Gun Collection and Disposal in Bougainville after the Crisis

---

The three pillars of the Bougainville Peace Agreement (BPA) signed by the Bougainville Revolutionary Army (BRA), Bougainville Resistance Force (BRF) and the Papua New Guinea (PNG) Government on 30 August 2001, are:

· Autonomy - arrangements for an autonomous Bougainville Government; 

· Referendum - the right for a referendum among Bougainvilleans on Bougainville’s future political status; and

· Weapons Disposal Plan - the collection and disposal of small arms – guns - used by combatants during the Bougainville Crisis (1988 – 1997). 

The weapons disposal programme, launched on 6/12/2001, was gradually implemented across Bougainville in three stages, closely linked with progress on political and constitutional issues. The types of guns involved included “high-powered” firearms, sporting rifles, home-made firearms and World War II relics. By late October 2002, home-made firearms comprised slightly more than 50 per cent, and high-powered firearms less than 20 per cent, of all guns surrendered. Different areas of Bougainville began to disarm at different times, starting with Siwai in Southwest Bougainville, followed by Torokina in Northwest Bougainville, Bana in Central Bougainville, and Buka. 

From 23/12/2003 onwards, the practical process of weapons disposal was led by the United Nations Observer Mission in Bougainville (UNOMB), a five-person team based at Buka and Arawa. Technical management of gun containment and joint awareness programmes were the responsibility of the Peace Monitoring Group (PMG), an unarmed, neutral organization with staff drawn from Australia, New Zealand, Fiji and Vanuatu. 

To officially mark UNOMB’s mandate over weapons disposal, a public gun destruction event was staged in Buka town on 23/12/2003. Several types of firearms, previously locked in storage containers by PMG staff, were destroyed by ex-combatants using an angle grinder and an oxy-acetylene torch. To launch the gun destruction event, the chairman of the BRF and police minister in the Interim Autonomous Government (IAG), the late Hilary Masiria, gave a speech in which he encouraged all ex-combatants to surrender their guns. In his speech, Mr Masiria noted that the continuing presence of guns in the community was hindering the IAG’s efforts to achieve peace and stability throughout Bougainville. 

On 19/5/2005, UNOMB reported that, of a total of 2,016 weapons kept in containers, 1,896 were destroyed. UNOMB collected and destroyed an additional 155 weapons, bringing the total to 2,051 weapons. UNOMB terminated its mandate on 30/6/2005, having successfully helped to implement the BPA.

Following the cessation of UNOMB, gun disposal in Bougainville remained a focus of successive Bougainville governments, but took on greater urgency in the lead-up to the referendum on Bougainville’s independence from PNG scheduled to commence on 23/11/2019. In late September 2019, the last of the guns surrendered as part of the weapons disposal programme were placed in an armoury at Panguna, Central Bougainville, with their firing pins removed. To mark this important milestone, the Bougainville Minister for Peace Agreement Implementation, Hon. Albert Pungahau, announced that people continuing to hold on to firearms would be prosecuted.