29.08.2013
Source: The National
Akoitai: Act still intact
ISSUES concerning section 23 of the Bougainville constitution are important to Bougainvilleans because it is a “locally-grown” piece of legislation, former MP and mining minister Sam Akoitai said yesterday.
“This is the constitution that the people of Bougainville came up with after the peace agreement was signed. It is based on experiences and the sufferings of the people of Bougainville, people who have suffered in the fighting which has left a lot of people homeless and uneducated for 10 years,” he said.
“No group or individual like me, apart from the government, has the law-making powers to pass laws for Bougainville or anywhere else.”
Akotai was responding to a newspaper advertisement last Friday alleging that a Port Moresby-based group was planning to stop the implementation of the constitution’s section 23 which would pave the way for the enactment of a Bougainville mining policy.
Former rebel commander Sam Kauona, who is chairman of the Bougainville Resources Development Corporation, claimed that Akoitai and a group headed by a lawyer Tony Regan, Chamber of Mines and Petroleum executive dirtector Greg Anderson and mining executive Mel Togolo were undermining the government of Bougainville president John Momis.
Kauona claimed that the president was not aware of “such subterfuge and insubordination” and that “Regan is refusing to implement the drafting instructions for a third draft mining policy which is required to include section 23”.
However, Akoitai said the newspaper advertisement was defamatory and painted a wrong picture of the proposed law relating to the Bougainville people, their government and their economy.
“Sam Kauona also fell short of disclosing his source of the information,” he said.
“Writers and people of Bougainville should continue to be reminded that Bougainville is just coming out from a crisis situation and total peace has not been achieved yet.
“In that regard, I call on Sam Kauona to stop spending money, actually K2072.40 at this week’s newspaper rates, on advertisements and write-ups such as this and put the money to good use.
“I cannot deny that I have been involved in the workshops organised by the Bougainville Autonomous Government and assisted with the proposed Mining Act for Bougainville.
“But, I can deny that there have not been any separate workshops and meetings by any groups in Port Moresby that Sam Kauona is alluding to.”
Akoitai said there was no group in Port Moresby planning and working to stop a proposed Mining Act.
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