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Bougainville Celebrates Peace Agreement
Papua New Guinea and Bougainville have signed a peace agreement to officially end a war that raged for 10 years and claimed as many as 20,000 lives, ABC correspondent reports September 1.
After three years of negotiations, leaders from both sides signed a comprehensive political settlement at a moving ceremony in the former Bougainville capital Arawa.
In Arawa town, thousands of people gathered, travelling great distances on war damaged roads to see their leaders put pen to paper and secure peace.
Bougainville Peoples Congress President, Joseph Kabui, was one of many Papua New Guinean Bougainville leaders who signed the 74 page agreement on a small dais on the Arawa sportsground where the singing and dancing and the speeches went on for many hours under a blazing tropical sun.
Papua New Guinea is short of revenue and its record of properly funding its 20 provinces is not good. The government has promised a great deal of support to Bougainville, but most Bougainville leaders are concerned about PNG's ability to deliver.
Perhaps the biggest concern is that full implementation of this agreement will require the Papua New Guinea Government to amend the country's constitution, to allow for autonomy and the eventual referendum on independence.
There's no guarantee the current government can push those changes through the national parliament with an election due in 11 months, although it has promised to try.
Until the amendments are passed, full disarmament of the former waring Bougainville factions will not be completed. That gives them some sense of being able to keep the PNG Government to its promise, but there is some nervousness.
People's Congress President Joseph Kabui says however, that even if the amendments fail, a return to war will not be encouraged.
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