Papua New Guinea agrees to vote

PORT MORESBY, Papua New Guinea (AP) – Negotiators in Papua New Guinea have agreed to allow the secessionist province of Bougainville to vote on independence in a referendum, a a news agency reported Saturday.

The decision was reached after three years of peace talks, which in turn followed nine years of civil war that killed as many as 20,000 people.

The pact still needs to be approved by a two-thirds vote in Papua New Guinea’s parliament, as well as by Bougainville rebel leaders.

The agreement was reached late Friday after negotiations at Kokopo in the northeastern part of the Southeast Asian country, a government source told the Australian Associated Press on condition of anonymity.

Bougainvilleans threatened late last year that violence could break out again in the restive province were it not offered the option of full independence.

Officials in Papua New Guinea’s capital, Port Moresby, wanted only to offer the mineral-rich province limited autonomy.

Civilian leaders from Bougainville and Papua New Guinea government officials signed the agreement.

The accord states that a referendum would be held 10 to 15 years after the election of a new autonomous government for Bougainville island. No date has been set for those elections.

Rebels in Bougainville, an island 620 miles east of Papua New Guinea’s main island, fought a nine-year war of secession until a truce in 1998.