27 Sep 2018

UN helping Bougainville prepare for referendum

From , 5:04 am on 27 September 2018

The United Nations in Papua New Guinea is hopeful that the Bougainville Referendum Commission will get to sit for the first time by the end of the month.

In June next year Bougainville is planning to hold a referendum on possible independence from PNG - the final stage of the Peace Agreement signed in 2001.

But there have been difficulties getting both governments to sit down and agree on the process and one of these is establishing the Referendum Commission.

A spokesperson for the UNDP office in Port Moresby, Jone Baledrokadroka, told Don Wiseman that overcoming these sort of issues are what their multi million dollar Peacebuilding Fund is being used for.

Flag of autonomous region of Bougainville, Papua New Guinea

Photo: manganganath/123RF