panguna landowners talk of reconciliation

http://www.postcourier.com.pg/20080317/mohome.htm

Panguna landowners talk of reconciliation

A MAJOR reconciliation planned for the landowners of the Panguna area, where the giant Bougainville copper mine is now lying dormant, may soon come to reality.
This planned family reconciliation for the Panguna Landowners Association (PLOA) will be in three phases and could pave the way for a lot of positive things to happen.
Leaders of the Panguna landowners, who had not seen eye to eye for the past two decades, are negotiating a possible reconciliation that would see mothers, fathers, aunties, children and the three clans – Kurabang, Bakoringku and Basikang – live normal lives again like they used to be before the Bougainville crisis broke out.
Autonomous Bougainville President Joseph Kabui comes from the Basikang clan, including the Tapakau, Imako and Miriori, Francis Ona and his two sisters Cecilia Gemel and Perpetua Sirero (three of them now dead) and the Kove family who come from the Kurabang group while Ampa’ois make up the Bakoringku clan.
Late on Thursday, leaders of these clans met at the St Joseph’s International School playground to discuss the status of the planned reconciliation.
Peter Kove travelled all the way from Panguna to meet with the Ampa’ois and other leaders in Port Moresby.
This meeting was also attended by former mining minister Sam Akoitai, Nautilus boss and elite Bougainvillean Mel Togolo, former Bougainville administrator Simon Pentanu and many other Bougainvilleans.
The groups alleged to have been part of the shutdown of the giant mine now plan a big family reconciliation ceremony this year so that normal life can prevail among them.
Other reasons for family reconciliation include the killing of Mathew Kove in early 1989, the instigating of false allegations against Ampa’oi and family in regards to the Road Mining Tailings Trustees Limited (RMTL), of which Lawrence Daveona was then director and company secretary. This dispute led to the attempted ambush and shooting of Mr Ampa’oi at his village, Piwa in 1989.
Also, a scholar who had been overseas was allegedly involved in locking the board members of RMTL in a boardroom while they were having an official meeting, and the role of former Bougainville Governor John Momis, regarded as a key player in the crisis with his Bougainville Initiative and the use of women from Guava village to demonstrate against BCL during his campaign. Mr Momis is PNG’s Ambassador to China.
The reconciliation will include Guava, Pakia and other villages around the mine namely Moroni, Dapera, Mosinau, Kokore, Poaru and Kongara 1 and 2.
In a briefing paper distributed, the family reconciliation will be the initial phase and the next phase will be to reconcile with surrounding Nasioi communities whose families got caught up in the conflict as a result of the presence of the security forces.
Phase three is Bougainville-wide reconciliations.
Although the PLOA said: “We find it hard to envisage Panguna landowners engaging in a Bougainville-wide reconciliation, as we do not know what legitimate reason or reasons for the landowners to be part of this exercise.
“There are lot of questions as to why people of the other regions of Bougainville took part to be part of the problem in the later years as to our understanding the peace ceremony in Arawa.”