|
RESOLUTION 1325
• Full text
• History & Analysis
• Who's Responsible for Implementation?
• 1325
Anniversary
TRANSLATING
1325
UNITED
NATIONS
• Women
and the UN
• Security Council (SC)
• Gender & Peacekeeping
• 1325 Monitor: Women &
Gender in the work of the Security Council
• Gender Focal Points
• PeaceBuilding Commission
WOMEN, WAR &
PEACE WEB PORTAL
• UNIFEM
• PeaceWomen
JOIN WILPF
|
Making
Waves: Interview with Helen Hakena, Leitana Nehan Women’s Development
Agency
Chris Richards, New Internationalist, n. 350, October 2002
Retribution, retaliation and revenge – understandable feelings
from those who have been made to stand in mute witness to the rape
of their daughters, mothers and sisters. But after nine years of such
war crimes in Bougainville, throughout its fierce independence struggle
from Papua New Guinea, determined women like Helen Hakena are swimming
against tides of hatred and creating waves of peace to carry women
on to safer shores. The people on Bougainville’s 30 South Pacific
islands are skilled at crafting solutions out of conflict. When, in
1988, they forced the closure of the Panguna mine (the biggest copper
mine then operating in the world), Papua New Guinea (PNG) blockaded
the islands. Nothing except the PNG Defence Force (the PNGDF) could
get on to the islands: no medicine, no communication, no supplies
of any kind.
‘We were very resourceful – very creative – throughout
the blockade,’ says Helen Hakena. ‘We lived off the land.
The communities around the mine salvaged what they could and built
a hydro-system and made solar light. We used coconut oil when the
diesel ran out to keep our Toyotas, Nissans and chainsaws running.
It decorated our hair, burnt our lanterns and helped heal our sores.
Bush remedies replaced medicines. Elders taught in schools about local
produce. We learnt how to look after ourselves.’
It is this same lateral approach – and this same refusal to give
in – that Helen Hakena is now using again to tackle the culture
of violence that was born and bred by the blockade. From 1990 the
Bougainville Revolutionary Army (BRA) – at war with the PNGDF
– targeted anyone they thought was against Bougainville’s
independence.
‘I was a teacher before the crisis,’ she explains. ‘Our
home was the first to burn on the island of Buka. My village was burnt
down the next day.’ But before the village was set alight, the
BRA took 15 of the women into the forest. Two of them later reported
having been raped. ‘From then on, gangs of BRA and PNGDF soldiers
were raping women as a tool to show communities they were a force
to be reckoned with. They were doing these rapes in front of communities
and families. The men put ball-bearings on the foreskins of their
penises; these were very bad rapes indeed; very bad internal damage.’
In direct action against the difficulties she confronted during the
blockade, Helen started the Leitana Nehan Women’s Development
Agency in 1992. Originally opened to supply clothing and essentials
during the blockade, over 1,000 women who were raped by soldiers have
sought help from the agency since then. Bougainville has a population
of just 30,000. That such widespread rape can happen in a matrilineal
society (where – in theory at least – women have independent
status because land rights pass through themselves and their daughters)
says much about the power of a gun. Helen wants to make the theory
a reality once more.
‘The crisis here started about land rights: the Panguna mine,
its destruction of the environment and the lack of compensation it
gave to communities around the mine. Up until the crisis, decisions
about who could use land may have been made by women at the back,
but it was the men at the front doing the talking.
‘By 1995, we [at Leitana Nehan] had changed our focus. We brought
young men together with young women to talk about the effects of the
blockade and speak openly about the use of rape and guns. The result
was a common understanding of each other’s fear and a resolve
to build awareness amongst the community. We organized a silent march
[banned during the blockade]. A thousand women in black marched through
the streets of Buka with their banners to protest about the war and
the rapes. We were stopped by the PNGDF twice and asked: “Who
is your leader?” We said: “All of us are leaders. We all
own this march.” The soldiers couldn’t arrest anyone.’
The blockade is now over. UN peacekeepers are helping to disarm the
community and have collected 1,900 guns. Justice through the courts
will ensure a short-term check on violence. But women like Helen Hakena
are working for a cultural shift.
‘We can softly and silently break the cycle of violence by putting
women in positions of power,’ she says. ‘Now, women are
sitting down with the men and discussing land in dispute. They are
coming forward as local magistrates trained to hear land and domestic-violence
disputes. Before there were none. The majority of teachers are now
women, who will educate our children that you can’t use violence
and force to get what you want. We have successfully lobbied for more
women in provincial government. Of eighteen members, four are presently
women and three more places have been set aside for us in the next
election. We are asking women to contest still more seats.’ She
says firmly: ‘We want gender balance in all things.’
Editor’s note: According to Amnesty International,
more women and girls die each day as a result of gender-based discrimination
and violence – including rape used as a weapon of war –
than as a result of any other type of human-rights abuse.
|
|
NEWS
• 1325
PeaceWomen E-News
• Country News Index
• International News
• Peacekeeping News
RESOURCES
• Country
& Thematic
Civil Society, UN & Government
• 1325
Advocacy Tools
INITIATIVES
• In-country
• Regional and Global
• 1325 in Action
ORGANIZATIONS
• Country-specific
• International
LATEST
PEACEWOMEN UPDATES
PEACEWOMEN
NGO WEB RING
Women, Peace &
Security Community representing the diversity and depth of research, organizing
and advocacy on women, peace and security issues.
|
PeaceWomen