Peace agreements normally fail within five years. Bougainville is a lesson to us all | Bertie Ahern
Bougainvilleans will vote in an independence referendum this weekend, the result of a unique Melanesian process of reconciliation
Thirty years ago Bougainville lost 20,000 people in a brutal civil war that lasted almost a decade.
This week Bougainvilleans will go to the polls to vote on independence from Papua New Guinea, but in a very different mood – one of joy and celebration. Underlying this historic occasion is a resolve by all sides to honour the fallen, but never again return to conflict.