Bougainville peace

From The Editor’S Desk

OUR ‘Headlines’ section on pages eight and nine of this issue make interesting reading as far as Bougainville is con cerned.

The first Bougainville-related story concerns Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands and their signing of a six-point good relations agreement in Port Moresby in late September. The agreement was brought about mainly because of the border incursions by PNG forces a direct result of the five-year old Bougainville conflict.

One of the main points in the PNG/ Solomons agreement was their support of a Bougainville peace conference involv ing leaders of all Sides. The PNG government also announced that it had given approval for a European Com

munity monitoring group to make a fact-finding visit to

Bougainville. Some

thing members of the

Bougainville

interim-government

and others have been asking for for a long time. Previously Port Moresby had main tained the Bougain ville issue was an internal matter and

refused permission

for visits by foreign missions.

In the second story on page eight we read of the alle gation that PNG’s foreign minister,

John Kaputin who had earlier signed the agreement in Port Moresby refused to see Mike Forster of the

Bougainville interim-government in

Canberra. The reason because an ? member of the Bougainville interim-administration had been seen in a demonstration organised by the Bou gamville Freedom Movement in Can berra the previous day.

Surely Kaputin’s refusal borders on being childish and does not mirror a genuine committment to finding a sol ution to the Bougainville situation as was supposedly shown by him in Port Moresby.

The interim-administration are push ing for peace talks in Cairns, Australia basically as soon as possible. They are

pushing for a peace process and are waiting for PNG to end their military operations on Bougainville and take up their offer for peace talks. However, PNG says it will not negotiate until the Bougainville guerilla army, the Bougain ville Revolutionary Army, surrenders.

Neither side exactly smells of roses.

The human rights organisation Amnesty International accuses both the PNG government and the BRA of committing! atrocities. Although in a report released in London it was highly critical of the PNG government which it said failed to i investigate and take action against the perpetrators of executions, torture and rape during the campaign against the j Bougainville secessionists.

The aim of this editorial is not to take I

sides or point fingers but to en courage leaders from PNG, the BRA and the

Bougainville

interim-govern = ment to try and find a way to

come together

and hold peace talks.

Surely there has been enough death and suffer ing. Where is the so- called ‘Pacific Way’ we are al ways hearing about? □

Peace meeting: members of the Bougainville interim-government and Bougainville leaders who met in Honiara in July to plan for a future pan—Bougainville conference