CENTRAL Bougainville Member Jimmy Miringtoro has defended the Government’s decision to transfer 17.4% BCL shares to the landowners and people of Bougainville. He expressed concern about President John Momis’s media attacks on the National Government. Mr Miringtoro said: "As far as I know during his meeting with the Prime Minister which was attended by the Regional Member for Bougainville and Minister for Bougainville Affairs, Joe Lera, President Momis agreed to the share distribution to the Landowners and ABG. The 17.4% BCL share equity in effect were gifted to the National Government by Rio Tinto. It was therefore was the prerogative of the Prime Minister to give the shares to the landowners as a token of goodwill. ABG on the other hand was offered 36 percent by Rio Tinto through the National Government, making it a majority shareholder. "I don’t see any logic in the President’s statement that such a move is a threat to the Peace Agreement. In my view it is a step in the right direction in strengthening the peace by addressing one of root causes of the Bougainville Crisis. "The President goes on to say that the ABG Mining Law gives landowners full decision-making involvement and good revenue sharing opportunity if mining resumes. That is untrue. Firstly the mining law was written by an organization that has a reputation of undermining rights of indigenous people and liberalizing economies in the Third World for takeover by large corporations. Secondly, the Mining Law violates the United Nations Charter on the Rights on Indigenous People. The Mining Law should have gone under the scrutiny of the landowners via independent legal consultations." Mr Miringtoro said as the National Parliament Member representing Central Bougainville landowners, he consulted with the Prime Minister prior to the shares decision. "It is the only way justice can be served to people who have not lost their land, their environment which is their livelihood, but also their lives." President Momis responded to Mr Miringtoro by saying his comments are completely untrue. "I never agreed with the PM on distributing shares to the landowners," the President told Post-Courier. "The Minister’s ignorance on the Mining Act is shameful. The law was made by the ABG, not by anyone else…and only on close consultation with the people of Bougainville. It gives landowners full participation on mining through a power of veto…and so they must be fully involved in, and satisfied with, all decisions on mining. The Act guarantees landowners equity participation in the fully funded mine, not just a share in BCL, now worth very little."
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