Focus is on to settle B’ville’s future

CONGRATULATIONS to the Autonomous Bougainville Government and the PNG Government in achieving the final pillar of the Bougainville Peace Agreement–peacefully.
And today as Prime Minister James Marape travels to the autonomous region, the focus will be on the way forward to determine Bougainville’s future.
Although there is no time frame to when the result of the referendum will be presented to the National Parliament, the reality is that there is still a lot of groundwork that needs to be done first.
Both the PNG Government and the ABG need to convince themselves on certain indicators of the island’s preparedness towards independence.
Whatever happens from today onwards will impact the country.
Bougainville has been a part of PNG since independence and before that during the colonial period.
Its importance to the rest of the nation has been clear in the years preceding 1975.
But this fact was in part how the crisis started.
Despite the tragedies that had occurred on the island, one cannot deny the tangible links the former North Solomons province has with PNG.
The civil war commenced in 1989, 30 years ago, and in 1998 the cease fire was agreed to.
There was much suffering especially of innocent people, deaths and destruction of properties – the effects of that civil war are still there in Bougainville and will be there for many years to come.
Following a number of what appeared to be unsuccessful peace efforts, war weariness and a stalemate provided momentum for negotiations between representatives of Bougainville and the National Government, a key outcome of the negotiations was the signing of the 2001 Bougainville Peace Agreement (BPA) that called for weapons to be disposed of, an autonomous government to be established for the people of Bougainville and a referendum to be held 10-15 years after the first elections for the Bougainville House of Representatives and the President.
Since the crisis that engulfed the island province in 1988, Bougainvilleans had stood fast in their right to decide whether they want to continue to be part of PNG or to be an independent state.
The National Governments have for the most part tried to facilitate this process but it has not been an easy one.
After the initial crisis and the civil war that broke out on the island following the events 30 years ago, the path to autonomy had largely been a peaceful one.
The setting up of an autonomous Bougainville government was a natural consequence of the peace process.
This is a joint creation of the PNG National Government and Bougainville leaders.
As per the research report released by NRI in January, its core guiding principle is that the governments of Bougainville and PNG should work together to secure lasting peace for Bougainville by peaceful means.
All three have been achieved and Bougainvilleans have spoken with the results that 176,928 or rather 97.7 per cent of those who voted want independence.
Bougainville will continue to have strong ties to this country.
Many Bougainvilleans live and work on the mainland and inter-marriage ensures that cultures are mixing.
Although pockets of resistance remain, these are areas that cannot hope to impede the peace process.
We believe the path to peace and self-rule will be reached in time, thanks in part to the Melanesian approach of finding a consensus, and to a desire for peace and stability.