Bougainville leaders cry foul over mining act sections

BOUGAINVILLE leaders are crying foul over what they described as "two controversial sections" that have been inserted into the final draft Bougainville Mining Act that is scheduled to be put on the floor of the House of Representatives in Buka this month.

Messrs Sam Kauona, Mathias Salas and Michael Aitai, in what is seen as a major reversal, said the addition of Sections 8 and 9 provide a mechanism for Bougainville Copper Limited (BCL) to get back exploration licences over the prospecting authorities that it once held but which were cancelled with the passage of the August 8 Transitional Mining Bill.

In a hard-hitting article which appeared on the other daily on Monday, Mr Salas, the former ABG Mines Minister in the Kabui Government, disagreed with the ABG President of caving "in to Rio/BCL pressure" and "all-out betrayal of the law making process and a betrayal of Bougainville".

Contacted by the Post-Courier from Arawa along with Mr Kauona yesterday in relation to their paid advertisement taken on the alleged insertion of the sections, Mr Salas said; "Yes, we now have been informed that Rio/BCL sent many high level delegations to Buka to confront the ABG to register their displeasure with the Transitional Bill that was passed in August and to propose and provide the language for the drafters to insert into the Final Bill.

"This is a scandalous interference in Bougainville affairs. The troubling thing is why didn’t the President just say no? I don’t understand how Rio/BCL have so much direct influence over the current leadership of the ABG and their policy making process"

"From a practical point, what is being proposed is unworkable and Rio surely knows it. What it seems intent on doing is to get title over the minerals so that it can sell the package off and exit Bougainville.

Chief Aite, now in his 70s and the senior chief of Eivo Torau in which constituency the PAs covering Mainoki/Karato lie, said; "Our super history grants our two major clans, Hornbill and Eagle, birthright and ownership right over our resources; Section 23 of the Bougainville Constitution and section 12 of the Proposed Draft Final Mining Bill are politicians stating what we already know from birth. They will not be taken away from us by CRA/BCL.

"I remind the greedy and those that covet our resources that in July 1965 as a young man I lead the Mainoki/Karato people to chase out CRA.

"It is hard for us to understand why Sections 8 & 9 crept in; because we honestly believed the Transitional Bill released us from our Colonial past and returned our stolen rights. Women and men cried openly at Kopani last week when told of Sections 8 & 9 and what it now means for them."

Mr Kauona, founding general of the BRA, chairman of BRORC (Bougainville Resource Owners Representative Committee), and unofficial leader of the political opposition at large on Bougainville, opposed to BCL being given its pre-war rights through a Mining Act, is firm in his opposition to Sections 8 and 9.

Interviewed by telephone in Tunaniya, Mr Kauona said there are a number of reasons why this should not be enacted as it stands.

"One, it violates Section 12 of the Transitional Act itself which states that all minerals existing on, in or below the surface of any customary land in the Autonomous Region of Bougainville are the property of the owners of the customary land.

"This is in accordance with section 23 of the Bougainville Constitution.

"But with the inclusion of Section 8 and 9 it says that they don’t belong to the customary landowners if friends of the BEC ask for them, in which case the BEC headed by Momis has the right to expropriate them and arrange for them to be to be passed on to his friends," the BRA hard man stressed.

BCL could not be reached for comments since the paid advertorial on Monday. PNG Today/Post COurier