Former President in-depth on Bougainville’s future

ABC Radio Australia

Papua New Guinea’s island of Bougainville is due to hold a referendum on independence some time between 2015 and 2020.

The referendum is one of the key provisions of the 12-year-old Peace Agreement which brought an end to a decade-long civil war.

The conflict left more than 10,000 people dead, destroyed much of Bougainville’s infrastructure and closed schools, hospitals and the Rio Tinto-owned Panguna copper mine.

Former Bougainville President, James Tanis, fought with the separatist Bougainville Revolutionary Army and played a key role in the peace process.

He explained to Jemima Garrett why he is still in favour of independence.

Presenter: Jemima Garrett
Speaker: Former Bougainville President, James Tanis

TANIS: I believe in independence because independence is not something that started with the Bougainville conflict. It has a long history, Our forefathers struggled for Bougainville Independence as early as the 1960s. We are different. We are ethnically part of the Solomon Islands but I am not a racist but independence is always something that our society believed we can express ourselves in the form of a modern state.

GARRETT: Why will it be better than what you have got now?

TANIS: I still believe independence will be even better than autonomy because then we have control over everything.

GARRETT: How would you like to see the process towards independence unfold?

TANIS: As a believer in independence I also worry about the process and I think the process should continue to move. Different parties under the Peace Agreement have different obligations. We have Bougainville obligations on reconciliation, weapons disposal and unity on Bougainville and the national government has obligations to make sure Bougainville, there is a draw down of powers and functions as agreed under the peace agreement so I believe in a process where it should be moving. Different parties keep their commitments made under the Peace Agreement and the process must be transparent. People must be informed as to what is happening and if there is a certain obstacle they should know what that is, so that everybody should be empowered ready to resolve whatever the problem is. In fact, that is the way we managed the early part of the peace agreement. The early part of the Peace Agreement involved a lot of awareness raising a lot of consensus, a lot of consultations between different groups. Let me say this. At the start of the peace process we had more factions that what we have now but at least the peace process was moving very fast, much faster than what I see now.

GARRETT: What role does the re-opening of the Panguna copper mine have in independence?

TANIS: The opening of the Panguna copper mine is an important part in enabling Bougainville to meet one of its conditions of the Peace Agreement before the conduct of the referendum. That is on meeting financial self-reliance to demonstrate that Bougainville can survive as a nation. But on the other hand I hold the personal view also, that independence and Panguna mine should not be mixed. That the political process should follow its own path and the process in Panguna should follow its own path. If you look back into the roots of the Bougainville conflict I see 2 agendas; the first agenda is the Panguna mine, the second agenda, the independence agenda. And I always held the view that in terms of resolving the Bougainville conflict the political agenda has a peace agreement and it sets up a time frame and a road map on the process to independence and the second agenda is Panguna and I think we should do a little bit much more work to resolve the issue.

GARRETT: What other options are there in Bougainville for economic self-reliance other than the Panguna copper mine?

TANIS: We have plantations. If we take for example, where Bougainville was before the conflict. We have to start where we were, meaning we had plantations, smaller holder cocoa gardens and Bougainville is a small island. I think we have enough money. Even without opening Panguna we can start at an advantage position because we are a small island, we have a lot of money. My observation in the last few years has been that there is a lot of money going in and out of Bougainville, with scrap metal, with alluvial mining, with trade stories and even with vehicles, and the administration is not collecting taxes. So even without the mine there is a lot already but the question of the Panguna mine is a question that is unavoidable. Bougainville must resolve it and we must decide on the future of the Panguna mine.

GARRETT: Could Bougainville get independence without the Panguna mine re-opening?

TANIS: That is what I am saying. Bougainville independence should not be conditioned on the opening of the Panguna mine but at the same time the trick is this: the opening of the Panguna mine will obviously contribute to the economic self-reliance of Bougainville that will be very important to the future independent state of Bougainville, if Bougainville choses to be independent.

GARRETT: Bougainville Copper says the re-opening of the mine will take six years. How can you keep those 2 processes, the process towards independence and the process towards re-opening the mine separate, if they are going to be taking place at the same time?

TANIS: If I may turn this the other way around and tell you this. The question of Panguna mine will not go away, whether Bougainville becomes independent or Bougainville choses to remain part of PNG. Panguna mine is a decision that must be made regardless of which ever way the vote goes. So we have to be careful on how we put relationships on the political future of Bougainville and how we condition it to Panguna.The two processes are important; Panguna mine issue must be resolved and independence issue must be resolved.

GARRETT: You are in favour of re-opening the Panguna mine why?

TANIS: I am in favour of opening Panguna mine and I come from a guerrilla army that fought against the Panguna mine but I have come to notice that there is already mining on Bougainville. While the Panguna mine is shut there are other mining activities happening on Bougainville. Panguna mine was opened in the early days when Bougainvilleans did not know much about the value of the yellow stone and all they knew in those days was cocoa and there was not much alluvial mining. After the conflict people now know the value of the stone under the ground. So I see even small activities, panning along the tailings and even small interests groups doing bits and pieces here and there on Bougainville. It has made me realise that mining is an industry that will be an important part of the Bougainville economy so yes, I am in favour of re-opening Panguna but again I come to the question of the process, the process must be transparent, the process must take its time and all the stakeholders must be consulted and the people must be given a chance to debate it properly instead of rushing it because if we rush it we might risk problems along the way.