Solomon Islands Prime Minister Manasseh Damukana Sogavare told LOOP PNG resolving past differences is the only path to true peace and security in the border regions.
“We have the Bougainvilleans also here, they come as observers, and we look at how we can do peace building on the border between PNG and Solomon Islands a bit better and in a way that can promote and harness peace among our people,” Sogavare said.
Bougainville civil war, the largest conflict in Oceania since WWII, raged for a decade from 1988, with thousands of lives lost.
Prime Minister Sogavare said it also saw serious skirmishes with Solomon Islands border police on the PNG/Solomon Islands border, including several unauthorised crossings by Papua New Guinea military personnel into Solomon Islands in search of Bougainvillean militants.
The Solomon Islands Ministry of National Unity, Reconciliation and Peace adds they have completed a week of national reconciliation ceremonies for Solomon Islands own ethnic crisis in 1998, now want to pursue reconciliation with PNG and Bougainville.