Papua New Guinea upbeat for peace on Bougainville

Papua New Guinea upbeat for peace on Bougainville

By David Williams

PORT MORESBY (AFP): The government of Papua New Guinea has embarked on a fragile peace process that could provide the brightest hope yet for ending a bloody six-year secessionist conflict on Bougainville Island.

The conflict has killed more than 150 members of the Papua New Guinea Defense Force (PNGDF) and unknown numbers of rebels in the Bougainville Revolutionary Army (BRA).

Thousands of the island's 300,000 civilians are said to have died from disease as a government-imposed blockade, due to be lifted in October, prevented medicines from reaching the small copper-rich island off the country's north-east coast.

Many more are homeless and sheltering in government care centers scattered around Bougainville.

Peace would end the killing and lead to the reopening of the country's valuable Panguna copper mine, owned by Bougainville Copper Limited (BCL) of which the majority shareholder is Australian mining giant CRA.

Before its closure in 1989 amid escalating violence, the mine was Papua New Guinea's biggest single revenue earner, providing 40 percent of total export revenue and close to 20 percent of internal income for the government.

Two earlier attempts at ending the conflict in 1991, the Endeavor Accord and the Honiara Declaration were signed but not honored by either party. Both sides are now regarded as being more determined.

Prime minister Sir Julius Chan, elected on Aug. 30, has met personally with rebel chief Sam Kauona in the Solomon Islands capital Honiara where they signed a cease-fire.

They have also agreed for a Pacific peacekeeping force -- comprising troops from Tonga, Fiji and Vanuatu -- to enter Bougainville on Oct. 3 to supervise disarmament and a peace conference scheduled for Oct. 10.

Government sources here say the process seems promising. "The guns of war are slowly being silenced," Chan has said of the process, adding both sides had made mistakes but recognizing the BRA was seriously seeking to stop the violence and talk "as rational men."

"From now on we will be talking as friends," he said.

Chan said he would not tolerate any sabotage of the peace process, adding that the track record on previous attempts to find peace "has not been good, in many cases it has been woeful.

"No element in Papua New Guinea will be permitted to act destructively against our decision," he said. "At this stage, the peace process is fragile. One wrong step will bring us right back into hell."

The Bougainville Island crisis was triggered by local grievances concerning revenues from the Panguna copper mine.

Local activists called for three percent of BCL's revenue to be paid to the province and later demanded US$ 10 billion compensation, half the profits from the mine since it began and tighter environmental controls.

In May 1989, BCL closed the mine because of continued attacks and sabotage.

Chan has declined to speculate on the future of Bougainville. "It is very much a matter of taking one step after another, without undue haste," he has said.

"Of course, I know that there is already talk of major issues ... will Bougainville be an integral part of Papua New Guinea, an independent state standing on its own, something vaguely in between? At this stage I am not prepared to say anything more on that."