bougainville consultations on mine re-opening

Bougainville consultations on mine re-opening set to widen

Radio Australia / Pacific Beat, 31.3.2011

Bougainville has witnessed another milestone in its peace process with a reconciliation ceremony between the President of the Autonomous Government, John Momis, and the landowners from the six lease areas around the Panguna mine. The ceremony has set the stage for wider consultations on re-starting mining operations.

Presenter: Jemima Garrett
Speaker: Patrick Nisira, Bougainville's Vice President

GARRETT: Discussions on the re-opening of the Rio Tinto owned Panguna copper mine have picked up pace in the last few months. The man on the frontline for the Bougainville Autonomous government is Vice President Patrick Nisira. He believes the re-opening of the Panguna Mine could be as significant for his government as it was for the Papua New Guinea government in the lead-up to its independence in 1975.

NISIRA: Since December last year there have been big movements between the Autonomous Bougainville government engaging with the Panguna landowners and people surrounding the Panguna copper mine because we believe very much that Panguna will play a crucial role in the recovery of the autonomous government . As we all know, in the 1970s the Panguna copper mine was the only mining operation in Papua New Guinea at that time. The Panguna copper mine then got PNG independence since it became operational. We believe the Panguna copper mine can also do the same for our fledgling Autonomous region so with that in mind the President directed me to engage with the people of Panguna and meaningfully involve the people there, especially the left wing organisations and the former combatants and the Panguna landowners.

GARRETT: Bougainville is heavily dependent on financial assistance from Australia and from the Papua New guinea government. Vice President Nisira is grateful for that assistance but he says it cannot go on forever.

NISIRA: We appreciate the goodwill of international donors but as we, as Bougainvilleans, we believe we can once again walk tall. And to walk tall, as a people, we have to drag away from this dependency that we are currently at the moment. So the President has directed me to move into Panguna and tell all the people there, talk to them, get them to understand the importance of Panguna in the peacekeeping process. Because of Panguna, Bougainville went down the drain and we believe that if we can fix Panguna, if we can stabilise Panguna, we can help Bougainville on its two feet again.

GARRETT: The reconciliation ceremony between Bougainville President John Momis and Panguna landowners, last Friday, means the consultations on re-opening the mine can gear up a notch. Vice President Nisira says that after many months the six Panguna landowning groups have agreed to work together.

NISIRA: There is really great movement now. In our consultation the people want the mine to be open. There is some hesitation from former combatants who really feel we should engage them too, but within the next 3 weeks.. We have consulted with the people of Panguna, we have engaged the Mekamui, they are formally in the process now.
Within the next few weeks we will be holding three big forums: one in North Bougainville preferably in Buka, one in Central Bougainville earmarked for Arawa, and one in South Bougainville. I think it will be scheduled, maybe, in Siwai. At these public forums we will gauge the Bougainville people's view on mining, on re-opening of mining.
Today the official ABG position is not yet to re-open the mine. We still await the thoughts of the landowners, the ex-combatants and also the people of Bougainville to speak out through these Forums and then after this consultation with our people, ABG will be able to make a formal announcement on the re-opening of the Bougainville copper mine.