With a referendum due next year, Peter O’Neill promises to uphold peace agreement but insists MPs must endorse outcome

Papua New Guinea’s prime minister has warned foreigners shouldn’t treat the prospects of an independent Bougainville as a “plaything”.



The autonomous region, which has a population of about 230,000 people – similar in size to that of Hobart – is due to have a referendum on whether to become independent next year.

PNG signed a peace agreement with Bougainville in 2001 after a decade-long civil war that shut down the giant Panguna copper-gold mine.

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The prime minister, Peter O’Neill, insists his government will uphold the agreement and hopes the referendum can be conducted in a peaceful manner that doesn’t disrupt business on the island.

There were prerequisites to the referendum going ahead, including the establishment of the rule of law and disposal of weapons. The question that will be put to the people still has to be developed, he said.

O’Neill hit out at foreign interference over the referendum.

“It is not about independence – it is about what is best for the Bougainville people,” he told the Australia-Papua New Guinea business forum in Brisbane.

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“Australian and New Zealand media are very obsessed with the idea of independence – for them it’s some plaything.”

O’Neill flagged that after the vote in 2019 the outcome must be endorsed by PNG’s national parliament.

“I can assure you every member of parliament will vote in the interests of unified and harmonious country,” he said.