The Churches of south Bougainville have asked the Autonomous Bougainville Government to delay any decisions to deploy Special Forces to Konnou, south Bougainville.
Catholic church priest Fr Tony of Tabago Mission told the Post-Courier from Buin that they will be meeting with the rebels all through this week and a possible meeting with Koike on Thursday to give him the benefit of the doubt and the time to speak on what his issues were and then proceed onto arrangements of roundtable discussions, ceasefire, disarmament and reconciliations.“We are simply asking if ABG can delay any decisions made so that we can try our best to negotiate with the Me’ekamui team from Konnou.
“We will then come up with a program arrangement for a roundtable discussion, we will discuss a ceasefire agreement, disarmament and then reconciliation with Thomas Tari and the others, the ABG and the other stakeholders,” Fr Tony said.
The request comes after reports that the ABG would arrange for a possible special peace force to help sort out the problems and issues of Konnou, south Bougainville. But according to the churches, they have already made arrangements with the rebels and their executives for meetings this week.
