Bougainville Votes For Independence From Papua New Guinea In Referendum
Bougainville Votes For Independence From Papua New Guinea In Referendum
The Pacific island group called Bougainville voted for independence from Papua New Guinea. It was a nonbinding referendum.
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
Good morning. I'm Steve Inskeep. The world's youngest country is South Sudan, which won independence in 2011. Soon, a new nation could be born. The Pacific island group called Bougainville voted for independence. It was a nonbinding referendum, but after an overwhelming vote, its 300,000 people can try to work out independence from Papua New Guinea. Who knows? Give it a couple hundred years, and maybe that new nation will be as harmonious and stable as ours.
Copyright © 2019 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.