Peace Agreement and Autonomy
The conflict ended in 1997, after negotiations brokered by New Zealand. A peace agreement finalised in 2000 and disarmament provided for the establishment of an Autonomous Bougainville Government, and for a referendum in the future on whether the island should become politically independent.
Elections for the first Autonomous Government were held in May and June 2005, Joseph Kabui was elected President. He died on 6 June 2008.
On 25 July 2005 rebel leader Francis Ona died after a short illness. A former surveyor with Bougainville Copper Limited, Ona was a key figure in the secessionist conflict and had refused to formally join the island's peace process.
Read more about this topic: Autonomous Region Of Bougainville
Famous quotes containing the words peace, agreement and/or autonomy:
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—Charles Horton Cooley (1864–1929)
“The doctrine of those who have denied that certainty could be attained at all, has some agreement with my way of proceeding at the first setting out; but they end in being infinitely separated and opposed. For the holders of that doctrine assert simply that nothing can be known; I also assert that not much can be known in nature by the way which is now in use. But then they go on to destroy the authority of the senses and understanding; whereas I proceed to devise helps for the same.”
—Francis Bacon (1560–1626)
“It is only the impossible that is possible for God. He has given over the possible to the mechanics of matter and the autonomy of his creatures.”
—Simone Weil (1909–1943)