Bougainville Campaign Diary

nullThe revealing journal of an ex-Papua New Guinea Defence Force Officer, detailing against the historical background, the inside story of military operations against the Bougainville Revolutionary Army (BRA).

This book is a sensitive treatment of civil war, from the inside. It provides a Melanesian perspective on a Melanesian war. Bougainville Campaign Diary describes the background to the secessionist crisis ( the discovery of copper, the establishment of the Bougainville Copper mine, and early seccessionist movements on the island.

The reader learns about the PNG military through Liria’s description of his own recruitment and training. As an Intelligence Officer, Liria briefed others on the BRA, and it is through his account of one of those briefing sessions that the reader learns about the BRA, and the support for the BRA among the Bougainvillean people.

As well as contributing to the history of the counter-insurgency campaign, the book is an entertaining account of life in uniform. Liria’s style is that of a natural raconteur. He shares the opportunities for humour, and is not afraid to tell his readers how he cried to see the burnt out villages of Bougainville, which could so easily have been villages in his own Southern Highlands district.

This is not a dry, academic work. It is a good read, and an informative one.

Dec 1993, 182pp
Paperback, 215 x 138 mm
Non-fiction, 1st Edition
ISBN 0 9587718 4 7
RRP $aud 19.95

The Author
Yauka Aluambo Liria is from Tunda village, Pangia District in the Southern Highlands of Papua New Guinea. The second son of a traditional chief, Yauka was one of the first men in his area to attend school and become a military officer.

After joining the Papua New Guinea Defence Force in 1982, Yauka was commissioned into the rank of second lietenant on graduation from the Defence Academy in Lae in 1983. His military career included service as an infantry platoon leader, military arts instructor, defence intelligence analyst and in 1992, a Company Commander in the Bougainville counter-insurgency operations.

In 1993, after two tours of duty in Bougainville, Yauka, by then a captain, resigned from the Defence Force, to take up full-time studies at the University of Papua New Guinea. Bougainville Campaign Diary is Yauka’s first book.

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