A peace treaty signed yesterday formally ended a 10-year civil war on Papua New Guinea's Bougainville island and was followed by a dramatic laying down of arms.
In the decade of conflict, about 20,000 people died in direct military action or from illness and disease amid a blockade imposed by the PNG government in Port Moresby on the island, home to 160,000 people.
Men and women of the Bougainville Revolutionary Army (BRA), in traditional dress, sang and danced as their leaders presented spears and bows and arrows to the assembled dignitaries.
They included the Prime Minister of Papua New Guinea, Mr Bill Skate, foreign ministers from Australia, New Zealand, Fiji and Vanuatu, and the military heads of the PNG Defence Force and the multi-national Truce Monitoring Group.
The vice-president of the Bougainville Interim Government, Mr Joseph Kabui, declared "the peace process belongs to the people of Bougainville".
Peace on the lush, mineral-rich island had not come through the politicians or the fighters, he said. "We have responded to the needs and cries of the mothers and children of Bougainville. . . look at the bloodbath we have gone through my brother prime minister, listen to our cries."
After the spears were presented, the treaty was signed and witnessed by the foreign ministers - Mr Alexander Downer from Australia, New Zealand's Mr Don McKinnon, Fiji's Mr Bernardo Vunibobo, Vanuatu's Mr Clement Leo and Mr Roy Yaki of PNG.
But another rebel leader, Mr Francis Ona, was not present. He has refused to be part of the peace process or give up his dream of an independent "Republic of Maku mei". Mr Ona has given no support to the ceasefire, but has so far respected the recent truce. However, his long-term position is not clear. Mr Kabui appealed to Mr Ona to join the ceasefire.
The ceremony followed nine months of New Zealand-brokered peace talks to end the separatist war which was provoked by the giant Panguna copper mine, controlled by the Rio Tinto group and sited on Mr Ona's clan land in central Bougainville.
Anger over environmental damage from the mine and a lack of profit-sharing with local people fuelled independence aspirations which finally spilled into a bloody civil conflict in 1989.
Mr Kabui praised the way Pacific nations had worked together to bring peace: "You do care for human beings in a place called Bougainville," he said.
The Bougainville interim government leader, Mr Gerard Sinato, called for four minutes' silence for those lost in the war - a silence broken only by the Royal Australian Air Force helicopter patrolling overhead and the squealing of pigs.
New Zealand is to hand over command to Australia of the 300-strong Truce Monitoring Group of soldiers from Australia, New Zealand, Fiji and Vanuatu.