The South Pacific region of Bougainville has voted overwhelmingly for independence in a historic poll, which will trigger separation negotiations with Papua New Guinea.
Almost 98 per cent of the 181,067 ballots cast during two weeks of voting were in favour of the archipelago becoming the world’s newest nation.
The referendum is non-binding, but the landslide victory will put pressure on Papua New Guinea to comply with the result of a vote.
The poll was a key part of a 2001 peace agreement that ended a civil war in which at least 15,000 people died in the cluster of islands to the east of the Papua New Guinea mainland.
Independence will now have to be negotiated by the governments of Papua New Guinea and semi-autonomous Bougainville.
Papua New Guinea’s parliament will have the final sign-off on separation and the process could take several years.
Around 85 per cent of eligible voters in Bougainville took part in the referendum, in which ballot slips gave the choice of independence or greater autonomy.
Cheers erupted as referendum commission chairman Bertie Ahern, the former Irish president, announced the result in a public hall in the capital Buka on Wednesday.
“There’s tears, tears of joy, raw emotion – people have waited a long time,” Mr Ahern said. “The pen is always mightier than the sword.”
Pajomile Minaka, a resident of the south of Bougainville, told Reuters he was taking a law course to equip himself to help rebuild his homeland.
“That’s my dream, to go and rebuild,” said the 36-year-old, who was a child during the civil war. “We need the best policies, the best laws, to be the best country. We are reborn.”
The 2001 peace agreement followed more than a decade of violence fuelled by conflict over an enormous open-pit copper mine on Bougainville Island, which is home to the majority of the archipelago’s population of roughly 300,000.
The mine was a huge export earner for Papua New Guinea, but many in Bougainville felt they received no benefit and resented the pollution and disruption of their traditional way of life.
The mine has remained shut since violence broke out, but some believe it could provide a revenue source for Bougainville should it become independent.
David Sharma, an Australian MP who once lived in Bougainville as a diplomat and helped draft the 2001 peace agreement, said his country would keep a close eye on developments for its nearest neighbours.
He added: “I’m pleased that the Bougainvilleans have expressed their view in such a clear way, but I would sound a note of caution that Bougainville is an island of about 200,000 people and countries of that sort of population often struggle to take on all the full attributes of a sovereign state.
“How this plays out will be a concern. I think it is a time we need to tread cautiously and watch closely and do what we can to make sure the situation remains as calm as possible.”
Gianluca Rampolla, the United Nations co-ordinator in Papua New Guinea, congratulated both governments on the “inclusive and peaceful conduct” of the referendum.
“There are ways to go, and like all paths it may be neither smooth nor straight, but the United Nations will continue to be there as the two governments map their future, together,” he said.
Papua New Guinea prime minister James Marape’s office said he was out of town and not available for comment.
