of his distribution in his spare time, practice his healing skills on fellow villagers, or play on his own (pretty good)
Songs about conflict
The rest of the time he spent running himself
He was declared the Republic of Bougainville because he was president.
It took us two days to walk to find him, and to a large extent we climbed the gradient that required hands and feet, while our barefoot guide did not lose our breath or sweat
These views are so wild and beautiful that we are beginning to understand why so much reverence is attached to their land.
The center of their lives has always been the land.
This is the home of their spirit, the gift of their ancestors, and most importantly, the things on which they live.
That\'s why they fought their war and why Francis refused to sprout from guava, a beautiful village that sits on the catalyst of war --
Panguna copper mine.
Australia, and later in Papua New Guinea, ignored local protests and turned the British mining giant Rio Tinto\'s Zinc subsidiary (
Rio Tinto just now \")the go-
Tap the world\'s largest open market
Casting copper mines in the central part of the island in 1967;
It opened in 1972.
An unprecedented increase in population.
They watched their land die below them as more than a billion tons of toxic waste was dumped into the river system.
Compensation and work at the mine did not make them feel better about it, and after 16 years of frustrated protests, the landowner led by Francis, who was also a surveyor at the mine, decided to put things in their hands.
They decided to shut it down by bombing its machinery and infrastructure.
As violence escalated, Papua New Guinea was alarmed by the loss of export revenue from defense forces.
The revolutionary army of Bougainville Island consolidated its position and called for separation. War was on.
Standing above the mine, three kilometers wide and 400 deep, Francis surveyed the cemetery of cranes, excavators and dump trucks.
Although there are spots only at the bottom of the crater, the truck-
The wheels alone are as high as the bus, and the cost per vehicle is $1 m, he said.
About $40-
We can see the rusty truck from here.
It is hard to imagine how Francis made such an expensive enemy because he flourished the samurai knife left by the Japanese occupation during World War II, laughing and saying: \"This is my weapon to launch the Bougainville cloth war, and the only weapon I have.
Francis drove past the river and the copper turned turquoise, looking as if God was playing Jackson Pollock, who took us to Panguna town.
It\'s like a mini. Sarajevo. The mine-
Worker, white or Papuan (
Wu Mu called it \"red man \")
Stayed here before they escaped, and the destroyed apartment made it clear that the bra wanted to make sure they wouldn\'t come back.
While everything that has not taken root in concrete has disappeared, some villagers are still looking for strange metal shelves or wood.
The remaining pieces were thrown across the island.
The new house was pieced together with materials from the mine.
Huge gears on mine and old car engines are dragged to villages on the mountain, where they are converted into turbines for an extraordinary new hydro system (
The recovered mining pipeline introduces the stream into the jet;
These drive turbines and therefore provide power).
Francis told us that he hopes to develop further under independence.
Environmental awareness was important to him, and he portrayed Bougainville ville Island as not a primitive culture at war with the 20th century, but a taste of industrialism, and rejected industry for ethical and ecological reasons.
Before the war, it had the highest standard of living in Papua New Guinea, but Francis claimed that the islanders were not interested in money, and generally they preferred the combination of comfortable living and modern technology, they will not destroy their land.
When he made an appeal to our camera, not to ask the world for help, but to ask for life on Earth. This forward-
Philosophy has helped the nine involved overcome the most serious impact of the blockade.
They also want to use it in the future: Francis made some incredible statements about their development in bush medicine
A natural contraceptive that does not harm women can cure leprosy and breast cancer.
They even believe they have an answer to AIDS, but so far they can only treat one person.
Francis invites anyone who is willing to try to visit and envisions the island as a health resort for those seeking new or natural therapies.
He thanked Papua New Guinea very seriously for its blockade.
\"Without it, we can never develop so fast.
It makes Bougainville a university for us.
Twelve months later, Francis became increasingly isolated after a series of peace talks and a permanent ceasefire.
The blockade has been lifted and Papua New Guinea has pledged to gradually withdraw its troops from the island, with a neutral regional peace monitoring team now patrolling unarmed.
Reconciliation and recovery is currently under way throughout Bougainville cloth.
The main driver of these developments on the rebel side is Joseph Cabri, deputy to Francis Ona.
Sam Kona, president and bra commander.
From the beginning, Francis seemed cautious about international real-world politics, saying he was worried about winning the war but lost peace.
He has so far refused to sign any agreement;
In Kona\'s words, he \"chose to marginalize himself \".
How much influence he can still maintain will depend on whether Cabri and Kona can prove his suspicions wrong and find a political solution for the island.
The bottom line for this is for Papua New Guinea to acknowledge a referendum on its own issues. determination.
Without it, peace is likely to fall apart and Francis will return to the center of the stage.
So far, the voice from Port Moresby is not encouraging.
Bougainville Bouville has shown that land capture and destruction of traditional life can be resisted, which has caused problems for multinational companies in the Pacific region --
Last year, Australian bra spokesmen were invited to talk to protesters about a mine in the Philippines, and compensation claims from mining companies in Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands have increased significantly.
They believe that they have been with the first real ecology.
Revolution, there is a lot to be given to the world in the field of fuel and medicine.
But it may take a long time for Ismail to be a priest, or Francis to create a song about victory.