History of Bougainville
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Bougainville is a province of Papua New Guinea. It was named after the French navigator Louis Antoine de Bougainville.
[edit] Pre-history
Bougainville has been inhabited for at least 33 000 years. Its people speak languages belonging to three language families, the northern and southern Bougainville families, whose origins are unknown and presumably ancient, and languages of the Austronesian family, which arrived with the more recent Lapita culture from the west three millennia ago.
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[edit] European colonisation
The German New Guinea Company established control over Bougainville and Buka, Choiseul, Shortland and Treasury Islands in 1885 but did not extend its farther control southwards in the Solomons, whose southern islands came under a British protectorate in 1893 with the eastern islands being added in 1899. In 1900, Germany transferred all of its claims in the Solomons other than Bougainville and Buka to Great Britain while Britain, in return, withdrew from Western Samoa. During World War I Australia occupied Bougainville together with the rest of German New Guinea; the League of Nations placed the territory under Australian mandate in 1920.
[edit] Second World War
- See also: Bougainville campaign (1943–45)
In 1942, Bougainville was occupied by the Japanese, and was used as a base to attack Guadalcanal and other Allied territory. The 3rd Marine Division landed on the west coast of Bougainville in November 1943, and shortly afterwards, there was a large night sea battle, the Battle of Empress Augusta Bay between cruisers and destroyers of the U.S. Navy and the Imperial Japanese Navy. The Americans routed the Japanese and were never bothered again in this area by the I.J.N. It took a concerted Allied land offensive between November 1943 and April 1944 to occupy and hold the part of the island along the western shore in an area called "Torokina". The Americans set about establishing a wide defensive perimeter, draining swamps, and building multiple airfields for defense, and for attacking the Japanese on New Britain Island. The Marines were replaced by US Army troops. The Japanese infiltrated the mountains and jungles of Bougainville, and launched a counteroffensive against the Americans in 1944. The critical focus of their attack was at a place called by the Americans "Hellsapoppin Ridge". In repulsing this attack, the American soldiers and airmen broke the back of the Japanese Army on Bougainville. The survivors retreated to their bases on northern and southern Bougainville, and the Americans left them to "wither on the vine" for the remainder of the war. During the 1943-45 period, more than 17,500 Japanese soldiers were either killed in combat, died of disease, or died of malnutrition. In 1945, the Australian Army took over occupation from the Americans, and Australia resumed control of Bougainville and Papua New Guinea, which became a United Nations trusteeship. The remaining Japanese on Bougainville refused to surrender, but rather held out until the surrender of the Japanese Empire on 2 September 1945. They were then commanded by the Emperor to surrender to the Allied Australians, Americans, and New Zealanders, and they were then repatriated to Japan.
[edit] Beginnings of the independence movement
Bougainville is rich in copper, and possibly gold.[1] 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.
[edit] 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 Papua New Guinean 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.
[edit] Shutting the Panguna mine
The mine at Panguna had been perhaps the most major sticking point between Bougainville and the mainland. 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 2005, the mine remains closed. Serero was to die of an asthma attack soon afterwards, and Ona continued to lead the uprising alone.
[edit] From uprising to war of secession
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 agreement 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.
[edit] Civil war
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. The command structure set up by the BRA seldom had any real control over the various groups throughout the island that claimed to be part of the BRA. A number of 'raskol' (criminal) gangs that were affiliated with the BRA, equipped largely with weapons salvaged from the fighting in World War II, terrorized villages, engaging in murder, rape and pillage. Bougainville split into several factions, and a civil war began. Much of the division in this fighting were largely along clan-lines; the BIG/BRA was dominated by the Nasioi clan, causing other islanders to view it with suspicion. On the island of Buka, north of Bougainville a local militia was formed which succeeded in driving out the BRA with the help of Papuan troops, during a bloody offensive in September. 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 capital, in January 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 in August 1994 was replaced as Prime Minister by Chan.
Chan announced his intention to find a peaceful solution to the conflict, meeting with Kauona in the Solomon Islands and arranging for a peace conference to be held in Arawa that October, with security provided by an Australia-led South Pacific Peacekeeping Force. However, the BIG leaders boycotted the conference, claiming that their safety could not be guaranteed. In their absence, Chan's government entered into negotiations with a group of chiefs from the Nasioi clan, headed by Theodore Miriung, a former lawyer for the Panguna Landowners Association. This resulted in the establishment of a Bougainville Transitional Government in April 1995, with its capital in Buka. Miriung was named Prime Minister of the new government, but frequently clashed with Chan by criticizing abuses committed by Papuan soldiers.
By 1996, Chan was beginning to get frustrated at the lack of progress. In January, following a round of negotiations in Cairns, Australia, between the BRA, BTG and the PNG government, a PNG defense force patrol boat fired upon Kabui and the other delegates when they returned to Bougainville. The next month, the home of the BIG's representative in the Solomon Islands, Martin Mirori, was firebombed. 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.
[edit] Sandline and ceasefire
Under pressure from human rights groups, the governments of Australia and New Zealand declined to provide military support, forcing Chan to begin to look elsewhere. Thus began the Sandline affair, where the Papuan government attempted to hire mercenaries from Sandline International, a London-based private military company, composed primarily of former British and South African special forces soldiers, which had been involved in the civil wars in Angola and Sierra Leone. However, while negotiations with Sandline were underway, Chan ordered the military to invade anyway. In July the PNG defense forces attempted to seize Aropa airport, the island's principal airfield. However, the attack was a disaster, suffering from poor logistical planning and determined resistance by BRA fighters. In September, BRA militants attacked a PNG army camp at Kangu Beach with the help of members of a local milita group, killing twelve Papuan soldiers and taking five hostage. The following month, Theodore Miriung was assassinated. Although Chan's government attempted to blame the BRA, a subsequent independent investigation implicated members of the PNG defense force and the resistance militas. Discipline and morale was rapidly deteriorating within the ranks of the PNG military, which had been unable to make any substantial progress in pentrating the mountainous interior of the island and reopening the Panguna mine. Chan decided that his best chance lay to recapture the Panguna mine was 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. Breaking with Ona, Kauona and Kabui entered into peace talks with the government of Bill Skate in Christchurch, New Zealand, which culminated in the signing of the Lincoln Agreement in January 1998. Under the terms of the agreement, PNG began to withdraw its soldiers from the island and a multinational Peace Monitoring Group was deployed. Legislation to establish a Bougainville Reconciliation Government failed to win approval in the PNG Parliament. A Bougainville provincial government of the same status as the other eighteen provinces of Papua New Guinea, with John Momis as Governor, was established in January 1999. However, this government was suspended after facing opposition from both the BIA/BRA and BTG. Arrangements were made for the creation of a modified government, to be established in two phases-the first being the Bougainville Constituent Assembly and the second being the elections for the Bougainville People's Congress. Elections were held in May, and Kabui was named President. However, the legality of this was contested by Momis, with the support of a number of tribal chiefs and Resistance leaders. In November, a new body, the Bougainville Interim Provincial Government, was established, headed by Momis. Rapprochment between Kauona and Momis led to an agreement in which the two bodies would act in consultation. An organised reconciliation process began at the tribal level in the early 2000.
Francis Ona refused to play any part in the peace process, and, with a small minority of fighters, continued to occupy the area around Panguna mine[citation needed]. Throughout the decade, Ona continued to resist overtures to participate in the new government, declaring himself 'king' of Bougainville before dying of malaria in 2005. 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. 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.
In March 2005, Dr Shaista Shameem of the United Nations working group on mercenaries asked Fiji and Papua New Guinea for permission to send a team to investigate the presence of former Fijian soldiers in Bougainville. (UNPO)
[edit] Operation Bel Isi ("Peace") - 30 April 1998 - 23 August 2003
The Peace Monitoring Group (PMG) on Bougainville in Papua New Guinea was brought about by the civil unrest on the island in the 1990s. The PNG government requested the Australian and New Zealand governments to provide a monitoring group to oversee the cease fire on the island. This group was made up of both civilian and defence personnel from Australia, New Zealand, Fiji and Vanuatu. It must be pointed out that both sides of the conflict welcomed the group being on Bougainville. This support remained strong throughout the PMG's deployment. The PMG was established on the island on 1 May 1998 and took over from the New Zealand Truce Monitoring Group which then departed.
The PMG comprised approx. 100 personnel, was unarmed and wore bright yellow shirts and hats. It had no specific legal power although it did have a mandate under the Lincoln Agreement. It remained definitively neutral at all times. In the early stages of its deployment, it acted primarily as a cease fire monitoring group and spread information about developments in the peace process. Following the Bougainville Peace Agreement, the PMG focused primarily on facilitating the weapons disposal program, in co-operation with the small UN Observer Mission on Bougainville (UNOMB). There was also some logistical support given to the constitutional consultation and drafting process from 2003.
Support was provided to the group via use of the Loloho wharf on the eastern side of the island by naval vessels from Australia and New Zealand as well as the Kieta airfield by weekly C130 Hercules flights from Townsville . Four UH-1 'Huey' helicopters were supplied by Australian 171st Aviation Squadron, which were painted bright red for visibility and utilised to ferry personnel to inland villages inaccessible by foot or vehicle. With more than 8,000 safe flying hours in the skies of Bougainville to their credit, the choppers made their way back to Australia aboard HMAS Kanimbla. Later, air mobility was outsourced to the commercial Hevilift company, which provided two Bell 212 helicopters.
HQ PMG was based in Arawa and comprised approx. 50 personnel providing coordination for all the operations in Bougainville. The majority of personnel lived in local houses in the Arawa township.
The Logistical Support Team at the Loloho wharf, it comprised approx. 70 personnel and provided such services as catering, dental, medical, IT support, vehicle transport and communications to the out lying team sites. LST members lived in the "Opera House" which was an old storage silo for copper when the mine was open.
The remaining staff of PMG were located all over Bougainville in team sites monitoring the peace and liasing with local communities. The following locations had team sites in 2000 - Arawa, Sirakatau, Buin, Tonu, Wakunai and Buka.
The Bougainville Peace Agreement decreed that all personnel should be withdrawn from the island by December 2002. However, the group was extended by the applicable governments and withdrew completely by 23 August 2003.
The total cost of Australia's development and military assistance to Bougainville from the financial year 1997-98 until FY 2002-03 was $243.2 million. Over 3500 Australian defence personnel and 300 Australian civilians served in the Peace Monitoring Group during Operation Bel Isi.
For more info about Operation Bel Isi - follow this link Op Bel Isi Website
[edit] Autonomy
The first elections were organized in June 2005. Joseph Kabui was elected President.
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Please help improve this section by expanding it. Further information might be found on the talk page or at requests for expansion. |
[edit] Further information
- Documentary The Coconut Revolution (2000) directed by Dom Rotheroe includes a report and interview with Francis Ona and the B.R.A.
- Documentary Bougainville: Our Island, Our Fight (1998) directed by Wayne Coles-Janess
[edit] References
http://www.c-r.org/accord/boug/accord12.index.shtml
Citizens of Bougainville have filed a class action lawsuit in the United States against Rio Tinto arising from the environmental damage caused by the mine and war crimes occurring during the civil war years. In August 2006, the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit rejected Rio Tinto's effort to dismiss the claim. See Sarei v Rio Tinto, 456 F.3d 1069 (9th Cir. 2006).
