what plans does your government have for the mine?

Noah Musingku has very experienced Fijian former soldiers training young Bougainvillean men with weapons. Do you consider that a threat?
Yes. We are aware that there are arms. But at the same time, too, we are fully aware that most of the so-called soldiers of Meekamui or U-Vistract are young kids. I must say, over 95 per cent of the real fighting men on either side, either on the BRA or on the BRF, are with us in the peace process.

One common denominator on the autonomous Bougainville government side and also on the U-Vistract and Meekamui is this. Nobody wants to see Bougainville go back to another war. We've had our fight. We've destroyed ourselves. And this is why the dialogue, the peace through peaceful means is the approach that we are applying. And I believe it is helping to bring about results.

Are you prepared to negotiate with Noah Musingku? And what would you say to him?
Yes, we are more than prepared for negotiations with Noah Musingku. I assigned my vice president and the police minister to lead in many of these negotiations. In a worse scenario, if something suddenly gets out of hand, we have a confidence that if arms can be picked up, I believe we have all the capability on our part to handle the situation.

But can you have any sort of meaningful dialogue with Noah Musingku when he says he's the King, he's the boss, you're not, and he's the messenger of God?
We have been all mandated by people right throughout Bougainville. This is why we believe we have the authority with us. Yeah, Noah Musingku can claim himself to be a king. That is something that he can do with himself.

But at the end of the day, the real difference is that the people of Bougainville and the world must judge as to who really has the authority on the ground of Bougainville. That's how one of us as leaders, whichever one of us as leader, can actually deliver. But already we are making impacts right throughout Bougainville.

Noah has been making promises all these years. People are still waiting for pay-out. People are still waiting for the trillions to come down, come down as rain from the sky, into their pockets. I know. I invested something in there too at the early stages thinking that something was going to come of it. But I realised that it is like chasing a rainbow that you'll never put your hands on top of.

Noah Musingku is wanted across the region for financial fraud. He also has your money. Should he be handed over?
Well, the sooner that the law can catch up with Noah Musingku, the better it is.

The former Fijian soldiers are continuously training young Bougainvillean men in six week courses. Now, both Papua New Guinea and the Fijian authorities say there is absolutely nothing they can do about it. Are you satisfied with that response?
If only the national government or the Fijian government would do something about it. You know, prevent these people from setting foot on Bougainville. If only that had taken place, I think we wouldn't be going through these sort of troubles that we are going through now. There are stories, there are rumours, of another 100 trying to come.

Now we are calling upon the Fijian government and the national government, the Papua New Guinea government. The autonomous Bougainville government is calling upon them not to allow these people to come back to Bougainville.

Now, the very lucrative and contentious Panguna mine is in the no-go zone area, controlled by Noah Musingku. What plans does your government have for the mine?
Bougainville is definitely starting from ground zero. Bougainville was definitely destroyed. The only way to get Bougainville up and running, first and foremost, is peace and stability. We need something. We need to start somewhere to inject life into Bougainville.

And if mining has to be one of the ways of getting the economy up and running, so be it. But the important thing before the mining can get off the ground - as it is enshrined in our Bougainville constitution - is that the people of Bougainville have to say that, through a plebiscite. People of Bougainville will have to make that decision.