Transcript
They were seeking autonomy. They were seeking to create it, their independence, and that was really important to them. They were fighting for that. They were fighting for what they believe to be their freedom and they saw that was the driving force not only in the whole of the conflict that they'd experienced in Bougainville but that was their vision to actually get some form of autonomy from the broader government of PNG.
And they had strong leadership, really strong leadership in taking that vision forward and I've always remembered the High Commissioner, Australia's High Commissioner to PNG coming to the island many times, which was Nick Warner, and Mr. Warner would come down and talk to the leaders about their vision, and just talking to them and they were very committed to finding a way through that, but peacefully. And you could see that leadership in that community and in those that wanted to take that autonomy forward.
