Weapons disposal a must for B’ville referendum

The National Main Stories

By CLIFFORD FAIPARIK
Prime Minister Peter O’Neill and Autonomous Bougainville Government President John Momis have agreed that weapons disposal is a must for a free and fair referendum.
The referendum is scheduled to be held on June 15 next year.
Both have signed the record of outcome of the joint supervisory body meeting on Friday that the national government should provide K12 million over the next three years to implement the four-phase weapons disposal plan.
Both also agreed that K7 million should be committed in the 2018 financial year subjected to savings in the 2018 National Budget.
Both leaders agreed that the link between weapons disposal and a free and fair referendum be affirmed, noting that continued work to remove the scourge of weapons from Bougainville remained a joint national government and ABG responsibility.
They noted that the two chief secretaries had jointly written to the governments of the US, Japan and Australia to seek funding and capacity-building support to enable disposal of World War 2 remnants, that further work be undertaken to establish some basic data against which weapons disposal completion could be assessed so technical teams could examine the following information:

  • Records of PNGDF-issued weapons to Bougainville groups;
  • record of PNGDF weapons lost into Bougainville hands;
  • legally registered firearms in Bougainville as in November 1988;
  • legally registered firearms from 1988 to 2018; and,
  • The PNG Firearms Act.

Other records of outcome that O’Neill and Momis had agreed on were the enrolment criteria for non-residential Bougainvilleans to vote in the referendum, transfer of 17.4 per cent of the Bougainville Copper Ltd shares to the Panguna landowners in the near future and the deferment of the questions for the referendum to end of this month’s joint meeting in Port Moresby.
The PNG Government team that attended the JSB in Arawa were Minister Assisting Bougainville Affairs William Samb, Works Minister Michael Nali, Police Minister Jelta Wong, South Bougainville MP and Deputy Opposition leader Timothy Masiu, Transport Minister Wesley Nukundj, Commerce Minister Wera Mori, Immigrations and Border Security Minister Petrus Thomas, Justice and Attorney-General Minister Davis Steven, Public Service Minister Elias Kapavore, National Planning Minister Richard Maru, Inter-Government Relations Minister Kevin Isifu, Civil Aviation Minister Alfred Manase, Chief Secretary Isaac Lupari, Works Secretary David Wereh, National Planning Secretary Haukaua Harry, Personnel Management Secretary Taies Sansan, Transport Secretary Roy Mumu and State-Solicitor Daniel Rolpagrea.