Visit a time of greater understanding

 MUCH has transpired since August 30, 2001, when the watershed Bougainville Peace Agreement was signed in Arawa by Papua New Guinea and Bougainville leaders witnessed by a number of foreign dignitaries. 

The Bougainville Peace Ag­reement has set the clock forward to somewhere between 2015 and 2020 as the time of reckoning for the region. The people of Bougainville will decide through a referendum whether to re­main a part of the independent state of Papua New Guinea or pursue political independence.

The agreement, a joint creation by the Government of Papua New Guinea and leaders representing Bou­gainville then, was to re­solve the decade old Bougainville conflict and to “secure lasting peace by peaceful means”.

However, the efforts of both parties to adhere to the terms of the agreement and honour each other’s commitment to it have been somewhat half-hearted and lacking in commitment in some respects.  Yet given the history of the Bougainville conflict and the many parties involved from either end of the agreement, we would be overly optimistic to expect all aspects of the agreement to be followed to the letter since it was penned over a decade ago.

On its part, the National Government has not faithfully kept part of the agreement, especially in the area of financial grants.  

The Bougainville Autonomous Government, a crea­ture of the Bougainville Peace Agreement, was to rely heavily on National Government grants for any of the island’s significant development projects.  

The non-payment or deferral of such grants has caused great consternation in the past but the events of this week should bring fresh new hope for both parties. 

Prime Minister Peter O’­Neill made a commitment to pay all that was promised to Bougainville by past governments. And a traditional reconciliation between Pri­me Minister O’Neill and Pre­sident John Momis at the National Parliament should bode well and provide a pre­lude to O’Neill’s Bougainville visit in the coming week. O’Neill told a media conference in the presence of Momis that his government would ensure that commitments made by past governments under the Bougainville Peace Agreement would be implemented.

“We are aware that in the past many government have not really paid much attention to those commitments but since coming to office we have allocated more resources than other governments in the past,” O’Neill told the media conference.

As far as the National Go­v­­ernment’s financial com­mitment to Bougainville goes, the peace agreement states that: Until the autonomous Bougainville Government be­comes fiscally self-reliant, the National Go­­vernment will provide grants to the ABG, including: Recurrent uncon­ditional grants;  restoration and development grants; specific purpose conditional grants, including the recurrent grant for policing; and the one-off Establishment Grant. As the Autonomous Bougainville Government’s revenue increases, grants will decrease according to an agreed set of factors. 

The peace agreement has three pillars: Autonomy; referendum; and weapons disposal. While autonomy and weapons disposal have been achieved if not partially, all Papua New Guineans and Bougainvilleans will be keenly following developments leading up to the referendum. The choices available in the referendum will include a separate independence for Bougainville. 

The date of the referendum will be set taking into account of standards of good governance and the implementation of the weapons disposal plan. The outcome of the referendum will be subject to ratification of the National Parliament.

O’Neill’s visit to Bougainville will be of great significance. He will be seeing the efforts by the ABG and its public service, development partners and the growing agriculture-based business sector. He will witness the resilience of the people there, their hospitality and the tremendous work carried out in the economic and social sectors by donor nations like Australia, New Zealand and Japan. The Bougain­ville visit is timely and should open possibilities for greater engagement and understanding between the O’Neill Government and the ABG.