Panguna landowners want to talk with BCLPANGUNA landowners want...

Panguna landowners want to talk with BCL
PANGUNA landowners want to talk with Bougainville Copper Limited (BCL), developers of the now-defunct Bougainville copper mine, face to face.
This was the message they gave to the chairman of the Parliamentary Committee on Ombudsman Commission and Member for Esa’ala, Moses Maladina, last Thursday.
In a meeting with Mr Maladina at the Panguna district office, interim chairman of the Panguna Landowners Association Michael Pariu called for a quick forum with BCL to air their grievances that have been outstanding for so long.
Landowners wanted to meet BCL as they were willing to discuss their differences and allow BCL to resume operations.
The Panguna landowners used Mr Maladina’s visit to air their grievances on a number of issues that had remained outstanding over the last 20 years.





Maladina visits Panguna mine
By ALOYSIUS LAUKAI
THE chairman of the Parliamentary Committee on Ombudsman Commission, Moses Maladina, became the first non-Bougainvillean MP to visit the now-closed Panguna copper mine last Thursday.
Mr Maladina’s visit to Bougainville was to explain the work of the Ombudsman Commission and the need for Bougainville to establish its own ombudsman in the Autonomous region to instil confidence from neighbouring countries and donors that would like to work with Bougainville in future.
Mr Maladina, who is also Esa’ala MP in the National Parliament, told several meetings that Bougainville must start establishing governance organisations like the ombudsman commission, auditor-general and other mechanisms in preparation for the referendum in six-and-a-half years’ time.
His week-long visit started on March 21 and ended on Saturday, with awareness visits to members of the Autonomous Bougainville Government in Buka and other Bougainville administration officials before moving to Arawa where he visited the regional commissioner for the central region, James Koibo, and the central district executive manager, Lucy Travertz.
In Panguna, he visited the Panguna district administration and the Me’ekamui government of unity.
Judging by the response to Mr Maladina’s visit, nearly all the people of Bougainville support the establishment of an ombudsman commission for Bougainville.
Most of the leaders in Buka, Arawa and Panguna wanted the ombudsman office set up quickly, saying there were outstanding issues that such a commission could immediately address on Bougainville, which included leadership and human rights issues.
They also produced documents to support their allegations of misconduct by leaders.