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FEBRUARY 4, 2002 | NO.4
Bougainville Cuts The Apron Strings
By Elizabeth Feizkhah
They wore their best clothes, but the 100 Bougainvilleans
who filed into Papua New Guinea's Parliament on Jan. 23 carried
only modest hopes. They had waited through 13 years and six
wrecked truces for last year's deal ending the secessionist
rebellion on their island; then another five months while
the nation's M.P.s balked at translating the deal into law.
"Let us not go back to the dark days," said former rebel leader
Joseph Kabui, urging politicians to stop dithering and pass
two bills granting autonomy to the province.
When all 86 M.P.s present voted yes, the gallery erupted.
"People were smiling and clapping and hugging each other,"
says peace liaison officer Kaut Kavop, one of a delegation
of Bougainville leaders. On the island, where an estimated
15,000 people were killed during the 1988-98 conflict, "the
people have received the news with great joy," says Arawa-based
administration officer David Onavui.
The bills won't become law until March, but Kavop and his
fellow delegates believe last week's vote will convince many
former fighters to give up their weapons. Peace monitors have
so far recovered just 144 guns; Kavop says there could be
1,000 more on the island. "There will be more trust now,"
says Onavui. "We can now say to people like Francis [Ona,
who started the rebellion and has refused to sign the peace
deal], ÔYou can take the politicians at their word.'"
Gun control isn't the only challenge facing the islanders,
who must now set up their own civil service and courts and
train their own police, teachers and health workers. "We will
be running just about everything except defense," says Bougainville
People's Congress spokesman Moses Havini. Eventually, perhaps,
that too: the new laws promise a referendum on independence
by 2016.
Autonomy will be costly. Initially, says Havini, Bougainville
will support itself with taxes, grants from the P.N.G. government,
and foreign aid. There are hopes that the cocoa and copra
industries can be rebuilt, but the most bountiful source of
funds could be the long-shut Panguna gold and copper mine,
which lies in a "no-go" zone under Ona's control. Reopening
it would open old wounds: it was a dispute over the mine's
environmental impact that began the conflict. But "to develop
Bougainville, I believe we will need to exploit our mineral
resources," says Havini. An independent state, after all,
needs independent means.
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