4 Jun 2008

Bougainville women to meet over Invincible despite Kabui deferral call

3:28 pm on 4 June 2008

The Bougainville InterChurch Women's group has turned down a request from President Joseph Kabui that they defer a meeting calling for an explanation of a controversial deal with the Canadian company, Invincible Resources.

Mr Kabui is attending the Papua New Guinea Governors' conference on Manus Island and will not be able to make the forum.

But the women's group will go ahead tomorrow, partly so they can feed petitions into next week's sitting of the House of Representatives.

They are angry at the lack of information about Invincible taking control of Bogenvil Resource Development Corporation.

The chair of that agency, Robert Atsir, says they hope to change people's minds with an awareness campaign that is now underway.

He says a recent presentation to the Northern Veterans Association won them over completely.

"About 90 percent of them who came to that meeting were totally opposed to what was going on based on stories they had heard from the street. But once we had given them an hour presentation they were fully behind us. I think the same thing will happen with other groups. It's just perhaps not getting the right information and hearing things off the street."

Robert Atsir