According to a news-report carried by Pacific Magazine as reported in The National, an eight-member delegation of political leaders and representatives of the Naga people are reportedly in Papua New Guinea for two weeks to study the Bougainville peace process. The delegation was engaged successfully in brokering cease-fire between India and the enclave of three million Nagas people in eastern India, bordering China and Myanmar, The National reports. Minister for Inter-Government Relations Sir Peter Barter said the delegation included two women and a student leader accompanied by two staff members from Kreddha, a Netherlands-based non-governmental organisation, which studies and promotes the peaceful resolution of internal conflicts in countries in different parts of the world. “The delegation will meet with participants on all sides of the Bougainville peace process to see how our experiences may help the Nagas make and build peace at home,” he said. Sir Peter said Government officials and political leaders will introduce the delegation to the country and also explain the background of the Bougainville peace process and outline the constitutional framework and arrangements for managing and implementation of the Bougainville Peace Agreement. The delegation will be in Bougainville for a week to meet leaders, officials and members of civil society, who have been active in making and building peace. Sir Peter was satisfied that the international communities were pleased to gauge the experience of PNG, Bougainville leaders, officials and members of the civil society who are partners in practical peace-building.

“The Government’s aim in agreeing to receive and brief the Naga delegation was simply to share our experiences with people who are seriously interested in the National Government’s shared commitment with Bougainville leaders to secure lasting peace by peaceful means.

“We hope they can draw their own conclusions and use whatever they find useful and relevant in their particular circumstances to help make and build peace for themselves,” said Sir Peter. Mention may be made that last year Bougainville became an autonomous region ending a ten-year secessionist war on the Island. The aim of the visit to Papua New Guinea is to see how the people of Bougainville and PNG succeeded in ending the civil conflict. The outcome of the group’s visit may help their own peace building efforts back home.

Bougainville Vice President Joseph Watavi earlier said in an interview: “They (the Nagas) are interested in the conflict resolution we thought that was applied in this process, and therefore I think it is in a way, in terms of international conflict resolution, I think it should actually help other peoples who are also facing the same problems in their areas to learn from the experiences that we have gone through.”

However, he said there are some fundamental differences because the way Bougainville actually dealt with the issues here was based on “our Melanesian approach between the Papua New Guinea government, leadership and the Bougainville people.”

Saying that women also have a vital role to play in peace processes, Watavi said, “It’s understood that the Nagaland state in India, has actually been desiring a separate nation in India, and I can say that this is one of the other things that Bougainville also wanted to do.”

The way forward is through an autonomy arrangement, and we are lucky that with our arrangement, he said. The Papua New Guinea Constitution recognizes a political referendum that can be conducted in 10 to 15 years, that allows the people of Bougainville to be able to choose for themselves, through that process, whether they could be a separate independent nation in 10 to 15 years. “And these are some of the experiences that we would like to share with the people from India who are coming here.”

Source: Nagalim. NL News