Trading Bougainville Copper (ADRs) 867948

http://www.austmine2015.com/...chure.pdf&eventid=8581&m=1980#

Sponsor RIO Tinto
Break-out Sessions on the themes of: Underground Mining, Open Cut
Mining, Coal, Metalliferous Minin

http://www.radionz.co.nz/international/...pen-mission-in-bougainville

PNG upset over Bougainville mission plan

2:34pm May 14, 2015


Papua New Guinea prime minister Peter O'Neill says he's shocked by the sudden announcement of an Australian diplomatic mission in Bougainville, which happened without consultation with his government.

The Australian government announced the plans for the mission as part of Tuesday's budget.

"There has been no consultation on this proposal and there is no agreement to proceed," Mr O'Neill said in Sydney on Wednesday.....

kompl Artikel hier:
http://www.9news.com.au/national/2015/05/14/14/13/...lle-mission-plan
 

Kann man daraus den Schluss ziehen dass AU fest damit rechnet dass das Ergebnis des Referendums Pro-Independance sein wird und man sich jetzt schon positionniert.

"Australia has a significant and growing development programme in the Autonomous Region of Bougainville, which is almost 50 per cent higher than 2012/13, and will continue to partner with the PNG government in supporting economic growth throughout PNG," her spokeswoman said.

Bougainville is home to the giant Panguna copper deposit. A Panguna mine run by Bougainville Copper, a subsidiary of Australian-listed Rio Tinto, was forced to close in 1989 during the conflict.

Rio Tinto has said the PNG government as well as Bougainville's leadership were supportive of restarting operations at what is one of the South Pacific's largest mines for copper and gold.

.....PNG governmentas well as Bougainville's leadership were supportive of restarting operations.....

Zu welchen Bedingungen (von PNG) wird wohl auch  davon abhängen wie überzeugend die aktuelle Wahl zu gunsten des amtierenden Präsi ausfällt.
AU muß  schon darauf schauen das alles `mit rechten Dingen` also rechtmäßig zugeht. ;-)))

 

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-05-14/...-supports-john-momis/6470012

Bougainville election: Me'ekamui militia group backs incumbent president John Momis as voting continues

Posted yesterday at 9:53am
John Momis
Photo: John Momis, incumbent president of the Autonomous Region of Bougainville.
Related Story: Bougainville elections underway as island looks to independence
Map: Bougainville

In a surprise move, the hardline Me'ekamui militia group has voiced its support for incumbent president John Momis in the election underway in Bougainville.

The autonomous region in Papua New Guinea will soon begin a five-year window during which it will hold a referendum on independence from the mainland.

The president elected in this vote will negotiate the terms and date of the referendum, part of a peace agreement signed after the civil war with PNG.

Of the nine presidential candidates, Mr Momis is the favourite to win when the results are announced next month.

The Me'ekamui militia, which controls access to the controversial Panguna mine, had thrown its support behind Mr Momis, who they said has promised to reserve seats for them in future governments.

"I declare that Momis has 100 per cent [support] from the people here and most of the Me'ekamui government," Me'ekamui defence force commander Moses Pipilo said.

The office of Mr Momis, a former Catholic priest and one of the only candidates who is not an ex-combatant, did not confirm seats had been reserved for militia members.

The Me'ekamui government are the landowners of the Panguna copper mine, which closed in 1989 when environmental damage and compensation sparked the civil war.
'Small hiccups' in largely smooth week of voting
Ballot boxes in Rorvana village during the Bougainville elections
Photo: Ballot boxes on the beach in Rorovana. (ABC: Liam Cochrane)

The ABC's PNG correspondent Liam Cochrane, who is in Bougainville, described the Panguna polling station as "like time had left it behind", with "lush jungle" beginning to take over the empty buildings left behind by the conflict.

But he said in the largely idyllic and conflict-free week of voting, there were "a few hiccups".

He said people had complained that illiterate voters were being assisted by only one other person and were potentially being guided towards one candidate.

"A few people told us that what they wanted is for at least two people to help these illiterate voters cast their ballots and make it a more neutral process," Cochrane said.

At some polling stations people turned up to vote but found their names were not on the electoral roll.

"This was particularly a problem in the polling station at Mabiri," Cochrane told Radio Australia's Pacific Beat.

"Some of the international observers I spoke to said they turned up to find that 130-odd were enrolled on the roll and only 17 females, so something clearly has gone very wrong with the roll there.

"And when voters turned up, others found the situation and simply turned around in disgust."

There will be a further week of polling allowed for bad weather or other delays next week followed by a week of counting, with a similar contingency week.

A result is expected on June 8.  

160515 TWENTY FOUR CONSTITUENCIES COMPLETE
By Aloysius Laukai

Polling in TWENTY FOUR of the THIRTY- THREE seats in the Autonomous Bougainville Government’s Parliament were completed today Saturday May 16th, 2015.
This means only NINE Constituencies are yet to complete polling before end of polling on May, 2015th.
This also means that the remaining areas must be covered in the next nine days.
This was revealed by the Acting Bougainville Electoral Commissioner, GEORGE MANU this afternoon in his daily press conferences.
MR. MANU said that despite the hiccups at the start of Polling he was happy that polling is progressing well.
By this afternoon polling have been completed in many areas.
In North Bougainville, polling has been completed in 12 CONSTITUENCIES of HAKU,PEIT,HALIA,HAGOGOHE,TONSU,TSITALATO,SELAU,TEUA,MAHARI,
TAONITA TINPUTZ and TAONITA TEOP.
In South polling has been completed in twelve Constituencies of RAMU,KONNOU,LULE, BAUBAKE,MAKIS,KOPII,MOTUNA HUYONO, BABA,LATO,BOLAVE and TOROKINA.
The Commissioner said that due to communication difficulties receiving updates for Central continues to be challenging at times.
Polling for Monday will take place at RATERI in the Rao Constituency whilst team 99 For IORO will poll at SIREDONSI village, team 111 for South Nasioi will poll at ROREINANG and in KOKODA team 125 will poll at KOROMIRA.

Ends

.......of Bougainville needs the successful development of Panguna."

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-05-17/...ining-in-bouganville/6475984

Bougainville's relationship with BCL is complex.

Many people received their education and exposure to the world through BCL.

But the company is widely blamed for the bitter conflict, environmental damage and almost a quarter century of neglect.

Some people think it may be better to deal with the devil they know, rather than the often-shady companies who have moved in for scrap metal and mineral pickings.

For now though, the only mining in Panguna is the small-scale variety.

Diplomatic row BREAKING NEWS: PNG Government Imposes Ban on Australians Travelling to Bougainville
Aust


Rimbink Pato, Minister For Foreign Affairs and Immigration, has announced a ban on Australians travelling to Bougainville.
Minister Pato issued the notice following the announcement by Australia of its plan to establish an Open Mission in Bougainville.
The Minister said, “I have instructed the Chief Migration Officer to impose the ban with immediate effect and to notify all PNG Overseas Missions and Posts and domestic carriers of the ban.”
He said Australians residing in Bougainville on work and permanent resident visas will not be affected by the ban. The ban will apply to all Australian passport holders who intend to visit Bougainville on tourist, business and other short-term entry visa’s.

All Diplomats and Foreign Government Officials wishing to visit Bougainville must seek clearance from the Department of Foreign Affairs before travelling to Bougainville. A clearance note will be issued to the Carrier to uplift the named officail(s).

The ban will also be imposed on any foreigner who applies for a visa at an PNG Overseas Missions and Post to visit Bougainville.

PNG Migration, Customs and Police Officers on duty at PNG Ports and Entry and Provincial Airports will monitor the ban and report any non-compliance to the Chief Migration Officer.

Source: Rimbink Pato, Minister for Foreign Affairs and Immigration 15 May 2015 [Media Release]  

http://dev.postcourier.com.pg/kids-place/

New post on Papua New Guinea Mine Watch
                    
           §
PNG, 40 years after independence, can be more than a quarry
by ramunickel

Bougainville’s much-loathed Panguna mine may reopen. Australia and the US are contesting Pacific energy assets. What future is there for PNG?

panguna

Bougainvillians living in the remains of the once massive mining venture at the Panguna mine in Bougainville, 2010. Photograph: Ilya Gridneff/AAP

Antony Loewenstein | The Guardian

After years of uncertainty, the once-profitable copper mine on Bougainville, an autonomous province of Papua New Guinea (PNG), could well be reopened.

The chairman of Bougainville Copper Limited (BCL), Peter Taylor, told the Australian recently that “the Bougainville government seems to want the mine reopened, but we have to sit down … and see what’s doable.”

BCL’s Panguna mine opened in 1972, three years before PNG was granted independence from Australia. Bougainvilleans barely benefited from the operation, a deal that smacked of colonial arrogance and resulted in pollution.

In response, locals launched a rebellion in the 1980s against the mine, BCL, and the PNG and Australian governments. The resistance won the ensuing civil war but at a steep human cost: up to 20,000 killed and infrastructure broken.

Today Bougainville is beset by poverty and economic stagnation. I witnessed this myself during two visits in recent years.

The polls opened last week to elect a new government in the lead-up to an independence referendum scheduled before 2020. The local government, along with BCL and Canberra, is pushing for the mine to be Bougainville’s financial saviour, first.

But according to a Jubilee Australia report last year, the vast majority on the island oppose BCL’s return. This tallies with what I heard in towns and villages.

The potential reopening of the mine is one piece of an Australian strategy to open up South Pacific nations to foreign interests. As Australian foreign minister Julie Bishop said in 2014: Australia should “stimulate the [PNG] private sector through growth”.

The situation in Bougainville perfectly encapsulates the parlous state of affairs in PNG as it approaches the 40-year anniversary of its break with Australia.

On 16 September 1975 a ceremony was held in the PNG capital Port Moresby, at which Australian prime minister Gough Whitlam, Prince Charles and PNG’s first prime minister, Michael Somare, declared PNG a constitutional monarchy with membership of the Commonwealth.

The country was was granted independence but its path has been torturous ever since. Canberra never allowed its northern neighbour to fully leave a relationship of dependency, and today provides $577m annually in aid that primarily benefits Australian companies making money there.

The PNG exposed blog – an independent and reliable news and analysis website – has criticised Australia’s attempts to teach PNG leaders how to avoid corruption.

According to the blog, Canberra turns a blind eye to billions of dollars of “PNG taxpayers money [siphoned] through Australian banks and into real estate schemes in Brisbane and Cairns, posh Australian public schools, its glitzy casinos and expensive private hospitals”.

Forty years after breaking free from Australia, PNG suffers shockingly high levels of HIV infection, maternal health issues, domestic violence, aggression against women and illiteracy. Even the PNG government itself admits that “PNG’s adult literacy situation is in dire straits”.

This isn’t solely Australia’s fault; endemic corruption has blighted PNG for decades (US State Department cables released by Wikileaks confirm this). Yet Western donors and resource companies are principally to blame for engaging in neo-colonialism, treating the country as nothing more than a source of wealth for outsiders.

Some of the mining projects currently in operation may be familiar: Ok Tedi, Porgera, Lihir, Ramu. They’re all environmentally destructive and offer little benefit to local communities. At the Porgera gold mine, cases of “extreme sexual violence” by security guards against tribal women and girls resulted in offers of compensation.

It’s unsurprising that most Papua New Guineans I met were sceptical about foreign investment in their country, knowing they would never feel or see any benefit from it.

Others are more hopeful, like US Democratic presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton. During her time as US Secretary of State, she was open in admitting that the huge energy resources in PNG, especially the Exxon-Mobil LNG gas pipeline that opened in 2014 and is already struggling due to collapsing global commodity prices, was part of a regional contest with China. She chastised China for “wining and dining” Asia-Pacific politicians.

“If anybody thinks that our retreating on these issues is somehow going to be irrelevant to the maintenance of our leadership in a world where we are competing with China, that is a mistaken notion,” she said.

The people of PNG have only been impoverished by so-called leadership from Washington and Canberra. Meanwhile, corruption is rife; PNG’s anti-corruption agency, Taskforce Sweep, was starved of funds earlier this year following allegations they made against prime minister Peter O’Neill.

Perhaps the clearest indication of how Australia views PNG is the Manus Island asylum seeker deal. Slammed by a leading PNG provincial governor as “neo-colonialist”, locals receive little benefit and are really helping the Australian Liberal and Labor parties solve a domestic political problem.

Journalist Jo Chandler, writing recently in the Monthly, shows in great detail the way “Australia is primarily concerned with building the infrastructure to service their interests and comforts.” This is also an accurate summary of the dynamic between Port Moresby and Canberra since 1975.

There’s huge potential in PNG to be a nation that isn’t known internationally for mining and witch burning. Grassroots groups, such as the Madang-based Bismarck Ramu Group, aim to protect local communities and inform them of viable alternatives to resource extraction – such as agriculture.

Yet this year’s 40th anniversary of independence should be a sombre occasion to reflect on four decades of failed Australian interference in PNG. Canberra views Port Moresby as overseeing a massive quarry Australian firms have the right to plunder. We dump asylum seekers on PNG territory while still claiming to be a victim of unscrupulous people smugglers. And our aid money? It’s is an insurance policy against a failed state on Australia’s northern border.
ramunickel | May 18, 2015 at 4:41 pm | Tags: AusAID, Australia, Bougainville, Environmental damage, Human rights, Jubilee Australia, Landholders, Panguna, Papua New Guinea, Peter O'Neill, PNG development, Rio Tinto | Categories: Australia, Corruption, Environmental impact, Financial returns, Human rights, Papua New Guinea | URL: http://wp.me/pMvf7-4eE  

....noch deutlicher geht´s nicht. Die Frage wer hier die Hürden aufbaut kann sich jetzt jeder selbst beantworten. ;-)  

Unter wessen Einflussbereich wird sich Bougainville nach seiner Unabhängigkeit begeben?
PNG oder Austalien?

 

Ich fürchte hier steht alles drin:

https://ramumine.wordpress.com/2015/05/18/...n-be-more-than-a-quarry/

Und weil das so nicht weiter gehen kann wird es Forderungen an den künftigen Betreiber der Panguna-Mine geben. Die Frage ist aber: Hat Rio es nötig darauf einzugehen? Gibt es nicht genug andere "Kanaken-Länder" wo man mit weniger Aufwand Gewinne produzieren kann?
Oder gibt es am Ende einen korrupten "Deal"?  

THE fate of Bougainville Copper — with billions of dollars of ore remaining unmined — is being debated again in Papua New Guinea.

Published in the AUSTRALIAN 5 June 2014 by: Rowan Callick

A statement has been circu­lated claiming that in February Prime Minister Peter O’Neill proposed the expropriation of Rio Tinto’s 53.6 per cent stake — which Mr O’Neill strongly denied yesterday.

The statement comes within a longer message from Bougainville’s President John Momis, within which he claims that during Mr O’Neill’s groundbreaking visit he “proposed to me directly that the national government would repeal the Bougainville Copper Agreement Act and expropriate all Rio Tinto shares in BCL”.

Mr Momis continues: “I knew Bougainvilleans would object to PNG controlling the development of mining at Panguna. So I wrote to the PM, opposing what he proposed in the strongest terms.”

The two leaders have met since and, according to the statement issued by Mr Momis, Mr O’Neill “then agreed that he would leave all issues about Panguna” — the mine site — “to be decided by the Autonomous Bougainville Government”.

The PNG government owns 19.1 per cent of Bougainville Copper.

Mr O’Neill was the first prime minister to visit Bougainville since the civil war there ended in 1997.

During his three-day visit in February, he said: “We are not interested in Panguna mine and some of the mining issues that are being discussed. We are interested in bringing development to Bougainville as a whole.”

Mr O’Neill told The Australian yesterday from Japan, where he is on an official visit: “There is no truth in that (claim of an expropriation threat), and the government position is that any talk of reopening the mine is up to the people of Bougainville.

“That is the commitment I made when I visited Panguna.”

The context includes the ABG’s tussle to conclude new mining legislation — which faces opposition from the PNG central government, which at present constitutionally retains sovereign control over minerals, and from groups within Bougainville, some of which are backed by maverick foreign individuals and groups that are seeking to dislodge Rio from its leases and to take them over.

Mr Momis said the legislation still in progress was initially developed “to stop foreign companies trying to control mining development in Bougainville through the back door”.

The context also includes Mr O’Neill’s surprise move last year to legislate control by the PNG government of the Ok Tedi mine, taking over the majority shareholding owned by PNG Sustainable Development Program, a trust established to succeed BHP Billiton when it withdrew from the mine.

The Prime Minister’s chief of staff, Isaac Lupari, who was present in the meeting with Mr Momis, told The Australian that when the issue of reopening the mine was raised, the leaders had discussed the prospect of the two governments buying a bigger stake from Rio Tinto, but “there was never any suggestion of nationalisation, or of repeal of the Bougainville Copper Agreement Act”.

Peter Taylor, chairman of BCL and also president of the Australia PNG Business Council, did not wish to comment.

But he told The Australian that the joint co-ordinating committee — established about 18 months ago to consider whether the mine should reopen and, if so, under what terms — with representatives of the national and Bougainville governments, the land­-owners, and BCL, had already met nine or 10 times. He said: “An actual agreement between the parties, if there is to be one, is still far away, down the track.”

More immediately, a formal reconciliation ceremony is being planned for BCL at Arawa on Bougainville, involving people from all areas of the province but prominently including Panguna landowners — the final stage of a series of such ceremonies to have taken place since the end of the decade-long war that began with the forced closure of the mine in 1989. The ceremony is likely to include the presentation by BCL of equipment for technical training and for malaria prevention.

A referendum will be held in Bougainville between next year and 2020 to decide the future of the province.
 

http://www.radionz.co.nz/international/...bougainville-election-count


Atolls hopes to vote in time for Tuesday's Bougainville election count

Updated at 6:51 am today

Tasman Island in the Atolls constituency of North Bougainville is the final constituency yet to complete polling in the Bougainville election.
Bougainville readies for election


Photo: AFP

Counting is due to start next Tuesday, once all ballot boxes are received.

Polling officials for Tasman Island are still at Mortlock Island, and have been prevented from reaching Tasman Island due to bad weather.

The Office of the Bougainville Electoral Commissioner has already arranged with the management of Bougainville's latest flagship, the MV Rapois Chief to travel to Mortlock and transport the polling officials to Tasman.

The vessel was expected to leave Buka last night and is due to arrive at Mortlock today.

The office says voting will commence as soon as the vessel arrives in Tasman Island

Topics:   Bougainville PNG

PNG BAN ON AUSTRALIAN’S TRAVEL TO BOUGAINVILLE – Momis says honour the Bougainville Peace Agreement

“I call on the Foreign Minister to lift the ban immediately, and to separately take steps to resolve the PNG dispute with Australia. There is no basis for the PNG Government to be harming Bougainville as a way of dealing with its misunderstanding with Australia.

“I also call on the Foreign Minister to work with the ABG to ensure that we can use our foreign affairs powers under the Peace Agreement.

“I also seek an assurance from the Minister that in future he will not take unilateral action in relation to foreign citizen’s travel to Bougainville. Instead, he must recognise Bougainville’s autonomy, and only take any such action at the request, or with the agreement, of the ABG

Grand Chief Dr John L. Momis

President John L. Momis today made a statement on the dispute between PNG and Australia over the PNG announcement of a ban on travel to Bougainville by Australians. The ban was imposed in response to Australia’s announcement about establishing a diplomatic office in Bougainville.

The President said the ban on Australians travelling to Bougainville would only cause problems for PNG, Bougainville, and Australia.

He said: “Australia is spending K120 million per year on assistance for Bougainville. It supports development building the capacity of the public service of the Autonomous Bougainville Government (ABG). A ban on Australians travelling to Bougainville will severely slow delivery of important assistance that is helping Bougainville in many ways.

“It is therefore vitally important that this dispute between PNG and Australia is resolved as soon as possible. The dispute can readily be resolved if both governments honour the Bougainville Peace Agreement.

“Australia knows that under the Agreement, Bougainville’s leaders accepted that Bougainville is part of PNG unless the referendum process results in a change. So unless or until that happens, Australia must of course respect PNG sovereignty.

“I understand that what Australia proposes is a limited increase in the full-time office it has had in Buka since about 2007. Australia has had discussions with PNG and the ABG about doing this. But the announcement in the Australian Treasurer’s budget speech last week made it sound as if a major diplomatic office is to be established

That is not the case. Australia should publicly clarify what is little more than a misunderstanding.

“For its part, PNG should remember that the Peace Agreement provides Bougainville with high autonomy, now guaranteed by the PNG Constitution.

The travel ban has been imposed without a request from or agreement of the ABG. This is a serious breach of at least the spirit of the Peace Agreement.

“The Agreement also clearly gives the ABG control of access of foreigners to Bougainville.

Under it the ABG can propose names of foreigners to be placed on the visa warning list, to prevent their entry to PNG and Bougainville. All applications for work permits and employment visas for people wanting to go to Bougainville are required to be referred to the ABG.

“But ABG requests to the National Government to set up the necessary administrative machinery for the ABG to exercise these powers have so far been ignored. So it seriously concerns me that PNG now wants to control travel to Bougainville, when it does nothing to allow the ABG to exercise its clear powers to control foreigner’s access to Bougainville.”

The President said that he wanted to discuss the travel ban with Prime Minister and Minister for Foreign Affairs as a matter of urgency.

He said: “I call on the Foreign Minister to lift the ban immediately, and to separately take steps to resolve the PNG dispute with Australia. There is no basis for the PNG Government to be harming Bougainville as a way of dealing with its misunderstanding with Australia.

“I also call on the Foreign Minister to work with the ABG to ensure that we can use our foreign affairs powers under the Peace Agreement.

“I also seek an assurance from the Minister that in future he will not take unilateral action in relation to foreign citizen’s travel to Bougainville. Instead, he must recognise Bougainville’s autonomy, and only take any such action at the request, or with the agreement, of the ABG

Grand Chief Dr John L. Momis

http://www.radionz.co.nz/international/...for-interfering-in-election


Chief in Bougainville jailed for interfering in election

Updated at 9:31 am today

   Share on Twitter
   Share on Facebook
   Share on Google Plus
   Share on Reddit
   Share on Linked In
   Share via email

A chief from Kieta in Bougainville is behind bars at Arawa police station after ordering his people not to vote in the elections for the autonomous government in the Papua New Guinea region.

Chief James Bitoe, of Kopei Village in the Eivo/Torau constituency of Kieta District in Central Bougainville reportedly instructed his people to support the failed money scam operator Noah Musingku.

A women leader of Kopei, Maritha Tamahin, told the Post Courier newspaper the eight clans of the village asked police to come in and take action.

Ms Tamahin says Chief James Bitoe did the same thing in 2005 and 2010.

She says only three quarters of the 1,000 eligible voters in the village could vote as the other names were missing from the common roll.

Voting has completed in all but one constituency and votes will be counted from next Tuesday.

....@ havanna nur AU bringt uns in den essentiellen Fragen weiter und ich schätze das weiss auch Momis und richtet seine weiteren Schritte danach aus.

Man kann sich nicht vorstellen das PNG international auch nur die Grundlage von Vertrauen besitzt, nicht einmal ansatzweise.

Vertrauen das aber bitter notwendig ist.  ;-))  

Warum sollte das nicht bei BOC drin sein? ;-))

https://ramumine.wordpress.com/2015/05/21/...ing-for-a-better-future/

in AU, +9,5% bei relativ schönem Umsatz 141.000
stetig nach oben.  

in ur dreams...  

zum schluss nochmal eins auf die mütze  

....nur Käufe aus dem ASK

Aber die +9.5% wollte man nicht so stehen lassen ;-))

Today: 21-May-2015
Time(AEST) Price Volume Value Condition Codes
15:30:50 0.3300 1,339 442
15:22:16 0.3550 3,000 1,065
15:05:05 0.3550 1,061 377
14:47:17 0.3550 1,100 391
14:31:37 0.3550 540        192
14:31:37 0.3550 460        163
11:38:10 0.3500 540        189
11:38:10 0.3500 460        161
11:38:10 0.3500 7,000 2,450 XT
11:38:10 0.3500 29,350 10,273
09:59:56 0.3300 95,125 31,391
09:59:56 0.3300 2,875 949

http://www.radionz.co.nz/international/programmes/...t-sorted-quickly

Updated at 3:05 pm on 21 May 2015

Originally aired on Dateline Pacific, Thursday 21 May 2015

The caretaker Bougainville President says the people in the autonomous region are the ones who will suffer if  the spat between Papua New Guinea and Australia is not quickly resolved.

John Momis says the visa ban placed on Australians entering Bougainville after Canberra announced plans for a diplomatic mission in Buka breaches the spirit of the Bougainville Peace Agreement.

Mr Momis told Don Wiseman the Australian decision has not come as a surprise given Australia's involvement in the region, and it makes sense given Bougainville's increasing needs as the window for the vote on possible independence approaches.  

He wants the spat sorted quickly.

JOHN MOMIS: The people of Bougainville are going to be victimised as a result of the dis-agreement between the two governments. Both governments have given a lot to Bougainville as you know, in terms of personnel, funding and so on and so forth. It must be remembered that according to the Bougainville Peace Agreement all stakeholders must collaborate and ensure the Bougainville Peace Agreement, which I consider to be a constitutional contract between the PNG government, ABG and the people of Bougainville to work together and find a permanent peace in Bougainville.

DON WISEMAN: Australia has handled this in a very clumsy way hasn't it?

JM: Well Australia has given a lot to Bougainville, especially in the recent past, they've increased their personnel and funding to supplement and complement what the PNG government lacks in the provision of necessary funding and services to Bougainville. So it's not a surprise. They've always had an office in Buka, personnel, and I think with the imminent opening of the window of opportunity for the process of referendum, I think Australia probably feels that they must have people on the ground to manage the increase funding as well as the important process of the referendum. Australian foreign minister says they have discussed the matter with the PNG government in December last year. So I'm just calling on both governments to resolve their differences quickly so that the difficult task of managing the process of the referendum as well as the outcome of the referendum will be handled by all parties in a spirit of collaboration as per the Bougainville Peace Agreement.

DW: Do you see this as a breach of the Bougainville Peace Agreement?

JM: Well it's not explicitly stated but it is certainly a breach of the spirit of the Bougainville Peace Agreement. When you slap a ban on Australians and other foreigners according to the statement, going to Bougainville, you don't only have government personnel to work with the AGB to work with consultants, advistors. But you have businessmen, church personnel and others, who go to Bougainville who are partners of Bougainvillean businessmen and who are working with churches and the government itself. So when you put a ban on people travelling to Bougainville it will have a detrimental effect to the progress of things on the ground.