Transcript
JAMES TANIS: To meet the requirements of the Bougainville Peace Agreement and the constitutional arrangements the two governments agreed on a joint plan that includes reconciliation, good governance assessment and ongoing consultation, giving special recognition to participation of women in the referendum for reparations and of course consultation between the two governments, awareness and the post referendum transition processes.
DON WISEMAN: In terms of weapons disposal this is a vexed question isn't it because there were those long periods ten or 12 years ago of trying to rid Bougainville of weapons but there are still lots out there so what sort of progress are you making there?
JT: Let me start by saying there is good progress on the process to establish independent agencies that will conduct the referendum, the two governments have agreed on the documents to establish it, while that's taking place on the Bougainville side we have given our commitment to the national government that we will wait on this proposal as the Bougainville obligation to meet its part of the bargain under the Peace Agreement, so as part of its obligations for the good and welfare of the people of Bougainville. So the region is now going through a process of establishing referendum committees in all the 33 or the 39 constituencies of Bougainville, so we have completed South Bougainville, we have completed Central Bougainville, this week we have started North Bougainville. So what it means is that through the constituency based committees the issue of awareness on referendums, the issue of weapons disposal, the issue of unification and the issue of political dialogue for the people to talk about their future is now taken back into the communities and there's a reason for it. If you look at the start of the conflict, this is a conflict that started from the villages, the communities taking up arms against the state, and for us to end the war, properly, and for us to make sure it's guaranteed that this referendum is all inclusive and the outcome has a greater chance of being accepted which ever way it falls, we are engaging the forces making sure we take the referendum back to the communities. For example on weapons disposal this is an important move, because weapons disposal was implemented ten years ago, there were factional groups, the BRA, Resistance and now they are no longer there. Times have changed, weapons have used from those factional groups into the community, so to make sure we are effective we have come up with a strategy of organising and mobilising the communities.
DW: But there are isolated groups around. There are parts of the Me'ekamui for instance, who remain opposed.
JT: Yes we are placing a very careful priority on it. We have been tapped in my Department, the Referendum Department, we have recorded the Me'ekamui referendum on this and prior to that we negotiated a memorandum of agreement between the ABG [Autonomous Bougainville Government] and the Me'ekamui in Panguna to make Panguna weapons free by the 31st December 2018. And this deadline is very significant. Because the Me'ekamui gave this undertaking to complete weapons disposal on their part six months ahead of the target date [June 2019].
DW: If the referendum is going to happen in June of 2019 there is clearly going to have to be a decision made quite some time before that on whether or not the region is ready, whether it has satisfied all these conditions.
JT: That is the idea so that is why we have this target date by the Me'ekamuiof December 2018 and in fact last week Central Bougainville Regional Committee set their target for all the preparations in central Bougainville to December 31st 2017.
DW: Is that going to be achievable, given I suppose that the province has now had 11 years of autonomy and it is still having significant issues - can it make a significant stride in the next 12 months?
JT: It depends how we look at definitions of good governance and weapons disposal. In my view the two governments need to focus on the ability of the institutions. For example Bougainville has delivered successfully on a number of elections, national elections and Bougainville elections. So in terms of the democratic institutions on conducting elections, I think Bougainville has displayed its access to some levels of good governance, and of course we have the administration and the departments. So I think it will come down to a level of compromise between the two government, because I think it will unrealistic for the two governments to expect and try to rate Bougainville in terms of good governance [within] a normal peacetime situation. From what I have seen on the ground the people are up in arms. This is the moment they have been waiting for and already in central Bougainville, as I have said, they have made an undertaking that they will declare Central Bougainville will be ready 31st December 2017 and in fact North Bougainville did their declaration yesterday [Wed 30 Nov] and they are committed to announcing North Bougainville referendum ready by the second quarter of 2017. It is now like the old days in which the people took the responsibility to end the war. They did not wait for the government - I think this is a similar situation now, developing on Bougainville, especially after the two governments announced the target date and put out a referendum work plan.
