Audio: Don McKinnon Talks Melanesian Peacemaking

Monday, 31 October 2005, 5:06 pm
Article: Alastair Thompson

Commonwealth Secretary General Don McKinnon attended this year's Pacific Island Forum in Papua New Guinea in advance of a personal visit back to the location of one of his greatest personal achievements in diplomacy, brokering of the late 1990s peace agreement between Bougainville rebels and the PNG Government.

Mr McKinnon, a former NZ Foreign Minister in National's Bolger Government, Saturday took his wife and son on a day trip to Bougainville to dedicate a primary school library to which he has contributed personally.

In the interview linked above Mr McKinnon talks about his planned trip to Bougainville and about his involvement in the brokering of the peace agreement.

Scoop asked Mr McKinnon if there were any lessons to be learnt from Bougainville for the context of the current independence struggle in West Papua. Mr McKinnon was unwilling to be drawn into the discussion however.

ENDS

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Alastair Thompson

Scoop Publisher

Alastair Thompson is the co-founder of Scoop. He is of Scottish and Irish extraction and from Wellington, New Zealand. Alastair has 24 years experience in the media, at the Dominion, National Business Review, North & South magazine, Straight Furrow newspaper and online since 1997. He is the winner of several journalism awards for business and investigative work.

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