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FORMER TAOISEACH BERTIE Ahern has played a central role in Bougainville’s bid to become the world’s newest country by announcing that the autonomous region has voted overwhelmingly in favour of becoming independent from Papua New Guinea.
Acting in his role as Chairman of the Bougainville Referendum Commission, Ahern declared today that 176,928 people – around 98% of voters – had backed independence with just 3,043 supporting the option of remaining part of Papua New Guinea with more autonomy.
The commission was responsible for preparing the region for the independence vote and Ahern was appointed as chairman in October 2018.
Speaking at the time of the appointment, Bougainville President John Momis said it was delighted to have the former Taoiseach on board and Ahern had read everything possible on Bougainville before leaving Dublin.
Ahern’s announcement today was met with loud cheers, applause and tears as dignitaries soon burst into song, with strains of the islands’ anthem “My Bougainville” ringing out.
The historic vote caps a decades-long peace process and a long recovery from a brutal civil war between Bougainville rebels, Papua New Guinea security forces and foreign mercenaries that ended in 1998 and left up to 20,000 people dead – 10% of the population.
Speaking in the region’s capital Buka, Ahern urged all sides to recognise a vote that was about “your peace, your history, and your future” and showed “the power of the pen over weapons”.
Independence will not be immediate, a long political process lies ahead and leaders face formidable financial and administrative challenges to turn a cluster of poor Pacific islands into a fully fledged nation.
The result must first be ratified by Papua New Guinea’s parliament – where there is opposition to the move for fear it may spark other independence movements in a nation defined by disparate linguistic and tribal groups.
But the scale of the victory for the pro-independence side will heap pressure on Papua New Guinea to endorse the outcome.
Puka Temu, the country’s minister for Bougainville affairs, said “the outcome is a credible one” but asked that voters “allow the rest of Papua New Guinea sufficient time to absorb this result”.
With reporting by AFP
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In fairness most accept those on that flight are dead but it would be nice to know what happened to them.
Without getting into conspiracy theories . I find it very difficult to understand how nothing has been found/washed up/spotted at all.
Even if the aircraft hit the sea there would be some debris somewhere.
It’s not exactly a small aircraft and there was luggage as well as components that would float.
It’s some mystery.
Sorry Mike, you cant speculate about what happened to MH370 without falling down the old ‘rabbit hole’.
Anyone who thinks that U.S. intel agencies dont know the exact location of every single modern Boeing everywhere on the planet is living in cloud cuckoo land.
Read up on Boeing’s “uninterruptible autopilot” patents.
I don’t know what happended to MH370 but I do know this: The US does know exactly what happened.
Seriously Stephen,we can speculate conspiracy theories for weeks and I’m not rubbishing any body’s theories but I personally (and I emphasise “personally”) just can’t get my head around all the organised theories. What/who would benifit from the capture/destruction of the aircraft.
Either way it’s one of the strangest mysteries in the world so far and if there is one thing humans love,it’s a mystery.
Stephen,respectfully, you are full of chit….No debris, no oil slick on a perfectly calm ocean(the storms weren`t happening at the time),no radar emission from the worlds biggest power that has the whole Pacific ocean covered with satellite intelligence, not even a beep from a black box? – Black boxes do not just disappear! – they are built to last for at least 3 months,even in deep water, this thing has false flag written all
when you smell Bullchit, you have to call what you see.
is all part of the NWO- Divide and conquer
Sorry, stephen , i meant to say Mike
UFO’s might have taken it
The plane that was blown out of the sky over the Ukraine, happened to have 100 of the top scientists in the world of communicable diseases heading towards a meeting in another country, Riddle me this, .
Why did professional people from all over the world choose to meet in Holland,and then jointly fly out to Argentina for a conference on World diseases? SurelyThey could have come from their own countries and made their way to the meting Via their own countries Airlines
Check the Passenger manifests for these flights involved,
Oh gawwwd….Seriously,why me.
Is there some kind of norton or avg anti looneyware I could invest in.
Nothing Personal Mike, sorry, I just think that this thing is bigger than we will ever be
New World Order?? No offence or anything, but did you get measured up for your tinfoil hat yet?
There is no proof that this plane did crash. The plane still had enough fuel to fly another 2,200 miles after its communication devices were turned off. It is still a major mystery.
Yesterday I was listening to the radio and the expert said they had tracked the plane till it was “running out of fuel”. I remember this because I thought it was odd that someone whether a hijacker or a crew member would take a plane and fly it round till it ran out of fuel. Very strange.
My sympathy to the relatives and friends.
In fairness what else can they do! A plane vanishes without a trace, zilch nothing, must be very hard for the families. I get the presumed dead, but an accident!!!
Terrorism I don’t think so- why not claim responsibility for it – that was the point of it
And I think – in realistic terms- that plane was pretty small in relation to the vast sea it was ment to
Have crashed into- also the fact that they don’t know where it went – on autopilot or communications turned off deliberately- conspiracy theorists could point to any amount of different things
With no evidence to disprove it- but what is sure is the plane is gone – the passengers/ crew are most likely deceased either through foul play or accident – lots of aircraft have disappeared and never been located – this disappearance with technology today however is unusual
Surely if it had crashed especially into the ocean some part of it would have surfaced by now I just don’t get it, there’s more to this than meets the eye god help the families
It’s horrific for their families. In all fairness we have to presume all crew and passengers are dead. It’s almost a year and there’s no contact. All those who think the lack of evidence is suspicious, didn’t a shark wash up the other day that they weren’t even sure existed? The sea is a powerful being. Never underestimate it…
Thought and prayers with the families at this difficult time.
Oh well. At least they wont have to go thru it a 2nd time
The safest month to fly is in May but in a recession and austerity is there ever a safe time to fly but that is my view.
Michael Sands the only part of the world experiencing a recession is the EU and the USA, in the rest of the world it’s been business as usual
Ah yeah i was over in Iraq and Syria last weekend, place is flourishing!
Russia is an exremely aggressive state. Thousands of russian soldiers being “on vacation with hundred tanks, aniaircraft emplacements and heavy artillery guns” wage a real war against free Ukraine. These degenerates downed MH-17 with 298 unhappy victims.
Nadiya Savchenko is a 33 year-old Ukrainian female pilot kidnapped by Russia-supported insurgents in eastern Ukraine on June 18, 2014 and handed to Russian authorities who groundless charged her with an alleged killing of two Russian journalists that had died during combat. Being a prisoner of war, she is held by Russia in violation of Geneva Conventions and treated as a common criminal. The Russian side refuses to free her. Nadiya is on hunger strike and her life is in danger. Ukrainians know she is a victim of the Putin’s regime. Be on the side of Good, help Nadia!
https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/help-free-nadiya-savchenko/NS7bHz0T
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