Empowering B’ville youth to contribute to peace plan

THE empowerment of youth in the social and economic sectors in Bougainville is important for a positive post-conflict development, an official says.
Director for Veterans Arrais in the Bougainville administration Dennis Kuiai said the conflict 20 years ago had created a lost generation of youth that had been heavily involved in drugs and violence.
“We have a lost generation of youth that is involved in the use of guns, alcohol, marijuana and violence.”
One of the concerns raised by Kuiai was that many young people in Bougainville had a negative view of the Autonomous Bougainville Government, believing that it was not doing enough to support them with their problems.
He said instead of contributing meaningfully in the peace process, the youths were resorting to drugs and violence.
The majority of youths in Bougainville were deprived of their chance at education as a result of the Bougainville conflict of the 1990s and they have a negative view of the world and how they can contribute to the current peace efforts.
Kuiai said 60 per cent of the population in Bougainville was youths and they have an important role to help build a peaceful society.