Bougainville Ceasefire
A ceasefire was arranged later in 1997 between new Prime Minister Bill Skate and Joseph Kabui with a multinational Peace Monitoring Group commencing operations on the island. Though Ona and the BRA controlled 90% of the island, the break with Kabui meant that they were not involved in the talks. Ona continued to see the New Zealand brokered peace talks as unwarranted outside interference with Bougainville governance, and did not participate.
In an interview with Australian film maker Wayne Coles Janess, who made an acclaimed documentary film about the Bougainville Crisis and whom the PNG government attempted to murder, Ona declared :
- We have already had other forms of autonomy. The provincial government system in 1975 we were promised. Bougainvillians were promised that after 5 years or after a few years, the provincial government will be replaced by the independent nation of Bougainville. So with this in mind, with this past history, we don't trust Papua New Guinea any more....
.... 90% of Bougainvillians are supporting me. And I want to summon Prime Minister of PNG and PNG government, if 90% is not supporting me, let them carry out a referendum and we'll see.
Ona was subsequently ignored in the creation of the Autonomous Bougainville Government. At this time Ona agreed with Noah Musingku to establish a funding source for Bougainville which would allow true sovereignty. This system became the U-Vistract system, which sought to utilize the untapped natural resources of Bougainville to finance reconstruction. Ona remained isolated in the Panguna region that BRA controlled for the next 16 years.
The Bougainville conflict is estimated to have cost between 10,000 and 15,000 lives mainly due to disease and starvation. A tribal reconciliation process started in 2000 and appears to have been successful. The PNG government promised in 2001 to hold a referendum on independence within the next ten to fifteen years. As of 2011 the referendum has not been held.
Ona was never captured and refused to participate in the process. His forces still controlled over half of the island.
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