Region Votes For Independence From Papua New Guinea

Bougainville voted in favor of independence from Papua New Guinea in a referendum in December 2019. (Wikimedia Commons)

The National Parliament of Papua New Guinea convened on February 11 to discuss for the first time the results and subsequent problems that occurred after the December 2019 Bougainville Referendum for independence, according to the Post-Courier. 

Sir Puka Temu, the Papua New Guinean minister for Bougainville affairs, presented a summary of the referendum process and results and led a joint post-referendum ministerial task force. The task force intends to handle the legal and social implications of the referendum results; however, the details have not been publicized.

Currently, Bougainville is an autonomous region of Papua New Guinea. The national government approved a referendum in which Bougainville’s 300,000 residents could vote for independence. According to Radio New Zealand, the voter turnout was 87.4 percent; out of 181,067 ballots cast, 98 percent of the island’s voters favored complete independence over a greater degree of autonomy within Papua New Guinea.

The referendum was the result of the Bougainville Peace Agreement of 2001, reports BBC. A local secessionist movement, due to environmental and economic grievances, turned into a nine-year separatist war that began in 1988. 

The end of the fighting led to the Bougainville Peace Agreement in 2001, the creation of the Autonomous Bougainville Government, and the promise of a non-binding referendum on independence, reports BBC.

Bougainville’s rich copper and gold resources made it significant to the economy of Papua New Guinea, reports BBC. In the early 1970s, Bougainville Copper Limited, a subsidiary of Rio Tinto, an Anglo-Australian corporation, constructed a large mine on the island. Between 1978 and 1987, 60 percent of the company’s cash profit was distributed to the Papua New Guinean government, 35 percent to foreign shareholders, five percent to the local Bougainville government, and 0.2 percent to local landowners, as reported in a journal article by the University of Wollongong.

While the Papua New Guinean government still has the final say on what becomes of Bougainville, the referendum result would complicate any effort on part of the Papua New Guinean government to indefinitely postpone a decision. 

Most national members of Parliament were hesitant to approve the independence, reports Radio New Zealand. Temu warned that the constitution does not allow secession or separation of any part of the country. He said, “The referendum result... has united Bougainville, but it has also caused most learned and informed Papua New Guineans, including leaders, to have preference for a unified country,” reports the Post-Courier.

During the convention, Sir Sam Akoitai, a Bougainvillean Member of Parliament, emphasized the region’s intention to become independent, says Radio New Zealand. He explained that Bougainville leaders made their first Unilateral Declaration of Independence in 1975 and a second in 1990, and thus “a third one would have a stronger basis given the referendum result.”