Call for flight restrictions

BOUGAINVILLE’S four national parliamentarians are calling for state of emergency (SOE) restrictions of flights to the autonomous region to be relaxed.
Expressing their concerns on Friday, they said other parts of the country had relaxed SOE restrictions and the same needed to apply to Bougainville.
They said Bougainville was not yet independent and its decisions had to be in line with the National government.
South Bougainville MP and Minister for Information Communication Technology Timothy Masiu said as leaders, the flight restrictions were stopping them from providing leadership on the ground.
“As leaders, we are concerned as the restriction on (travel to) Bougainville are still being maintained when the rest of the country are slowly lifting some of the restrictions that were imposed during the height of the Covid-19 (state of emergency),” he said.
“We are concerned that we cannot even go back home and provide that leadership in Bougainville to our people.
“We want to ask the SOE controller in Bougainville, the chairman of the taskforce team, minister for health and the secretary, why have the restrictions not been lifted?”
Regional Member Joe Lera said the restrictions had left Bougainvillians stranded in other parts of the country unable to get back home while it had stopped those in the autonomous region from seeking vital services and doing business.
“These are people who have come for medical attention in the city and want to go back home, businesses people who came to do businesses and also people who travelled for personal reasons are stranded,” he said.
“Most of these people are living with relatives in the city and you know what the cost is like.
“They have been coming to their MPs for assistance and we cannot help because all the money is in Bougainville and how can we access that money to help from a distance.
“I want to encourage the SOE controller and all the people in the centre of this to be humane to the people and respect their rights.”
Central Bougainville MP Sam Akoitai said Bougainville declared its own SOE outside of the national SOE under its own organic law on peace building in Bougainville.
“The rest of the country in line with the SOE orders that have been issued by the national controller, all the other part of PNG are opening up except Bougainville,” he said.
“This is because of the fact that Bougainville believes that its own SOE is outside of the national SOE.
“My concern is that Bougainville is going through a process that has not been completed and it is not independent.
“Anything that is happening on Bougainville must be in line with what is happening in with the rest of the country,” he said.
“They have the right to declare the SOE but it must be in line with the rest of the country.”
North Bougainville MP William Nakin said the people of Bougainville needed to be given the opportunity to recover from the SOE.
“People are beginning to find that they are not able to meet the conditions of normalcy that was there before,” he said.
“We have to look at the issue with the aspect in mind that people are also in need and right now people are beginning to feel the pinch.”
Masiu encouraged the Autonomous Bougainville Government (ABG) to focus its attention on the two borders in South and Central Bougainville.
“If anything needs policing it is not the airport, it is the border.”
The leaders said they would see Prime Minister James Marape and National SOE Controller David Manning if the restrictions were not relaxed by the ABG.