On January 26th, 2001, the president of the Bougainville Peoples Congress, Joseph Kabui, and the governor of Bougainville, John Momis, announced a major breakthrough in the peace negotiations. At this occasion, the Papua New Guinea (PNG) government and Bougainville reached an agreement to give Bougainville a referendum on independence as part of peace negotiations seeking to end the civil war.

The war between the PNG government and the indigenous population of Bougainville has its origins all the way back in 1988 when an organized group of landowners, later known as the Bougainville Revolutionary Army (BRA) forcibly stopped the mining operations on the island, as it became increasingly clear that mining profits were not benefitting the people of Bougainville and that pollution from the mining activity had a devastating effect on the island’s environment. PNG responded by sending in armed forces. The fight over the closure of the mine escalated into a struggle for self-determination and indigenous control of the land as the population of Bougainville turned massively against PNG. During the 1990’s, despite the continued violence, there have been many serious attempts to reach a political settlement to end the conflict. Since 2000, prospects for a political settlement have improved considerably, which will give the people of Bougainville the peace they wanted for so long.

The peace deal consists of a time schedule for a referendum that should be held between 10 and 15 years from the election of the first autonomous government of Bougainville. This election is due within the next 12 months. Included in the peace deal is an agreement to develop a plan for disarmament, which should be completed before the election of the first autonomous government. Follow up talks on the disarmament of militant factions on Bougainville were held in February and, although the talks fell short of the signing of a weapons disposal agreement, an agreement in principle was achieved to change the mandate of the peace monitoring group active in Bougainville since 1988, towards providing it an important role in the disposal of weapons. For the planned disarmament to succeed, the PNG government has to be fully committed to holding a referendum. Another important issue is the status of the autonomous government of Bougainville. What kind of powers will it have as opposed to those powers of the PNG state? Before the election and installation of the autonomous government it has to be clear that such a government cannot be suspended by the PNG if any major problems should occur. The international community and UNPO will be monitoring the situation to make sure PNG keeps its promises to give the people of Bougainville a vote in their future.