NEW DAWN ON BOUGAINVILLE

280613WOMEN WANT RECOGNITION
By Aloysius Laukai

Women of Central Bougainville say that they must be allowed to participate at the various negotiations stages of the Panguna Negotiations.

Two women leaders from Central, MRS. BANAS and LYNET ONA told the Arawa forum that women as landowners must be given the chance to participate and give their ideas.

They said that they were not happy in the way the men of Bougainville were leading Bougainville.

AND at the BANA forum another woman leader, AGNES NARA echoed the same sentiments as women were not being recognized to participate at these important forums.

MRS. NARA said that women have the right to participate and give their views as their population is more than the men folk of Bougainville.

New Dawn FM understands that all stakeholders are given the chance to get into groups and present their views to the forum.

And all contributions from these forums will be collated to form the common stand of the people of Bougainville.

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280613PEOPLE PRAISE ABG
By Aloysius Laukai

The people of BANA yesterday praised the ABG President, DR. JOHN MOMIS for attending the to-days BANA Regional Forum on Panguna Negotiations.

The member for BOLAVE, LAWRENCE WAKAI made these comments in fare-welling the participants of the two-days BANA forum in BOLEUKO yesterday.

The member said despite his busy schedule the ABG President made it his business to participate fully at the forum.

He said that this showed the President’s commitment to listening to the worries of his people.

New Dawn FM understands that the ABG President, DR. JOHN MOMIS also attended fully the Arawa and Buin forums.

He also was able to answer to questions from the participants of the forums.

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280613FOUR DAYS FORUM ACHIEVES GOALS
By Aloysius Laukai

The Four days Regional Forum on Panguna negotiations held in Arawa and BANA this week has achieved results.
AND it has received contributions from all stake holders including the MEKAMUI, EX COMBATANTS, WOMEN’S,CHURCHES YOUTHS and constituencies of RAO AND TERRA in Wakunai, NORTH NASIOI, SOUTH NASIOI , KOKODA and KONGARA and in BANA the three Constituencies of BABA,LATO and BOLAVE with the landowners of the Tailings in which wastes from the PANGUNA mine was dumped.
Majority of the contributions sympathized with the ABG which needed funds to deliver much needed services to the people of Bougainville.
The local member for BOLAVE LAWRENCE WAKAI thanked the ABG and especially the mining department for having this important forum in his electorate which has been used by BCL to dump its wastes from the PANGUNA mine.
He said damage to their environment will never be repaired as damage is still occurring today.
MR. WAKAI said that he was happy that the ABG President and Cabinet ministers and CEO’s of Divisions including the chief administrator were able to visit his electorate.
He said that it was a privilege for the people of BOLAVE to have this delegation to BANA and because the Works and Finance Ministers were also there they can see the state of the roads and put funds to rehabilitate the roads.
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280613 BANA WANT DEVELOPMENT
By Aloysius Laukai

The people of BANA want some development to take place on the South West of Bougainville.
One of the Presenters for the LATO constituency, PETER TABARI told the BANA Forum that the people of BANA want a town for mine workers to be built down the tailings way.
In his presentation, MR. TABARI said the people of BANA during the BCL days only received wastes from the PANGUNA MINE and this time want some development on this side of the island.
He said that the building of the town will also ensure that a proper tailings system is developed.
MR. TABARI said that the people of BANA this time want to participate in the developments and called on the government to make sure this is addressed during negotiations.
He said that lands is available in which the proposed town could be developed.

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280613FEAR OF THE UNKNOWN
By Aloysius Laukai

The ABG President DR. JOHN MOMIS yesterday told the people of BANA that the fear of the unknown is making many people of Bougainville remaining still in survival mode which should not be the case today.
He said the struggles of Bougainville since the conflict should have prepared our people to move from the survival mode to development and Prosperous mode.
The ABG President made these comments when answering questions from the people BANA who said that Bougainvilleans still survived without basic services during the Bougainville conflict.
AND they can still survive and run this Autonomous Region with the skills that made them survive the war.
ABG President said that a survival kit is needed in an emergency situation in which Bougainville has left behind.
DR. MOMIS told the people of BANA to support their government by working together with their government who will take them to achieve their dreams for independence.
The 5th Regional Forum on Panguna Negotiations for the people of BANA ended yesterday afternoon.

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Jaba river Picture, This is the river that BCL used to pump into the Panguna mining town.

270613BANA FORUM SECOND DAY
By Aloysius Laukai

The two-days 5th Regional forum on Panguna negotiations in Bana which started yesterday is progressing well with al stakeholders participating.

The forum is the second last forum of the forums that the ABG and the mining department is using to get the views from all stakeholders on the future of the Panguna Copper Mine.

This morning the forum participants separated into groups and discussed their issues in their groups and later presented their views to the forum.

In most of the presentations nearly all the stakeholders they wanted in principal to reopen the mine but with conditions that is issues that are outstanding from the past and also the present.

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260613MPS DISTRIBUTE WITH OWN COMMITTEES
By Aloysius Laukai

The ABG Minister for Finance, ALBERT PUNGHAU says that the National members distribute their DISP funds and PISP funds with their committees and the ABG has no say in it.

The ABG minister for finance made these comments when replying to questions raised by one of the Panguna landowners, Wendelynus Bitanuma who wanted to know why the National Government members were not contributing towards assisting the setting up of their Associations.

He told the forum this afternoon that funds for the National members are managed by Rural Development and these members have their own Treasuries in the districts where they distribute their funds.

The Minister explained that the Regional Member for Bougainville was given FIFTEEN MILLION KINA for the first time and he had distributed FIVE MILLION KINA each to the three regions of North, Central and South Bougainville.

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ABG President DR.JOHN MOMIS opening the 5th Regional Forum on Panguna Negotiations in Bana this morning.

260613BANA FORUM OPENS
By Aloysius Laukai

The 5th Regional Forum on Panguna Negotiations was officially opened by the ABG President DR.JOHN MOMIS at the BOLEUKO Community Hall in the Bana district this morning.

This special meeting was programmed to also gauge the view of the people of BOLAVE Constituency who are directly affected by the wastes from the PANGUNA copper mine which used to dump all the wastes on the river system and unto the sea in South West Bougainville.

Although the mine has been closed for more than two decades the damage has been done and the people of BOLAVE continue to live with these problems and the reopening of the Panguna mine will heavily affect them.

In his opening remarks, the local ABG member for BOLAVE, LAWRENCE WAKAI said that he has been against the opening of the mine in the past, however he had to change his stand to support the reopening because he realised that the ABG needed funds to fast track a lot of activities it wants to do for Bougainville.

He said that he was also happy that the ABG has developed its own policy on mining which addresses a lot of these past grievances which started the Bougainville conflict.

The forum will end tomorrow afternoon.

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