Bougainville president warns of going against peace process

Bougainville's President Ishmael Toroama has warned that if Papua New Guinea's national parliament rejects the 2019 referendum results, it could jeopardize the ongoing peace process. During a recent meeting of the Joint Supervisory Body, chaired by Prime Minister James Marape, both governments agreed to table the referendum results for debate by the national parliament on August 27. The referendum, which was part of the Bougainville Peace Agreement from 2001, saw 97.7% of respondents vote in favor of independence.

Toroama emphasized that Bougainville entered the talks committed to upholding joint agreements and called on PNG to honor the Joint Consultations report and the Melanesian Framework. He described the recent decision by the national government as a "masterpiece of bureaucratic evasion and historical revisionism," arguing that it suggests Parliament has the power to reject the referendum outcome, effectively resetting Bougainville's status to autonomy.

Toroama called this a "dangerous legal fiction," as it treats Bougainville's constitutional right to self-determination as if it were subject to external political factors.

He criticized proposals for Bougainville to revisit its political status after meeting additional conditions, stating that this insults the intelligence of the Bougainville people by trading a constitutionally validated referendum result for a vague promise of future political favors. Toroama maintained that rejecting the referendum outcome would violate the Bougainville Peace Agreement, which promised that the people's choice would be negotiated in good faith toward a definitive conclusion.

He also criticized recent parliamentary decisions on voting thresholds and sessional orders, arguing they were made without the necessary joint consultation per previous agreements and constitute a unilateral move away from the peace process.

Toroama challenged the national parliament's recent actions, stating that they bypassed mandatory consultation required by law and represent a departure from the partnership spirit. He urged PNG lawmakers to study the Joint Consultations report, which he described as a blueprint for Bougainville's transition to self-governance and eventual sovereignty.

Toroama reiterated that the overwhelming referendum vote for independence remains unquestioned, with no objections raised during the 40 days of the vote by any party or citizen, including the national government and the international community. This 97.7% vote for independence is a sealed, certified, and immutable historical fact, in the eyes of the Bougainville people.