Rochus Lokinap
{{Use dmy dates|date=October 2022}}
{{Short description|Papua New Guinea military officer}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Rochus Lokinap, CBE
| image =
| alt =
| caption =
| birth_date =
| birth_place = New Ireland
| death_date =
| death_place =
| nationality = Papua New Guinean citizenship
| other_names =
| known_for = helped thwart a coup attempt in 1990
| occupation = military officer
}}
Rochus Lokinap, CBE was a military officer in Papua New Guinea. He held the rank of brigadier general in the Papua New Guinea Defence Forces (PNGDF) and was the PNG Defence Commander, in March 1990 when Police Commissioner Paul Tobian tried to execute a coup against government of Sir Rabbie Namaliu. According to the Canberra Times Lokinap and Ted Diro, then Minister of State Security, rallied forces to thwart the coup.
In April 1991 critics scrutinized actions of the PNGDF on Bougainville Island, during a civil uprising. Reporters sought to interview Lokinap, senior officer of the PNGDF, and he could not be found. According to Australia's Parliamentary Research Service Lokinap regarded Colonel Lima Dataona, the on-site commander in Bougainville, as a rival, and successful in arranging his replacement by his own candidate, Colonel Leo Niua.
Lokinap graduated from the Military Cadet School in Lae in 1970. From there he attended the Portsea Officer Cadet School in 1971.{{cite news|date=30 November 1970|title=Territory needs leaders, Brigadier tells cadets|page=12|newspaper=Papua New Guinea Post-courier|location=International, Australia|url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article250247963|access-date=12 November 2020|via=National Library of Australia}} Lokinap was appointed commander of the PNGDF in December 1987,{{cite news|date=18 December 1987|title=Advertising|volume=62|page=1|newspaper=The Canberra Times|issue=19,067|location=Australian Capital Territory, Australia|url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article122416694|access-date=12 November 2020|via=National Library of Australia}} holding that position until 1992. He was the first senior officer who was not from Papua, being from New Ireland. He was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire on June 11, 1988.
{{ship|HMPNGS|Rochus Lokinap}} will be named in his honour. It will be the PNGDF's second {{sclass2|Guardian|patrol vessel}}, joining sister ship {{ship|HMPNGS|Ted Diro}}. She is expected to be commissioned in late 2020 or early 2021.{{fact|date=October 2022}}
References
{{Reflist|refs=
{{cite web
| url = https://www.greenleft.org.au/content/png-invades-north-bougainville
| title = PNG invades north Bougainville
| issue = 9
| author = Norm Dixon
| date = 1991-04-24
| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20200910175243/https://www.greenleft.org.au/content/png-invades-north-bougainville
| archive-date = 2020-09-10
| access-date = 2020-11-09
| url-status = live
| quote = In the days that followed, both Nuia and the commander of the PNGDF, Brigadier-General Rochus Lokinap, could not be located by the government, which claimed it did not know who ordered the action.
}}
{{cite web
| url = https://www.aph.gov.au/binaries/library/pubs/bp/1991/91bp33.pdf
| title = Moral Support? Australia's respons to Papua New Guinea's internal security problems
| work = Parliamentary Research Service
| author = Niki Raath
| date = 1991-12-19
| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20160304121717/https://www.aph.gov.au/binaries/library/pubs/bp/1991/91bp33.pdf
| archive-date = 2016-03-04
| access-date = 2020-11-09
| url-status = live
| quote = Brigadier General Rochus Lokinap was reinstated he immediately and successfully demanded thereplacement of Dataona by Colonel Leo Nuia.
}}
{{cite web
| url = http://press-files.anu.edu.au/downloads/press/p33231/mobile/ch10s04.html
| title = The Military and Democracy in Asia and the Pacific
| year = 2004
| author1 = R.J. May
| author2 = Viberto Selochan
| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20180910204122/http://press-files.anu.edu.au/downloads/press/p33231/mobile/ch10s04.html
| archive-date = 2018-09-10
| access-date = 2020-11-08
| url-status = live
}}
{{cite news
| url = https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/120885349
| title = In PNG a coup on the rocks
| work = Canberra Times
| author = Keith Scott
| date = 1990-03-16
| page = 1
| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20201109112730/https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/120885349
| archive-date = 2020-11-09
| access-date = 2020-11-08
| url-status = live
}}
{{cite web
| url = http://press-files.anu.edu.au/downloads/press/p33231/mobile/ch10s04.html
| title = Military-Civil Relations in the Independent State
| work = Australian National University
| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20180910204122/http://press-files.anu.edu.au/downloads/press/p33231/mobile/ch10s04.html
| archive-date = 2018-09-10
| access-date = 2020-11-08
| url-status = live
| quote = He was replaced by Colonel Rochus Lokinap. Lokinap was the first non-Papuan commander of the PNGDF, coincidentally coming from a village in Sir Julius Chan’s New Ireland electorate.
}}
{{cite news
| url = https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/51371/supplement/48/data.pdf
| title = SUPPLEMENT TO THE LONDON GAZETTE, 11th JUNE 1988
| work = London Gazette
| date = 1988-06-11
| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20200213131758/https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/51371/supplement/48/data.pdf
| archive-date = 2020-02-13
| access-date = 2020-11-08
| url-status = live
}}
}}
Category:Papua New Guinean Commanders of the Order of the British Empire