Bougainville Parliament at odds over resources deal
Posted 3 hours 13 minutes ago Updated 2 hours 53 minutes ago
With its wealth of precious metals underground, Bougainville is a treasure island and its late president Joseph Kabui had grand plans for the autonomous region.
"I'd like to see Bougainville a Kuwait of the Pacific. That's my dream," he said.
"Because we've got so much business research in Bougainville... that is my dream."
This was the last interview President Kabui gave before he died of a heart attack at the age of 54 on June 7.
He was in charge of a tiny Pacific island that had been crippled by a civil war in the 1980s and 1990s, but which now faces uncertainty over a mineral resources deal with an Australia businessman.
The war was sparked by landowners after a bigger share of profits from the huge Australian owned Panguna copper mine.
Two years out from the next election, President Kabui was under pressure to kick-start the struggling economy according to Bougainville legal adviser Tony Regan.
"He wanted to move Bougainville into a situation where its economy would develop much faster," he said.
"So that was what was driving, to a large extent I think, the push on mining. And that's of course then taken them into very controversial issues."
Parliamentary disquiet Just days out from his death, President Kabui was about to face a motion of no confidence in the Bougainville Parliament.
He had signed a deal that effectively gave 70 per cent of the island's resources to a foreign company called Invincible.
The deal was not discussed in Parliament before a surprise announcement six weeks ago.
Many say the deal is illegal, including Bougainville's regional member Fidelis Semoso.
"We have the Minister of Resources to transform Bougainville into something that even in the - me for
example - as a young leader, cannot imagine," he said. "But we will not realise the dream if we continue to undertake or conduct our business outside from what is internationally and nationally accepted model conduct of government. Good governance, for example, transparency."
President Kabui will be buried at his wife's village, near the once mighty Panguna copper mine in the South of the island this week.
There are currently no plans in place to elect a successor, but what is guaranteed is a fiery debate between those for and against the President's deal with Invincible Resources when parliament resumes.
-Adapted from an AM report by PNG Correspondent Steve Marshall.
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