As the deadline for the crucial Bougainville Referendum is slowly nearing – June 15, 2019 – more ex-combatants are stepping in and joining the peace process.
Director of the Veterans Affairs in the Bougainville Administration, Dennis Kuiai, when commenting on weapon disposal and unification, said: “We have achieved a satisfactory milestone in the last 2 years; since 2015.”
Some of the achievements he highlighted were the Kieta District Reconciliation at Roreinang Village between former rival factions in May this year, the Arawa Ex-combatants Unification and Bolave Constituency Referendum Ready Declaration done early last month. He also pointed out the signing of the Unification Peace Deal by factional leaders at the Nazarene Centre for Rehabilitation at Chabai recently.
Kuiai said several constituencies were planning to declare themselves referendum ready later this year and by 2018, Panguna will also be declared a weapons-free area.
He said such milestones show a positive progress while adhering to the conduct of the referendum in 2019, as outlined in the Bougainville Peace Agreement (BPA).
He stressed that ex-combatants were clearly taking the lead to contribute in crucial peace efforts.
“Last week’s Chabai graduation of forty former BRA factional leaders, after completing a 3-week intensive workshop on peace building, has exemplified these peace efforts.”
He highlighted that the twin events at Chabai – the graduation and the signing of the peace deal – was an eye-opener for some of them (ex-combatants).