Bougainville to ‘raise the flag’ in international push of independence plans

By Stefan Armbruster, BenarNews

Establishing ties with the Melanesian Spearhead Group (MSG) will be the first priority for the Autonomous Government of Bougainville's (ABG) newly created "external relations" office, as it prepares for independence from Papua New Guinea.

The province voted 97.7 percent in favor of independence in a 2019 referendum that is yet to be ratified by PNG's parliament, but Bougainville's President Ishmael Toroama told BenarNews it would happen regardless in 2027.

Unlike Indonesia's Papuan provinces, New Caledonia, French Polynesia, Guam and American Samoa - which were or are part of the UN decolonisation process - Bougainville's self-determination is mandated through the PNG constitution.

Under the 2001 Bougainville Peace Agreement - after a brutal civil war triggered by Rio Tinto's Panguna mine - PNG retains responsibility for foreign affairs but allows for the ABG to engage externally, for trade and with "regional organisations."

"To raise, to put a flag at the MSG is one step forward into reality," Toroama told BenarNews in Brisbane. "I think we start with the MSG first, we are looking to become an observer,."

"We need countries to support us, we need to talk to those countries (ahead of independence)," said the former Bougainville Revolutionary Army (BRA) commander who will face elections in 2025 after five-years in office.

The MSG was formalised as a sub-regional grouping in 2007 - comprising Fiji, PNG, Solomon Islands and Vanuatu and pro-independence Kanak and Socialist National Liberation Front (FLNKS) of New Caledonia - primarily to promote economic growth in the Melanesian region.

An ABG approach has not yet been made to the MSG but in the meantime, Toroama is looking to foster international economic ties.

In July, the ABG created the External Relations Directorate under the office of the president, with former politician Albert Punghau as acting director and former Bougainville president James Tanis as an "international legate".

The move was welcomed in a letter from the PNG prime minister's department as an "important step".

"Given this, my expectation is that the Directorate will liaise closely with the Department of Foreign Affairs on any foreign relations activities. This will ensure alignment on foreign relation matters with national government policies," chief secretary of the PNG government Ivan Pomaleu wrote to the ABG on July 22, copying Prime Minister James Marape.

Written advice provided to Pomaleu, seen by BenarNews, states, "Under the BPA, the ABG has every right to establish the Directorate to enable the ABG to better engage in foreign relation activities and it could be argued that this is long overdue."

Last September, Bougainville's government called on the US, Japan, Australia, New Zealand and China for foreign direct investment, adding "these are the very nations we will establish diplomatic relations with as an independent sovereign nation."

Toroama says the ABG has respected the peace agreement on the foreign affairs front, by not engaging directly with foreign governments, but it does allow "economically starting to engage with whatever nations that will be available."

Papua New Guinea, the most populous Pacific island country with an estimated 12 million people, is a focus of intensifying US-China rivalry for influence in the Pacific. The easternmost islands of Bougainville, home to about 350,000 people and ethnically closer to Solomon Islands, is the site of the long-inactive Panguna mine.

One of the most resource-rich areas of PNG, Bougainville has the world's largest copper reserves, gold and tuna. Toroama sees the resources as the basis for its future economy, where there is currently almost none.

There is little reliable available data on the Bougainville's mainly agricultural, fisheries and alluvial mining based economy. Restarting the Panguna mine would take many years and cost billions of dollars.

The former BRA officer during the civil war said he is inspired by the vision of his late former commander Francis Ona of creating a Pacific economic powerhouse.

"It's just testing the waters. What I'm saying here is we have colonial partners, if you cannot come in, then we have the last card, the Chinese card, that I will be playing. So I'm very frank and honest," Toroama said.

"The (Chinese) corporations, they've been to visit Bougainville. They have spoken but not in real terms, into signing an agreement. Not yet."

Toroama said there's little interest from the US - despite a visit to meet investors in Washington last year - or Japan. Most engagement is from the Australian government and investors, but he said there are legacy issues to deal with.

"They're putting money in, but it's a piecemeal package if you compare Panguna mine and what resources have been taken out. It's just nothing," he said.

"You have dug that hole, you have been benefitting out of the Panguna mine."

The environmental and social impacts of the giant Rio Tinto Panguna mine and inequitable distribution of revenues sparked the Bougainville 'crisis'.

An estimated 10,000-15,000 people died in a decade-long civil war between Bougainville and PNG that ended with a peace agreement in 2001, leading to the referendum in 2019.

Papua New Guinea's Marape government missed the agreed 2023 deadline for parliament to debate the referendum result and decide on the semi-autonomous region's independence aspirations.

While recognising the different circumstances, Toroama fears "the window of opportunity" for independence is almost closed for West Papua, closing for New Caledonia, and that could also happen to Bougainville.

"What I'm saying to my fellow Bougainvilleans, if we cannot make this happen within this given timeframe, I think Bougainville will be lost forever," he said.

"We are not going to compromise the legal basis we are setting. If the national government will not ratify our independence, whether Pacific islands like it or not, Bougainville sovereignty is there."

At the Pacific Islands Forum leaders meeting in Tonga last month, Marape told BenarNews that Bougainville's independence is an internal matter to be decided by PNG's parliament.

Bougainville's government wants to achieve independence by 2027 but has faced opposition from PNG's leaders, who fear it could encourage secessionist movements in other regions of the volatile Pacific island country.

The two sides are far apart and have just appointed a moderator over whether a parliamentary vote is by simple or two-thirds majority to approve or reject independence.

"That is the point of argument and if that (two-thirds) goes into place, it would be a disaster for Bougainville," Toroama said.

In Brisbane for diaspora consultations on the draft Bougainville constitution last weekend, Toroama said there's "still a lot of work to do" and "time is against us" for meeting a tentative December deadline for completion.

Issues still being considered range from the design of the flag and name of the currency to landowner rights and definition of citizenship.

"The whole process for getting the constitution, that it is a platform that we will be using to declare Bougainville independence," he said.

"Bougainville has been known for unilateral declarations," he added, referring to two previous independence bids.

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