Marles backtracks on Bougainville after leader spurns ‘intimidation’
Richard Marles has walked back his declaration that Australia would back Papua New Guinea on the future of Bougainville after a furious response from the autonomous region’s leader.
Richard Marles has walked back his declaration that Australia would back Papua New Guinea’s decision on the future of Bougainville – one of the region’s potential flashpoints – after a furious response from the autonomous region’s leader.
Bougainville President Ishmael Toroama accused the Defence Minister of “veiled threats” and “intimidation” after Mr Marles declared Australia would “support Papua New Guinea in the decisions that it makes” on Bougainville’s independence.
Mr Marles clarified Australia’s position in a statement on Saturday, saying it would accept whatever position PNG and Bougainville arrived at.
“There has been no change to our longstanding policy on Bougainville,” Mr Marles said. “Australia’s role is to support the peace process and decisions around future arrangements which the parties have to negotiate.”
His comments followed his declaration on Thursday suggesting Australia would back whatever PNG decided in relation to the autonomous region’s future.
“Our job is to support Papua New Guinea in the decisions that it makes,” Mr Marles said.
“It is absolutely not our role to articulate views there. Our role is to support the Prime Minister and the government of Papua New Guinea, in the decisions that it makes in respect of the future of Bougainville, and we stand ready to do that.”
An overwhelming 97.7 per cent of Bougainvilleans voted for independence in a 2019 referendum, but the result must still be ratified by PNG for the autonomous region to become a new sovereign state.
Richard Herr, former director of the Centre for International and Regional Affairs at the University of Fiji, said Mr Marles had “misspoken”, and had since moved to make clear Australia’s position under the 2001 Bougainville Peace Agreement.
But he said the minister’s original comment had fed an underlying level of mistrust in Australia on the part of Bougainville.
“It’s a big issue,” Dr Herr said. “And once you’ve thrown a pebble in the pond, it’s very hard to smooth it out.
“The challenge now for Australia is to regain the equilibrium of the (peace) agreement.”
A furious Mr Toroama said on Friday night that Mr Marles had shown Australia was not an impartial player in implementing the peace agreement that ended the region’s decade-long war with PNG.
“What we are witnessing right now is simply history repeating itself where the Australian government throws its support behind the government of Papua New Guinea to destabilise yet again Bougainville’s right to self-determination,” the Autonomous Bougainville President said in a statement.
“I assure the governments of PNG and Australia that my government and my people do not take kindly to threats and we will never kowtow to neo-colonists that seek to usurp the sovereignty of Pacific island nations with their bullying tactics and intimidation.”
Mr Toroama said it was “clear now why our requests for resources and assistance” from Australia to prepare for independence “have been ignored”.
He said Australia’s concerns about Chinese threats to regional security were “a moot point”.
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