PNG uni students ready to make a big contribution to Bougainville debate by ramunickel ABC Radio Australia
As moves to begin negotiations over re-opening the Rio Tinto owned Bougainville copper mine pick up pace Papua New Guinea is beginning to look ahead at what that could mean.
The mine was closed more than 20 years ago after landowner unhappiness with its management unravelled into a bloody civil war.
The Bougainville Peace Agreement brought the conflict to an end and made provision for a referendum on independence sometime between 2015 and 2020.
In PNG political debate among young people is alive and well.
Jemima Garrett caught up with some students at the University of Papua New Guinea to find out how they feel about Bougainville's future.
Presenter: Jemima Garrett Speakers: Nou Vada, Law student and Vice President of the UPNG Student Representative Council. Sarah Griffin, Chemistry and Environmental Science student, UPNG Claire Asi, Political Science and Public Policy Management student, UPNG
GARRETT: The Bougainville crisis left deep scars on those involved. It is the Pacific's only major war since PNG independence and it reduced what had been its most developed province into a living nightmare.
More than 10,000 people died.
The war divided the community and the nation and brought down the government of Prime Minister Sir Julius Chan, after he hired mercenaries to put down the rebellion.
Bougainville became a lesson in how not to manage a world scale mining project.
Nou Vada, Vice President of the University of PNG Student Representative Council was a small boy when these events took place.
VADA: For us as young people, we are all barely out of our teens, and for us the Bougainville crisis seems a very distant idea.
GARRETT: Distant but not forgotten.
VADA: We know about it through songs and through essays that we have read. We really were not impacted by the crisis when it happened, not in the way our parents were because they lived through the crisis. We have to remind ourselves as people who will one day dictate what happens to this country, economically, socially, in government or in private sector, that the Bougainville crisis represents something that needs to be avoided at all costs.
GARRETT: At the time it closed the Bougainville copper mine was the PNG government's biggest single source of government revenue.
Chemistry student, Sarah Griffin, is aware of the complexity of a decision to re-open the mine and believes it should lie with Bougainvilleans.
GRIFFIN: . As an environmental scientist, from that point of view it would be destructive but given the grounds that they do have to maintain themselves I wouldn't have a say in that it would be a lot more personal.
GARRETT: The Panguna copper mine is seen by many Bougainvilleans as the economic lifeline that will give them the opportunity to win independence.
Nou Vada can see the challenges that lie ahead.
VADA: If PNG is serious about giving the independence then we have to make sure that Bougainville, when it does get its independence, that it can sustain the independence because a failed state will mean a bad thing for everyone. At the same time, we cannot hold them against their will. If the people of Bougainville feel they have to be their own state, then I think Papua New Guinea is obliged to, must be obliged to let them go about their own political self-determination but again premature allowance of this has its own risks as well. A failed state, the onus, the responsibility of going back and fixing any failed state, if there is a failed state, and God forbid such an event should happen, would go back to PNG and that is our concern, my concern.
GARRETT: Political Science student, Clair Asi, agrees Bougainville is a sensitive subject, with implications for the whole nation.
ASI: We have a history together as one country so whether we experience the Bougainville crisis or not, they are a part of us and I believe that that is important in itself
GARRETT: Would it worry you if Bougainville did vote for independence?
ASI: I think the worry would be that it would create an avenue for other provinces to want to get their succession and independence as well.
GARRETT: As a result of the Bougainville Peace agreement the PNG government is already handing over many powers to the Autonomous Government of Bougainville. |