Caption: Don Polye.
By MATTHEW VARI
Sunday, April 24, 2016 (Sunday Chronicle, PNG)
OPPOSITION Leader Don Polye has slammed the government on its approach in honouring the Bougainville peace agreement to date.
His comments come amidst meetings taking place between both the Autonomous Regional Government of Bougainville and the National Government during the week.
Mr Polye said that the approach taken by the Papua New Guinea government was worrying as the agreement was not being given the utmost urgency it deserved considering the effect the conflict had to the country and the region concerned.
“The approach that Papua New Guinea takes in addressing or managing the peace agreement will pave the way, by setting precedence as to how we will set the standard in managing our resource development and addressing some of the issues that arise out of resource development in the country,” Mr Polye said.
“Furthermore it is important because it deals with economic development as a whole. BCL (Bougainville Copper Limited) used to be the major contributor to the national income. That did affect the country’s income when the crisis took place.”
“The future of this mine and people of Bougainville is important as far as the economic development of this country is concerned. People have suffered, with families destroyed with the generation todays of young men and women have not been educated- parents are struggling to ensure they have access to services that other Papua New Guineans have.”
He said it was his view that the PM has ignored the peace agreement entirely by delaying, debating, and deviating from the established agreement, pointing that out with previous discussions that were hampered in December 2015 in Kokopo.
“My view is that the prime minister has completely ignored the peace agreement between Bougainville and Papua New Guinea.”
“Whether deliberately by design or whether he does not understand it I am so shocked to see that the National Government has not taken any responsible actions- especially in effecting some of the programs and activities that are enshrined in the peace agreement in the Autonomous Region of Bougainville.”
“The discussions that took place in Kokopo late last year- the National Government, the state team went completely unprepared; oblivious to the issues they did not discuss,” Polye said.
He said the Bougainvillian delegation came well prepared with a well vest understanding on what should be progressed further from the meet.
“What happened the meeting got delayed and hasn’t been any talk about it. The financing of the K500 million, K100 million for restorative work which has not been forgoing to the region. The government has been putting that on the backburner.”
“K400 million minimum is outstanding and the government is still yet to release the funds. What answers does the prime minister and his government have for those young people out there who have missed all those services?” Polye asked.
“We need vocation, technical, TAFE, human skills development, agriculture, SMEs. How can all these things happen if K100 million is not going to Bougainville through the autonomous government every year?”
He added that it was a vital gap that Prime Minister Peter O’Neill needs to fill.
“I am calling on the PM to take this very seriously and not to politicize a very important issue. These issues must be addressed promptly.”
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