Bougainville Study Tour Concludes With Agreement

Foreign Minister Don McKinnon has welcomed the signing of the 'Matakana and Okataina Understanding' by key Bougainville leaders and the Papua New Guinea Government. The understanding was signed at Okataina Lodge, near Rotorua, where the parties have been holding discussions this week.

'The Bougainvillean leaders have re-affirmed their commitment to the permanent Ceasefire negotiated at Lincoln last year, and agreed on a path of negotiation and consensus-building to seek a peaceful and permanent resolution to the island's long-term political future,' Mr McKinnon said.

The Minister said PNG Prime Minister Bill Skate had joined the talks on 20 April and had made a very significant contribution.

'All leaders have demonstrated a willingness to sit down and talk and search for compromise and consensus. I hope the spirit passed on to our visitors during their discussions with the people of Tainui, Ngati Tuwharetoa and at Matakana Island, and the spirit of the Understanding itself, will guide them long into the future.'

Mr McKinnon welcomed the Understanding's acknowledgment that priority should be given to weapons disposal and the continued establishment of civil authority.

'New Zealand is ready to offer technical assistance for weapons control, and with policing and police training,' We and our regional colleagues in Australia, Fiji, and Vanuatu have established a partnership with PNG and Bougainville, and we will continue to do what we can to support the peace process.

'The responsibility for consolidating and building on what has been achieved to date now increasingly belongs to the people of PNG and Bougainville, and I am pleased to see that this has been recognised in the document signed today," Mr McKinnon said.

Prime Minister Skate departed from Auckland yesterday afternoon. The 37 Bougainville leaders leave this morning on an RNZAF C130 Hercules flight.