History of Bougainville
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Bougainville was named after the French navigator Louis Antoine de Bougainville. During colonial times it came under German administration as part of German New Guinea. It was only in 1899, when, by agreement between Germany and Britain, Bougainville was separated from the other Solomon Islands, against the wishes of the Bougainvillean people. As a result, Germany retained control of Bougainville, whereas the Solomon Islands changed to British hands.
After World War I, Australia occupied Bougainville, along with Papua New Guinea, on behalf of the League of Nations. In 1942, it was occupied by the Japanese, and was used as a base to attack Guadalcanal and other Allied bases. It took a concerted Allied offensive between November 1943 and April 1944 to drive the Japanese out, and in this period, more than 17,500 Japanese soldiers were either killed in combat or died of disease or malnutrition. After the war, Australia once again assumed control of Bougainville and Papua New Guinea, this time on behalf of the United Nations.
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Beginnings of the independence movement
Bougainville is rich in copper, and possibly gold. The mining of copper has been the cause of considerable tensions over the last fifty years, and has been related to both attempts at secession. In 1964, the first attempts were made to explore the island's resources, when CRA Exploration, a subsidiary of Australian company Rio Tinto Zinc, began drilling in the Panguna area. The mine, under their subsidiary, Bougainville Copper Ltd. opened in 1969.
The first independence movement began to arise in the late 1960s, as people began to air their grievances against the Australian colonial government over the handling of the Panguna mine. Australian External Territories Minister Charles Barnes was accused of telling the Bougainvillean people they would "get nothing". In 1972, Bougainville was granted some degree of autonomy, but this did not end the secessionist movement. Relations between Bougainville and the mainland were not helped when, in December, 1972, two senior Bougainvillean public servants were murdered as payback for a road accident in the highlands of Papua New Guinea. This caused outrage on the island, and helped to consolidate the independence movement. As a result, the Bougainville Special Political Committee (BSPC) was set up to negotiate with the Papuan government on the future of Bougainville within PNG.
By 1974, they had reached a compromise with a Special Committee of the Papuan Parliament, which would have given them even greater autonomy, although not another key demand of the Bougainvillean negotiating team, which would have seen a share of the profits from the Panguna mine go to the people of Bougainville. However, the conservative Papuan government declined to follow key sections of the Committee's report, and in May, 1975, negotiations between the two collapsed completely.
Republic of North Solomons
On 28 May, 1975, the Interim Provincial Government in Bougainville agreed to secede from Papua New Guinea. This caused a three-way impasse between the Government of PNG, the legislature in PNG, and the authorities in Bougainville. The PNG government made attempts to resolve the situation through June and July, but these failed, and the interim government announced that they would declare independence on 1 September, ahead of Papua New Guinea's own independence on 16 September. On 1 September, they issued the 'Unilateral Declaration of Independence of the Republic of North Solomons'.
They sought international recognition through the United Nations, but were unsuccessful. They also failed in an attempt to be united with the Solomon Islands. In early 1976, the Bougainvillean government realised that they would have to accept Papuan sovereignty. This was supported by the 'Bougainville Agreement', signed later that year, which gave Bougainville widespread autonomy within Papua New Guinea. For the remainder of the 1970s, and into the early 1980s, relations between the two remained tense, but relatively peaceful. However, in 1981, disputes re-emerged over the status of the mine, and this would form the basis of the conflict which would turn violent in 1988.
Shutting down the Panguna mine
The mine at Panguna had been perhaps the most major sticking point between Bougainville and the mailand. It was vitally important to the economy of Papua New Guinea, but the people of Bougainville were seeing little benefit from it. Bougainvillean leaders alleged that the mine had been responsible for devastating environmental consequences. They also claimed that Bougainville Copper had set up a system of apartheid on the island, with one set of facilities for white workers, and one set for the locals. They accused Bougainville Copper Ltd., of being responsible for poisoning the entire length of the Jaba River, and causing birth defects, as well as the extinction of the flying fox on the island. These grievances led to the decision in late 1988 of two cousins and local leaders, Francis Ona and Pepetua Serero, to take up arms against the Papuan government. Ona himself had worked for Bougainville Copper, and had witnessed the effects the mine was having on the landscape of the island.
In 1987, Ona and Serero called a meeting of landowners at Panguna, and as a result, the Panguna Landowners' Association was formed, with Serero as 'chairlady', and Ona as General Secretary. They demanded billions in compensation from CRA - a total of half the mine's profits since it began in 1969. In November 1988, Ona stormed out of a meeting with the company after a report by a New Zealand company claimed that the Jaba River was not poisoned. He resigned his job, went into the jungle, and formed the Bougainville Revolutionary Army (BRA). They held up the mine's magazine, stole explosives, and committed numerous acts of arson and sabotage. They also cut the power supply to the entire mine by blowing up power pylons. These were carried out under the command of an Australian-trained soldier, Sam Kauona, who had defected from the Papuan defence forces to become Ona's right hand man. Kauona also became the spokesperson for the group. He continued to conduct hit-and-run raids on mine property and government installations. The campaign was successful, when the mine was shut down on 15 May, 1989, after terrorist attacks on mine employees. As of 2004, the mine remains closed. Serero was to die of an asthma attack soon afterwards, and Ona continued to lead the uprising alone.
The uprising turns into a secessionist war
The Papuan police, and then the army (under Jerry Singirok, who was later to be an important player in the Sandline affair) made several arrests, but Ona proved to be elusive, and they failed to catch him. Attempts to resolve the standoff continued, and Bougainville Copper continued to deny responsibility for any of the grievances of Ona and his supporters. The company suggested that the death of the flying foxes was due to a virus brought in from East New Britain, and that the river was unaffected by the mine. Nevertheless, The PNG government and Bougainville Copper initially made attempts to resolve some of the outstanding issues, and offered an expensive compromise deal, which was rejected outright by Ona and Kauona.
One further sticking point between the company and the Landholders' Association focused around the rights of landholders around the mine. The company claimed that there were only 850 titleholders, who did have some rights, and 5000 were beneficiaries, who had few rights at all. Francis Ona was one of the latter. In response, Bougainville Copper refused to accept the 1987 meeting as legitimate, and kept dealing with the original executive - a group of old men that they maintained a good working relationship with.
The Premier of Bougainville, Joseph Kabui, and the Member for Bougainville in the national parliament, Father John Momis, a former leader of the 1975 secession attempt, supported the new executive, and demanded the company recognise them as legitimate. Both were later to play an important role in the movement. Both were also beaten by riot police during 1989. They were not the only ones, as allegations of human rights abuses by the PNG army began to arise. These embarrassed the PNG government, and more than twenty arrests were made as a result.
However, the BRA was also involved in violence against the provincial government, being responsible for the murder of John Bika, Kabui's Commerce and Liquor Licensing Minister, who had supported the compromise agrement between the Bougainvilleans and the Government.
As a response to the continuing violence, the national government called a state of emergency, and placed the island under the administration of the Police Commissioner, who was based in Port Moresby. The allegations of human rights abuses continued, and a survey in late 1989 indicated that at least 1600 homes had been destroyed. The conflict showed no signs of ending, and in January, 1990, Bougainville Copper announced the mothballing of the Panguna mine. In 1990, the Prime Minister of Papua New Guinea agreed to pull Papuan troops out, and for international observers to witness the disarmament of the BRA. The agreement was signed, on the Bougainvillean side, by Sam Kauona. The police, fearing that they would be slaughtered without military support, also fled, and the island was left to the BRA. Back in Port Moresby, the decision to withdraw from Bougainville led to an attempted military coup, which was subsequently defeated.
The civil war begins
In May 1990, Papua New Guinea imposed a blockade on Bougainville. Francis Ona responded by unilaterally declaring independence. He set up the Bougainville Interim Government (BIG), but it had little power, and the island began to descend into anarchy. Bougainville split into several factions, and a civil war began. A militia group forced the BRA out of the island of Buka, north of Bougainville, in a bloody offensive. Multiple agreements were signed and not honored by any side. The BRA leadership of Ona and Kauona fell out with some of the political leaders, such as Kabui. Several other village militias, which together became known as the Resistance, armed by the PNG defence forces, forced the BRA out of their areas.
Papua New Guinea's policy towards Bougainville hardened after the defeat of the incumbent government at the 1992 elections. New Prime Minister Paias Wingti took a considerably more hardline stance, and angered the Solomon Islands, after a bloody raid on one island that was alleged to be supporting the Bougainvilleans. The Papuan army, in alliance with the resistance, succeeded in retaking Arawa, the provincial captal, in 1993. Papuan Foreign Minister Sir Julius Chan attempted to gather a peacekeeping force from the nations of the Pacific, but Wingti quashed the idea. He subsequently ordered the army to retake the Panguna mine, and was initially successful. However, his government was short-lived, and he was soon replaced as Prime Minister by Chan.
Chan attempted to broker a peace treaty, but neither Ona, Kauona nor Kabui turned up to sign it. By 1996, Chan was beginning to get frustrated at the lack of progress, and after a series of negotiations in Cairns, Australia, the army fired upon Kabui and the other delegates when they returned to Bougainville. Chan decided to abandon attempts at peace, and on 21 March, 1996, he gave the go-ahead for an invasion of Bougainville, under new commander of the PNG defence forces, Jerry Singirok. However, Australia and New Zealand declined to provide military support, so he began to look elsewhere.
Sandline and ceasefire
Thus began the Sandline affair, where the Papuan government attempted to hire mercenaries to attack Bougainville. However, while negotiations with Sandline were underway, Chan ordered the military to invade anyway. Around a thousand soldiers were sent, but the attack was a disaster, and was quickly repulsed by the BRA. Within a week, they had been forced to evacuate. Soon after, a local militia group turned against the military, and massacred twelve soldiers. By 1997, Chan had decided that his best chance lay with the Sandline mercenaries.
However, this too turned out to be a disaster. News of his intention to hire mercenaries was leaked to the Australian press, and international condemnation followed. Furthermore, when Jerry Singirok heard of the news, he ordered the detaining of all the mercenaries on arrival. In the resulting saga, Prime Minister Chan was forced to resign, and Papua New Guinea came very close to a military coup. Indeed, the officers in charge had the parliament surrounded, but steadfastly refused to go any further. In the end, however, they got their way, with Chan's resignation and the removal of the mercenaries from Papua New Guinean territory.
Sandline sparked a lowpoint in the Bougainvillean war. Since 1997, a ceasefire has largely held on the island. A multinational Peace Monitoring Group was deployed soon afterwards, and an organised reconciliation process began at the tribal level in the early 2000s. There is still a small minority of fighters left in the centre of the island, and enough instability to ensure that the mine remains closed. Francis Ona has never been captured, and has refused to play any part in the peace process. However, it would seem that the war in Bougainville is over. As part of the current peace settlement, a referendum on independence will be held sometime in the 2010s.
Autonomy
In june 2005 were organized the first elections.Joseph Kabui was designed as a president.