Fijian Mercenaries in Bougainville - The Announcement

The Announcement

Bougainville secessionist King David Peii II (Noah Musingku) of Meekamui controls more than half of the island of Bougainville, following the civil war. The PNG government has not recognized Bougainville sovereignty, but has granted autonomy to Bougainville. Acting as Head of State of the Twin Kingdoms of Me'ekamui and Papala, Musingku announced in October 2005 that he was hiring a security force from Fiji to train his guards and other governmental personnel, as well as establish security and satellite and other telecommunications for his bank in Tonu. This decision was made with the full support of the 14 members of the Siwai Council of Chiefs.

“We hereby support the agreement between the two authorities being the Royal Twin Kingdom governments and the Government of Fiji for the provision of the Fiji Security Forces and special bodyguards for our Royal Twin Kingdoms”, the chiefs said.

King David Peii/Musingku said that this Fijian security force had been hand selected “mostly Born-Again Christians", and that:

Among Security and bodyguards to be deployed by the Fiji Security forces to Bougainville are men and officers with strong Christian character who have behind them many years of peace keeping experiences and skills, earned from similar assignments overseas.

By the beginning of November, the arrival of the first contingent of eight Fijian soldiers was announced, along with the report of a public welcoming ceremony on 5 October 2005. The announcement included a photo of "the Fijians with the King after church services".

In the welcoming ceremony, a director of Training in the security company, Mr Aliki Moroca told the King and the gathering that their company vision is to provide security excellence and includes different units of medical, logistics, fire, military police and experts in several other fields....

“Our company members are Territorial Force soldiers having served in overseas observer and peacekeeping missions and active duties in Labanon, Sinai, Bosnia, Kosovo, Namibia, East Timor, Zimbabwe, Rhodesia, Bougainville and Iraq”, he said.

“Our company has many units including infantry, engineering, medical, signal units, fire department, logistics, aviation, naval, transport, maintenance, plus our special force unit”, he said. The Training program coordinator, Maloni Namoli, said their training program will include both the Kings palace guards, the Meekamui National Police and the Meekamui National Defense Force.

“We will train the palace guards the skills of escort and body guard services to the King both internally and on international and state visits around the world.”