PACIFIC: After the civil war: Bougainville looks ahead
After a 10-year war between separatists of the Bougainville Revolutionary Army and the central government of Papua New Guinea, causing thousands of deaths, a negotiated ceasefire was reached in 1997. This culminated in the re-establishment of an autonomous government of Bougainville, which remained within the nation of Papua New Guinea. The Governor of Bougainville and former PNG Cabinet Minister, John Momis, delivered this address on the future for Bougainville at Victoria University, Melbourne, on October 2, 2001. I now find myself in the midst of my people in search of a new identity, an identity that encompasses the best of our traditional…