Bougainville - The Country

The island of Bougainville is really part of the North Solomons, a name that is more indicative of its true geographic and ethnic alignment than its current position as an eastern outpost of Papua New Guinea (PNG). True, PNG is an autonomous country, but Australian business interests call the shots and cash the checks here. There is a lot of potential wealth in PNG, but it needs big cash to punch the big holes it takes to pull out the buried mineral wealth, something the T-shirt, flip-flop wearing natives don't have a lot of.

The Western history in the islands started when Louis Antoine de Bougainville generously gave his name to the big island (and the colorful, thorny, flowering bush that comes from the region). When he approached the smaller island to the north, he was greeted by cheers of "Buka, buka," which loosely translated means. "What? What?" He promptly named the island Buka.

The lush islands were traded like baseball cards between the French, British, Germans, Japanese and Australians without anyone bothering to ask the locals their opinion until, in 1964, copper was discovered in Panguna.

Overnight, Bougainville copper created an instant metropolis and the money flowed-flowing out of Bougainville and into Australian and PNG pockets. Laborers and technicians were flown in to work the mine, but only one in five of the 4,000 laborers was a foreigner. Although a few folks benefited, the quality of life for the people actually decreased as pollution from the mine began to destroy their pristine homeland.

In 1987, the Panguna Landowners Association, led by Pepetua Sereo and Francis Ona, was formed and they wanted their slice: $10 billion dollars and back payment of mine profits. A year later, after they were rebuked, the Bougainville Revolutionary Army was formed and the mine began to experience a number of shutdowns due to demonstrations, attacks and sabotages.

The mine was shut down in 1989 and the army was sent in to clear things up. Large numbers of people were rounded up and moved to 40 "care centers," or concentration camps. The press was kept out to make sure the term civil war didn't hit the papers. A recent sprinkling of gonzo journos have snuck into the south to tell the real story.

So far it is estimated that 7,000-10,000 citizens and soldiers have been killed in this conflict, with neither side offering an accurate body count. The blockade caused the expected suffering and deaths among the 12,000 noncombatant population as well. In 1997, the situation came to a head as London-based Sandlines brought in the mining companies' best friend: mercenaries from Executive Outcomes (fresh from their successful handiwork in Sierra Leone) to do a little surgical killing.

The tables turned when the army locked them up and mutinied. They were incensed that the government would spend $34 million on a contract for 40 South African mercenaries complete with infrared-equipped helicopter gunships instead of on equipment for them. For now, things have become more conciliatory between PNG and BRA, and the military blockade has been lift

In 1997 and 1998 unarmed troops began landing on the island to set up a peace monitoring group Australia sends 300 troops and kicks in $50 million a year to "monitor" the peace process. Things are slowly coming back to subnormal as aid groups endlessly interview locals and try to decide what needs to be done first. For now, Bougainville, with its totally destroyed Western veneer and Heart of Darkness past would be a perfect movie set for a post-apocalyptic film.