Contents
Literacy kit
Additional resources
Partners and events
Key texts and agreements
Political map of Papua New Guinea
Chronology
Map of major language groups
Acronyms and glossary
Profiles
Further reading
Acknowledgements
Accord Papua New Guinea – Bougainville project
The peace agreement signed in 2001 on the island of Bougainville, Papua New Guinea (PNG), ended the most violent conflict in the South Pacific since World War II. Triggered by disputes in the late-1960s between local landowners and the international proprietors of the world’s largest copper and gold mine, armed resistance in the 1980s met an abusive response from the PNG security forces. As this diverse island society fractured over the next decade, further conflicts erupted between different Bougainvillean groups.
Weaving consensus: the Papua New Guinea - Bougainville peace process (Accord issue 12, 2002) outlines an extraordinary array of creative initiatives and interventions that succeeded not only in ending the organized violence but brought together Bougainvillean society within a national framework. The process defined a negotiated settlement acceptable to all.
The publication describes an indigenous peace process that drew on the strengths of Melanesian traditions and benefited from innovative roles by international third parties. It includes a chronology of these events, full texts of the agreements and profiles of key people and institutions involved. It also highlights the challenges ahead for putting the agreement into practice and consolidating peace.
Andrew Kromah, Media Foundation for Peace & Development, Sierra Leone
