NZDF and HMNZS Canterbury – Spears, machetes and guns in daring POW rescue – Bougainville.

Twenty-five years ago a small New Zealand Defence Force detachment landed on the dark sandy shores of south-western Bougainville, Papua New Guinea, to rescue five prisoners of war. Now retired Colonel Rob Hitchings was there and reflects on how the operation unfolded and how it contributed to the much broader peace process in the area.

The detachment members were unarmed, but clad in tailor-made bullet-proof vests specially made for the mission. A mile offshore, a large grey New Zealand frigate, the HMNZS Canterbury, stood by as sentinel to provide support, if required. It was Thursday, July 24, 1997.

The detachment’s mission was to rescue three Papua New Guinean Defence Force (PNGDF) personnel and two Royal Papua New Guinea Constabulary (RPNGC) officers, who were being held prisoners of war by the Bougainville Revolutionary Army (BRA).

More than a year earlier, in September 1996, Kangu Beach in Bougainville had been the site of a major battle between the PNGDF and the BRA. Twelve PNGDF soldiers had been killed, allegedly due to their behaviour towards young Bougainvilleans.

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Five survivors had been spared because it was believed the behaviour of these officers had been beyond reproach. The survivors had been held as hostages by the BRA since the Kangu Beach massacre. They were technically considered prisoners of war (POWs).

Prior to the recovery mission, the first peace talks between the Bougainvillean factions had been held in early July 1997 at Burnham Military Camp, New Zealand. In Papua New Guinea, elections had just concluded with Bill Skate elected Prime Minister.

It was important to secure the release of the hostages so that PM Skate had an early victory to ensure that the peace process could continue, with PNG government support.

On board the frigate at anchor was a group of some 50 Bougainvilleans, most of whom were delegates returning from the Burnham peace talks, plus some family members collected in Honiara, Solomon Islands.

The detachment was led by John Hayes, a very experienced New Zealand diplomat who was fluent in Tok Pisin, a language spoken throughout PNG. Hayes had been the New Zealand High Commissioner to Papua New Guinea from 1989 to 1993.

Hayes had been shot at in a helicopter over the Panguna mine in Bougainville only weeks before. He was significantly involved in setting up the Burnham talks. In fact he had been involved in the peace process since 1990. Hayes was no stranger to the challenges and dangers of the task required.

“On the eve of the Burnham talks the then head of the Prime Minister’s Department, Noel Levi had written to [Don] McKinnon, asking that my involvement be stopped because there was, in his view, the prospect of my being killed.” – John Hayes

Hayes’ protection party comprised three NZDF special forces personnel; one experienced operator for personal protection (PPO), a video cameraman and an advanced medic in case of injuries to the party and POWs. As the liaison officer Hitchings, then a Lieutenant Colonel, carried communications equipment and was the fifth member of the detachment.

Other special force members waited offshore in inflatable boats (RHIBs) ready to evacuate the party, should anything go wrong.

The detachment waited patiently on the deserted beach near the Silibai River Mouth. Using the radio on the previous evening, Hayes had arranged a rendezvous with the Commander of the BRA, Joseph Kabui. Kabui was to eventually go on to be the first President of the Autonomous Region of Bougainville.

Uppermost in everyone’s mind, however, was that nothing was certain after 10 years of fighting in Bougainville.

New Zealand had ‘stepped up to the plate’ to help the respective administrations in Bougainville and Port Moresby address their issues at the heart of the conflict. Many earlier attempts at a peace process had failed. This mission was one very small part in a much larger diplomatic and military operation.

The previous day on Wednesday July 23, 1997, an attempt had been made by Hayes to recover the POWs, but BRA land transport problems prevented any movement of the prisoners to the beach. Now another attempt was being made to complete the mission.

“My memories of it are very vivid, starting with the chaotic embarkation of Canterbury off Honiara, the tense voyage up through the southern approaches to Bougainville (coral; Japanese mines), anchoring under the shadow of Mt Kangu and taking Tokam Kanene [PNGDF Lt Col Commanding Officer] up to the bridge so he could radio the mortar teams not to lob anything our way. His message – “This is your commander on the warship Canterbury; we are here in peace do not fire repeat do not fire” – stills sends a shiver down the spine.” – Bede Corry

After what seemed like forever standing alertly on that isolated beach, the small detachment finally observed armed Bougainvilleans slowly emerging from the bush line. It began with twos and threes and eventually expanded to a very large crowd.

Hayes and his PPO found Joseph Kabui among the crowd.

The environment was initially tense and all present were on high alert. Weapons and machetes were in abundance – M16 and FN rifles and assorted automatic 7.62 calibre weapons.

“Once on the ground ashore and while waiting for the BRA and POW party to arrive, I confirmed the extraction plan with my SAS colleagues ‘D’ and ‘E’ should things go awry, and we needed to evacuate John Hayes and Lieutenant Colonel Rob Hitchings immediately. No sooner had we confirmed that, than several hundred-armed Bougainvilleans suddenly emerged from the jungle 100 metres distant, carrying all manner of weaponry, from spears and machetes to firearms both modern and hand-made (observed a sawn-off barrel 50 cal. rifle). At first glance they appeared highly agitated, and we were seriously outnumbered over 100 to 1.” – Tony Hauraki

Hayes delivered a long greeting in Tok Pisin and brought to conclusion a lengthy negotiation process over the hostages that had actually begun at the Burnham talks. Finally, POWs were released by Kabui and his local commanders.

“I spotted Joseph Kabui with a few of his senior fighters in attendance that had taken part in the talks at Burnham, and as our group approached and Joseph stepped forward and announced “Tony, welcome to beautiful Bougainville”, I realised that the efforts that NZDF and MFAT had made in Burnham of establishing rapport and personal relationships with all the Bougainvilleans, BRA and PNG ex-pat leadership had paid dividends, and except for a couple of anxious moments, we would achieve the mission.” – Tony Hauraki

Eventually the POWs were brought out of the jungle line and paraded forth with more speeches made. The atmosphere transitioned slowly from tense to friendly.

The POWs appeared in good health and had been treated well by their captors over the previous 11 months. One even sported a beautiful bright red parrot on his shoulder.

The five POWs had been captured and survived a BRA attack on a PNGDF military position where 12 of their compatriots had been killed. Their survival was largely a consequence of familial relationships with the Bougainvilleans and that they had not been involved in the alleged abuse of local youth.

“At one point during the speeches the atmosphere momentarily became electric as two native dogs suddenly became engaged in a spontaneous, loud and fierce dogfight; the barking not unlike shots being fired from a weapon. The subsequent mirth from everybody receiving such a ‘start’ helped ease the latent tension.” – Rob Hitchings

As time proceeded and speeches concluded the weather deteriorated with heavy surf rolling onto the beach.

Hayes and the five POW hastily departed in a large RHIB with Hayes dispensing ration packs and food to the crowd from the fleeing craft.

This left the liaison officer and special forces members to scramble aboard a smaller Lancer– the only craft at that point that could reach the shoreline in the heavy surf conditions.

The team now surrounded by a highly excited and armed crowd ululating, expressing their joy, and closing in around the Lancer.

One special forces member was momentarily thrown under the Lancer while attempting to maintain control of the boat in the surf, assisting the others to board, plus also keeping the excited Bougainvilleans from boarding.

All of the shore party finally returned safely to the frigate where the captain, Commander Paul Gilkison, was waiting with more welcomes and to offer food, medical assessment and Navy hospitality to the now ex-POWs.

For Gilkison, it had been a challenging piece of seamanship to get his frigate to this location.

Having collected the Bougainvilleans peace talk delegates and families at Honiara, HMNZS Canterbury had steamed overnight across trade-wind-tossed seas up to the area of Kangu Beach.

He had then cautiously navigated the frigate through 10 miles of water from the bottom of Bougainville near Kangu Beach to eventually sit a mile offshore the Silibai River mouth.

Gilkison was prudently cautious due to the relatively poor hydrographic survey of the area and the charts still recording it as a mine hazard area from WWII.

“Canterbury came to anchor about 1nm off the beach in sheltered waters, where we spent time evaluating the risk through binoculars. It was a beach in the distance, and all we could make out were a few individuals. In the end, it took faith that the MFAT negotiating team would be safe, and the risk ashore would be managed by the team of Special Forces soldiers.” –

Having successfully recovered the POWs and the shore detachment, HMNZS Canterbury then steamed north up the east coast to Buka, dropping off Bougainvilleans at Aropa, who had recently attended the Burnham peace talks near Christchurch, and were now being delivered back to their villages.

“When we off-boarded the delegates in Aropa Harbour – I remember Hayes yelling over the side of the ship to me – as our RHIB sat alongside, ‘don’t be a headline’.”– Bede Corry

A huge festival and ceremony with more than 2000 locals awaited the returned POWs at Buka. Dignitaries from Bougainville, Papua New Guinea, Australia and New Zealand were present to welcome them and celebrate another key early part of what led to a peace process.

“Toward the conclusion of the ceremonies the situation became diplomatically awkward when a throng of Bougainvilleans arrived at the C-130 with a live six-foot pig strapped to a pole which they wanted returned to Port Moresby in honour of the released POW! The RNZAF Loadmaster politely declined the generous offer on biosecurity grounds.” – Rob Hitchings

The released POWs, Hayes, some officials, and the special forces detachment together with the liaison officer, boarded a trusty RNZAF C-130 to carry them to Port Moresby for the final leg of the operation – returning the repatriated POWs safely to their families and loved ones.

“The release of the hostages had a major impact. Newly elected Papua New Guinea Prime Minister Bill Skate met them at the airport when they were returned to Port Moresby by a NZDF C130. This was an early win for the new Prime Minister and helped shift perceptions of the Bougainville situation in Port Moresby, as well as shining a favourable light on New Zealand’s involvement.” – Mfat

The HMAS Canterbury then continued on its way to exercises with the Australian Navy off Darwin.

The mission planning and execution had seen extraordinary co-operation between the three Services; Navy, Army and Air, in concert with Foreign Affairs – something that was to become a characteristic of the overall Bougainville peace process.

The mission was a success.

“It was a great relief to be able to recover the hostages and to return them to Port Moresby and their families. Most important their release guaranteed that a peace process would continue. It was inevitable that in a country of 900 languages not everyone was inclined to celebrate our messing about in their backyard.” – John Hayes

Operation Coracle represented a small part of the multifaceted Bougainville peace process, a New Zealand initiative of the Minister of Foreign Affairs at the time, Don McKinnon.

A group of senior foreign affairs and military personalities had carefully woven the peace process together over a number of months with various PNG and Bougainvillean representatives. Some of those included; Neil Walter, a Deputy Secretary at MFAT and Bede Corry, principal adviser to Don McKinnon; the Chief of Defence Force, Lieutenant General Tony Birks and Brigadier Roger Mortlock from the NZDF.

“This joint operation was significant for the NZDF and for 1 NZSAS Group, as it was known at the time. It brought together the three services and other government agencies, such as MFAT, NZ Police and others to support the Bougainville peace talks hosted in Burnham. The operation was notable as it was truly joint before any consideration of establishing a joint force headquarters. For the peace talks the army provided the security and logistics along with the police in support of MFAT. The RNZAF and RNZN provided the strategic transport at various stages and without all three services working closely together this would not have been possible.” – Major General (Rtd) Pete Kelly

The need for peace was critical after more than 10 years of war.

The Burnham Truce was signed in October 1997 and in the same month the New Zealand led Truce Monitoring Group deployed to Bougainville. It consisted of NZDF personnel, Australian Defence and civilian personnel, and military personnel from Fiji and Vanuatu.

In January 1998 at Lincoln near Christchurch, a permanent ceasefire was signed by PNG and Bougainvillean leaders. This led to the deployment of the Australian led Peace Monitoring Group.

One of the conditions of the peace agreement was that a referendum would be held within 20 years (between 2015 and 2020) on Bougainville’s political status.

By mutual agreement between the Autonomous Bougainville Government and the Government of Papua New Guinea in 2016, the Bougainville Referendum Commission was established. The role of the Commission was to make preparations for a vote on Bougainville’s future political status in 2019.

In November and December 2019, a referendum on independence (non-binding) was conducted. An overwhelming majority voted for independence.

In July 2021, an agreement was reached between the governments of Papua New Guinea and Bougainville, in which Bougainville will gain independence in 2027 pending approval of the PNG government.