Anthony Regan meddling in Bougainville affairs: Miringtoro by ramunickel
Member for Central Bougainville wants Anthony Reagan out for Meddling in affairs of Bougainville and calls for a better mining deal for Bougainville and Papua New Guinea without BCL
Chris Baria
Miringtoro wants Regan, who has links to Rio Tinto, to be deported for meddling in Bougainville affairs
The member for Central Bougainville Jimmy Miringtoro has announced that he will be asking the Papua New Guinea government to give 24 hours notice to the Australian Lawyer to leave Bougainville for allegedly meddling with internal affairs of Bougainville and misleading the people of Bougainville. Mr. Reagan a constitutional lawyer was recently engaged by the Autonomous Bougainville Government as a legal consultant to draft mining legislation which was hailed as “first of its kind” in mining industry by the media.
However, according to the Member for Central Bougainville, the draft legislation failed to live up to its expectations in Bougainville because it deprived landowners of their rights by giving ABG more powers over the mining and minerals resources. He said that there was no wider consultation with the people of Bougainville and therefore the legislation lacked local input.
In response to the recent media reports that the BCL shareholders had voted against independent inquiry into allegations of companies involvement in Bougainville crisis, Mr. Miringtoro said that this came as no surprise to him because BCL had always denied having been involved in taking part in the counter insurgency operations which took the lives of many innocent men women and children in crisis.
On Anthony Reagan’s involvement in Bougainville
Mr. Miringtoro said he had been informed in Panguna that Mr. Reagan had been trying to get Panguna landowners and former combatants to accept the interim mining laws that he had drafted. This is well ahead of proper mining laws coming into force after October and November ABG Parliament sitting.
“Laws written by Mr. Reagan are flawed because they lack input from the wider communities in Bougainville and therefore are in direct infringement of the rights of the indigenous people of Bougainville who are the owners of the resources on their land as stipulated in the United Nations Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous People,” he said.
The Member for Central Bougainville also questioned why ABG had engaged a foreign lawyer to work on mining laws when there were national lawyers suitably qualified to do the job. He said that the engagement of Anthony Reagan who has links to Rio Tinto, the parent company of BCL indicated that there were sinister motives on the part of the ABG President stemming from his continued involvement with BCL.
“I am well aware that President Dr. Momis and Mr. Reagan are openly trying to spread fear in the minds of the landowners, former combatants and the people of Bougainville at large that the Government is going to take over the mine. They have been giving the people wrong interpretation of the a certain clause in the infamous Bougainville Copper Agreement which states that after all minerals at Panguna had been extracted and the mine exhausted, BCL would move to Karato and Mainoki which were new tenements. The Agreement goes on to state that after years of operation, CRA would off-load its shares to the National Government. This is misinformation and a dangerous development at a time like this when situation in Bougainville is still very delicate. It is misinformation and the most often the lack of it that led to the crisis
“However, I would like to assure and remind the people of Bougainville and that the Prime Minister during his visit to parts of Bougainville and in all his speeches, has made it clear that his visit had nothing to do with the issue of mining or its re-opening. He also stated that the decision to resume mining in Bougainville or not rests with the people of Bougainville. Now that the whole universe has heard what the good Prime Minister had to say, let us not be troubled by the good President and his Australian lawyer who are clearly doing all they can under the sun, moon and stars to bring BCL back to Bougainville, which is something we don’t want yet.
“ABG is supposed to be a government for the people by the people and not BCL. However, from day one it has been pushing for BCL to re-open and has not listened to people on the ground, who generally believe that if mining is resumed now it will have disastrous effect on people who have not yet properly recovered from the crisis or reconciled with each other.
“My patience with Mr. Anthony Reagan, who is clearly acting on BCL’s interest, has worn out and I will be requesting the National Government to give him 24 hours notice to leave Bougainville and not to return to the region again. He has no right to meddle with the affairs of landowners and mining matters which are sensitive and delicate at this stage. There are Papua New Guinean lawyers who can do the job like the current Attorney General, Mr. Kerenga Kua who is proficient in legal matters and currently dealing with mining laws to liberalize some of the areas in the existing laws to allow for more participation by landowners in sharing benefits from extractive industries.
The Member also called on leaders to have confidence in National lawyers and other professionals instead of continuing to rely on meddlesome and costly foreign legal expertise who can ruin the opportunities of the people to participate in benefit sharing from extractive resources.
A better Mining Deal for Bougainville and Papua New Guinea
The Minister for Communications and Member for Central Bougainville said that he is not surprised by the outcome of the BCL Annual General Meeting in Port Moresby where the shareholders voted against having an independent inquiry into the company’s involvement in the war on Bougainville.
“Before the AGM there were media reports of BCL shareholders calling for an independent inquiry into the company’s part in the mistreatment, death and suffering of Papua New Guinea and Bougainvilleans. These media reports were cleverly crafted to fool us into believing that BCL had nothing to do with the Bougainville crisis. Anyone who does not know BCL would have believed it. However such action by the shareholders only goes to show the people of Bougainville and the world at large how irresponsible, arrogant and ignorant BCL shareholders and the management are and that they are after nothing more than profits from the minerals in Panguna,” Mr Miringtoro said.
According to the Member, wider consultation with all people of Bougainville is one of the pre-requisites to resumption of mining on Bougainville. He said that before the people can say their bit they must be made aware of what benefits they would get regardless of what part of Bougainville they are in because the crisis had affected everyone. He also emphasized that the people already had seen what a mine is capable of doing to their land and environment and the impact it will have on their family ties, kinship and their culture.
“The developer must come up with a concrete plan on how problems associated with or in direct consequence of mining will be alleviated. If this is not possible the developer must have enough cash to give the people a life that is justifiably suitable and fair against that they will lose permanently in terms of land, environment, and health problems they would suffer associated with pollution of air and rivers and social inconvenience and erosion of a particular lifestyle,” Mr. Miringtoro said.
On the issue of resource ownership the Member made direct references to the concept of “Free Prior Informed Consent” or FPIC under United Nations Declaration on the Rights of the indigenous people. He explained that indigenous people have certain in-alienable rights that cannot be interfered with by the government or the any mining company.
“At each stage of the process value is added to resources extracted from our land and we as resource owners should benefit from all stages of the process financially or otherwise. Currently, this is not happening because our government has compromised our rights and the resource owners get paid meager compensation for crushed rocks.
“The standards of living for the people of this country must be elevated to reflect their loss of land and environment and the loss of peace and freedom enjoyed prior to the establishment of the mine. We all know that our natural, non-renewable resources are extracted to maintain a comfortable life for people in the so-called developed world. These people have no concern for the country and people at whose expense they enjoy a lavished lifestyle. It is time mining companies take direct responsibility of the harm they cause to the host country and its people by providing free healthcare, education, water and sanitation and other necessities deprived by mining. If this is not possible then mining is not an industry that we should be looking forward as a means to develop our country.
“Panguna and other mines in Bougainville will not open unless laws that will protect resource owners’ rights and ensure proper benefit sharing are in place and that issues pertaining to mining are resolved. Despite more money pouring out of mines in this country, very little of it goes back to the people of this country. Most of it leaves this country and ends up in foreign coffers while our people sell betel nut, cigarettes and noodles on the street to survive.
“BCL has no right whatsoever to return to Bougainville because its time is up. New tenements will be transferred to the original landowners. These will be held in trust by the newly established district authorities. As a result there is a need for the strengthening of all district authorities in the region. The O’Neill-Dion Government is committed to ensuring that resources owners are adequately compensated for their land with all means to sustain them long after the minerals on their land had been exhausted.
“As the person mandated by the people of Central Bougainville through popular democratic vote and as member of a clan that holds three quarters of land from the pit to tailings dump at Panguna mine, it is my duty to ensure that my people do not become victims and spectators of what happens in their land. If mining were to resume we will be seriously considering its ownership and share-holding so as not to be mere tax beneficiaries but owners of the mine because mining has the tendency to make people of the host country some of the poorest in world,” Mr Miringtoro said.
Contact
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