Counting the votes in Bougainville's independence referendum, December 2019 Photo: Jeremy Miller / Bougainville Referendum Commission
Bougainville is suggesting a moderator with the resources to be pro-active be sought to solve an impasse with the Papua New Guinea government over its independence issues.
Bougainville expected its referendum, which was resoundingly in favour of independence from PNG, to be ratified this year, as per the Era Kone Covenant that both parties signed in April 2022.
But led by the PNG Minister of Bougainville Affairs, Manessah Makiba, the government delayed it until 2024.
Bougainville's Minister for Independence Implementation, Ezekiel Massatt, said this is a direct breach of the Covenant and a moderator is warranted.
Massatt said ideally this person could isolate issues in the relationship before they become major problems - what he calls a 'working moderator'.
"And walk the parties through those potential hostpots so that we don't get to that impasse stage," he said.
"I think it will serve us well given the example we are now facing where the national government [is] very ignorant of the fact that we had agreed that 2023 was the year of ratification."
Massat said such a moderator would need to be appropriately resourced to fulfil this function.
He said the Bougainville Government has some names for potential moderators in mind but is not making them public just yet.
The minister said UN officials, in Bougainville recently, have been asked to consider who might be appropriate but he says the person chosen will definitely be from within the Asia/Pacific region.
When Bougainville held its referendum in 2019 the commission running the poll was chaired by former Irish Prime Minister, Bertie Ahern, who was later promoted as a possible mediator but with the onset of the covid pandemic this never eventuated .
