Bougainville independence vote delayed to October

Bougainville Copper

01/03/2019 07:52

SYDNEY, March 1 (Reuters) - An independence referendum for
the Pacific island of Bougainville has been delayed by four
months to October 17, leaders of the island and Papua New Guinea
said on Friday.
    Under a peace agreement signed after a nine-year civil war
with the Papua New Guinea (PNG) mainland ended in 1998,
Bougainville has until mid-2020 to hold the referendum, which
had been scheduled for June.
    The conflict was largely about how profits from a giant
copper mine, Panguna, should be shared, and it forced resources
giant Rio Tinto  RIO.AX  to abandon the mine.
     At the time, the mine was the largest source of export
revenue for Papua New Guinea and comprised about 7 percent of
global copper production.
    "The referendum on Bougainville's long-term political future
will be held on 17 October 2019," PNG Prime Minister Peter
O'Neill and Bougainville President John Momis said in a joint
statement.
    Three years ago the two leaders had set June 15 as voting
day, but that was an "impossible" deadline because voter
registration was underfunded and behind schedule, Bertie Ahern
told the Australian Broadcasting Corp on Thursday.
    Ahern leads the Referendum Commission overseeing the vote.
    O'Neill and Momis said 10 million kina ($3 million) was 
available to fund the vote, with a further 10 million kina
promised next week.
    The conflict between Bougainville's rebel guerrilla army and
Papua New Guinea forces left as many as 20,000 dead over the
following decade, the worst conflict in the Oceania region since
the Second World War.
    Rio Tinto divested its stake in the shuttered mine's
operator, Bougainville Copper Ltd  BOC.AX , in 2016.
    The outcome of the referendum, which analysts expect to
support independence, is then subject to ratification by PNG's
parliament. O'Neill and Momis have agreed to meet again in
August to discuss arrangements should it succeed.
($1 = 3.4602 kinas)

 (Reporting by Tom Westbrook; editing by Darren Schuettler)
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