Marape vows goodwill

PRIME Minister James Marape has assured the people of Bougainville that findings of the Commission of Inquiry (COI) into the killing of Theodore Miriung will be part of the reconciliation process next month.
Marape said Deputy Prime Minister Davis Steven would bring the report to Bougainville and present the findings “in a spirit of goodwill and reconciliation”.
He said the Government was committed to the people who would be factored in the 2020 Budget.
Marape said a recent visit by Government ministers to Bougainville, where he addressed the House of Representatives, was emotional.
He said the crisis was one of the darkest chapters in the nation’s history and the country needed to guard against repeating it.
The late Miriung, premier of Bougainville, was killed in 1996 and a Commission of Inquiry was carried out to establish cause of his death.
Marape was responding to a request from Central Bougainville MP Sam Akoitai that the report be given to the Miriung family.
Akoitai said despite the unrest and destruction brought by the crisis, the peace agreement had brought many positive changes.
He said although it had been 23 years since Miriung’s death, he was requested to ask the prime minister if the findings can be released.