Political mistake will

not derail Bougainville peace process

Bougainville rebel

leader, Joseph Kabui, says peace was here to stay and a political mis take would not be allowed to derail the peace process on Papua New Guinea’s troubled island.

Addressing more than 300 people at the opening of Buka Hospital on the island, he said people from all walks of life, from all factions on Bougainville, have made sacri fices to enjoy peace.

Laws, Kabui said, must not spoil a per

son’s thinking, referring to the PNG parlia ment’s failure to pass legislation enabling the setting up of a Bougainville Reconciliation Government.

Such pressure from the Bougainvilleans have since led to PNG prime minister Bill Skate arranging for special provisions to be made to allow the island to elect their own local government.

Skate had earlier stated that without

legislation passed by parliament, such a

move (to elect the BRG) would be uncon stitutional and illegal.

Leaders from all parties on Bougainville met before Christmas to go ahead with the setting up of the BRG, call

ing it the Bougainville People’s Congress.

Kabul says the biggest mistake in par liament would not stop the peace process.

He also hit out at MPs who have called on the Australian government to not med dle in PNG’s affairs. Kabui says such state ments have contributed to the crisis for the past 10 years.

He says enough lives have been lost and called on the leaders of different factions to focus on building the peace.

Echoing Kabui’s statements, Bougainville deputy premier, Thomas Anis, says peace was in Bougainville to stay, with or without provincial reforms and with or without Papua New Guinea.

The statements are a positive sign that the people of Bougainville are willing to keep the peace process alive.

In October the first meeting of the Peace Process Consultative Committee allowed for open and frank discussions between rival factions on the island, mark ing a turning point in peace negotiations.

Key players from the Bougainville

Revolutionary Army, Bougainville Interim

Government, the Bougainville Transitional Government and Resistance sat alongside representatives of the PNG Government, the Australian High Commission, the New Zealand, Fiji and Vanuatu governments at the Arawa meeting.

Talks focused principally on law and order, the constitution of the future BRG, and reconciliation.

The committee, formed out of the sign ing of the cease-fire in April, was to have set the tone for the establishment of the Bougainville Reconciliation Government.

This was to have been established in mid-1999, but it is not known when the PNG government will now pass the neces sary legislation. ■

A peace monitor talks to an elderty Bougainvillen about the islands's current situation.