Bougainville Postcourier 9/5/97 id UAA00055; Thu, 11 Sep 1997 20:43:21 -0400 Via NY Transfer News Collective * All the News that Doesn't Fit sender- VIKKI@lexsun.law.uts.edu.au Fri Sep 5 01:07:45 1997 PNG Postcourier - 5 September, 1997 `Rebel Bart' jets back in as PM PNG-educated new Solomon Islands Prime Minister Bart Ulufa'alu is making a historic visit to Port Moresby on Sunday to set relations between our two countries on a good note. This visit, 11 days since he won the pos ition, is the first by a Solomon Islands head of government since the Bougainville crisis be gan nine years ago. It is also the first over seas trip by Mr Ulufa'alu since he was elected to of fice on August 27. Details of his visit are still being finalised but both the PNG Foreign Af fairs Department and Mr Ulufa'alu's office in Hon iara confirmed the arrangement to the Post-Courier yesterday. He is expected to spend two to three days here. Secretary to the Solo mon's prime minister Ed ward Hunuehu said Mr Ulu fa'alu's ``familiarisation visit'' was intended for him to make personal contact with his PNG counterpart and leaders and discuss is sues of mutual concern. Bougainville, a thorny is sue which has created ten sions and soured relations between the two countries for many years, will feature in the discussions, Mr Hu nuehu said. He said Mr Ulufa'alu was well aware of the relation ship in the past and was keen to consult and get firsthand information on the situation from PNG before his own government finalised its policy on Bou gainville. ``I believe he (Ulufa'alu) will be asked questions on Bougainville. He will brief his counterpart on the likely policy of the government here,'' Mr Hunuehu said. He said the Solomon Islands already had a basic policy framework on PNG and Bougainville and the new government wanted to have a fresh input. ``This is a sensitive issue. It is therefore important that it (the Solomon Islands government) gets a firsthand view from PNG, especially in view of recent developments,'' Mr Hunue hu said in reference to the Burnham declaration and the Skate government's approach to Bougainville. ``We in the Solomons see this as an important dialgoue, as in the past several years this kind of dialogue was not established.'' Mr Ulufa'alu, spent four years at the University of PNG and graduated with an economics degree in 1974. He was a radical student leader during that time and was a key figure in leading students in street protests. He is a longtime politician, having already served 14 years in parliament. He has served as a finance minister and as an opposition leader. Among the Solomon delegation with PNG backgrounding is Deputy Prime Minister Sir Baddeley Devesi, at one time a governor-general, who has established good rapport with past PNG prime ministers and leaders. Another is the new Home Affairs Minister, Reverend Leslie Boseto, who for many years was the Moderator of the United Church of PNG and the Solomon Islands. Reverend Boseto is also the chairman of the World Council of Churches which has a keen interest in seeing a peaceful resolution of the Bougainville crisis. Finance Minister Manassah Sogavare was born and raised in PNG by his Seventh-Day Adventist missionary parents. Three of his elder brothers are PNG citizens, two of them prominent SDA missionaries here. Both Reverend Boseto and Mr Sogavare are from the border province of Choisel. Alfred Sasako, a former Post-Courier journalist, is also a member of Mr Ulufa'alu's govern ment. He was a candidate for the post of Foreign Affairs now held by Patteson Oti. It is understood Mr Sasako may be appointed a minister without portfolio to play a key role as government emissary. This task may include representing his government on PNG and Bougainville matters. He is familiar with Bougainville, having covered it with the Australian Associated Press during the crisis, and also recently during his term as information director at the South Pacific Forum Secretariat in Fiji. Mr Sasako's wife is from the Northern Province. ============ Warring parties take steps toward peace BOUGAINVILLE Affairs Minister Sam Akoitai on Wednesday alluded to the need for the PNG Government to reconcile with Bougainvillean leaders over the nine-year-old bloody conflict. Mr Akoitai said this while answering questions about Prime Minister Bill Skate's stance on the non-negotiability of independence for Bougainville and rebel Bougainville political leader, Mr Francis Ona's equally strong stance for it. ``I think the issue of independence is a question, an issue, that should be left alone and (we) allow the peace process and the reconciliation process to con tinue among the Bougainvilleans, and perhaps the National Government,'' Mr Akoitai said. Mr Akoitai's suggestion for the Na tional Government to lay aside the issue of independence and be involved in the reconciliation and peace process may be the opening needed to have rebel Bou gainville leader Francis Ona participate. This is because Bougainville Regional MP John Momis, in an interview after his release from BRA captivity in June, said he had spent much time with Mr Ona in discussions and the obvious thing he discovered was ``everybody wants peace''. ``Somehow, we have to find a way of breaking this deadlock and I believe the only way is to be reconciled, because once you are reconciled then you can honestly discuss difficult questions,'' Mr Momis had said. Mr Momis and Mr Ona had both par ticipated in a reconciliation ritual and following that they had agreed to work together and with other Bougainville and PNG leaders to ``stop the war'' and infliction of ``unnecessary pain, suffer ing and misery'' on innocent people. Mr Momis returned a strong advocate for sincere reconciliation as a prerequi site to any future effective dialogue for peace and a lasting solution to the conflict. Mr Akoitai's suggestion for reconciliation of the warring parties as part of the peace process could open the door for Mr Ona to participate in the next Burnham talks. It would also be a way for the National Government to take responsibility and apologise for the human rights atrocities committed by the security forces and the resistance and open doors for the Bou gainville Interim Government and its military arm, the Bougainville Revol utionary Army, to do the same. Meanwhile, all four Bougainville MPs _ Mr Momis, Mr Akoitai, North Bou gainville MP and Bougainville Affairs Vice Minister Michael Ogio and South Bougainville MP Michael Laimo _ will be participating in a reconciliation cer emony later this month in Buka. The planned reconciliation of the four national MPs came about following a luncheon meeting with Minister Akoitai and Mr Momis after the McKinnon visit to Bougainville. ================== Better communications for B'ville NEW Zealand wants to improve communication networks in Bougainville as a step toward ending secessionist fighting on the Papua New Guinea island, Foreign Affairs Minister Don McKinnon said yesterday. ``I did say to the Bou gainvillean leaders last week that one thing we would like to help with in the immediate (future) is communications on the island,'' Mr McKinnon said in Parliament. ``I think there are only one telephone and two satellite telephone sys tems on the island, so there is very little ability for the Bougainvillean leaders in different vil lages to communicate with each other. ``If we can help them with that communication maybe we'll help in the long run the overall peace process,'' Mr McKinnon said. Officials told Reuters they were trying to de termine the best way to improve communications on the island at a reason able cost. McKinnon said a sum of $A100 million recently offered by Australia out of existing aid programs to be targeted princi pally at Bougainville ``will be most useful''. ``But we all take the same view that recon struction cannot really begin until there is some kind of a peace settle ment,'' he said. New Zealand and Aus tralia are trying to foster peace talks between the rebels and the PNG gov ernment to end the nine-year uprising. ================ Ona key to Burnham talks moving forward REBEL Bougainville political leader Francis Ona's attendance at the second Burnham Talks was needed because a solution could only be reached if all parties were involved in the peace talks. Bougainville Affairs Minister Sam Akoitai said this on Wednesday while revealing that those who had access to the rebel leader were still working on him. ``We will continue to try and get him out to join the talks in Burnham,'' Mr Akoitai said. Bougainville Transitional Government officials are still hopeful and are also working on having Mr Ona attend the talks, which begin with a September 17 joint officials' meeting to consolidate the agenda. A senior official said yesterday that although there had been some negative public statements, they really wanted Mr Ona to be there. ``I myself cannot come up with one (a solution) because that's from me,'' Minister Akoitai said when asked what he intended to inject into the peace talks. ``This ministry's role is to facilitate the peace process for all the players on the ground to work towards a peaceful settlement to the problem,'' he said. When asked if foreign interference was the reason for Mr Ona's stubbornness and snubbing of the recent Roreinang visit by New Zealand Foreign Minister Don McKinnon, he said: ``I think (Sydney- based) Moses Havini being a BIG official has come out officially on this. ``That is a confirmation of what we have been faced with for the last nine years. I believe the fighting on Bougainville has been going on because of the opinions that have been pumped into Bougainville by foreigners. Perhaps if it was left to Bougainvilleans alone we can come up with a solution,'' he said. ================================================================= NY Transfer News Collective * A Service of Blythe Systems Since 1985 - Information for the Rest of Us 339 Lafayette St., New York, NY 10012 http://www.blythe.org e-mail: nyt@blythe.org ================================================================= nytpac-09.11.97-20:43:17-15249