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Bougainville Province
 
 
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The Autonomous Region of Bougainville, also known as North Solomons, is an autonomous region in Papua New Guinea
Papua New Guinea

Papua New Guinea , officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea, is a country in Oceania, occupying the eastern half of the island of New Guinea and numerous offshore islands ....
 and is the largest of the Solomon Islands
Solomon Islands

For the group of islands rather than the nation, see Solomon Islands .The Solomon Islands is a country in Melanesia, east of Papua New Guinea, consisting of nearly one thousand islands....
 group. The largest island is Bougainville Island
Bougainville Island

political geography, Bougainville Island is the main island of the Autonomous Region of Bougainville, part of Papua New Guinea . This region is also known as Bougainville Province or the North Solomons....
, and the province also includes the adjacent island
Island

An island or isle is any piece of land that is surrounded by water. Very small islands such as emergent land features on atolls are called islets....
 of Buka
Buka Island

Buka Island is the second largest island in the Papua New Guinean province of Bougainville Province....
 and assorted outlying islands including the Carterets
Carteret Islands

The Carteret Islands are Papua New Guinea islands located 86 km  north-east of Bougainville Island in the Oceania....
. The capital is temporarily Buka
Buka, Papua New Guinea

Buka is situated on Buka Island, Bougainville Province, Papua New Guinea. It has been the capital of the province during the History of Bougainville#Civil war....
, though it is expected that Arawa
Arawa, Papua New Guinea

Arawa is the disputed capital and largest settlement in Bougainville Province in Papua New Guinea....
 will once again become the provincial capital. The population of the province is 175,160 (2000 census).

Bougainville Island
Bougainville Island

political geography, Bougainville Island is the main island of the Autonomous Region of Bougainville, part of Papua New Guinea . This region is also known as Bougainville Province or the North Solomons....
 is ecologically
Ecology

Ecology is the science study of the distribution and Abundance of life and the interactions between organisms and their nature environment ....
 and geographically
Physical geography

Physical geography is one of the three major subfields of geography. Physical geography focuses on understanding the processes and patterns in the natural environment, as opposed to the cultural or built environment, the domain of human geography....
, although not politically
Political geography

Political geography is the field of human geography that is concerned with the study of both the spatially uneven outcomes of political processes and the ways in which political processes are themselves affected by spatial structures....
, part of Solomon Islands.






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The Autonomous Region of Bougainville, also known as North Solomons, is an autonomous region in Papua New Guinea
Papua New Guinea

Papua New Guinea , officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea, is a country in Oceania, occupying the eastern half of the island of New Guinea and numerous offshore islands ....
 and is the largest of the Solomon Islands
Solomon Islands

For the group of islands rather than the nation, see Solomon Islands .The Solomon Islands is a country in Melanesia, east of Papua New Guinea, consisting of nearly one thousand islands....
 group. The largest island is Bougainville Island
Bougainville Island

political geography, Bougainville Island is the main island of the Autonomous Region of Bougainville, part of Papua New Guinea . This region is also known as Bougainville Province or the North Solomons....
, and the province also includes the adjacent island
Island

An island or isle is any piece of land that is surrounded by water. Very small islands such as emergent land features on atolls are called islets....
 of Buka
Buka Island

Buka Island is the second largest island in the Papua New Guinean province of Bougainville Province....
 and assorted outlying islands including the Carterets
Carteret Islands

The Carteret Islands are Papua New Guinea islands located 86 km  north-east of Bougainville Island in the Oceania....
. The capital is temporarily Buka
Buka, Papua New Guinea

Buka is situated on Buka Island, Bougainville Province, Papua New Guinea. It has been the capital of the province during the History of Bougainville#Civil war....
, though it is expected that Arawa
Arawa, Papua New Guinea

Arawa is the disputed capital and largest settlement in Bougainville Province in Papua New Guinea....
 will once again become the provincial capital. The population of the province is 175,160 (2000 census).

Bougainville Island
Bougainville Island

political geography, Bougainville Island is the main island of the Autonomous Region of Bougainville, part of Papua New Guinea . This region is also known as Bougainville Province or the North Solomons....
 is ecologically
Ecology

Ecology is the science study of the distribution and Abundance of life and the interactions between organisms and their nature environment ....
 and geographically
Physical geography

Physical geography is one of the three major subfields of geography. Physical geography focuses on understanding the processes and patterns in the natural environment, as opposed to the cultural or built environment, the domain of human geography....
, although not politically
Political geography

Political geography is the field of human geography that is concerned with the study of both the spatially uneven outcomes of political processes and the ways in which political processes are themselves affected by spatial structures....
, part of Solomon Islands. Buka
Buka Island

Buka Island is the second largest island in the Papua New Guinean province of Bougainville Province....
, Bougainville, and most of the Solomons are part of the Solomon Islands rain forests
Solomon Islands rain forests

The Solomon Islands rain forests are a terrestrial ecoregion which includes most of the Solomon Islands and the islands of Bougainville Island and Buka Island, which are part of Papua New Guinea....
 ecoregion
Ecoregion

An ecoregion , sometimes called a bioregion, is an ecology and geographically defined area smaller than a "realm" or "ecozone". Ecoregions cover relatively large areas of land or water, and contain characteristic, geographically distinct assemblages of natural community and species....
.

History


The island was named after the French navigator
Navigator

A navigator is the person onboard a ship or aircraft responsible for its navigation. The navigator's primary responsibility is to be aware of ship or aircraft position at all times....
 Louis Antoine de Bougainville
Louis Antoine de Bougainville

Louis-Antoine, comte de Bougainville was a French admiral and explorer....
 (whose name has also been lent to the creeping tropical flowering vines of the genus Bougainvillea
Bougainvillea

Bougainvillea is a genus of flowering plants native to South America from Brazil west to Peru and south to southern Argentina . Different authors accept between four and 18 species in the genus....
 ). In 1885 it came under German administration as part of German New Guinea
German New Guinea

German New Guinea was a former Germany protectorate from 1884 to 1914, consisting of the northeastern part of New Guinea and several nearby island groups....
. Australia occupied it in 1914 and, as a League of Nations
League of Nations

The League of Nations was an inter-governmental organization founded as a result of the Treaty of Versailles in 1919?1920. At its greatest extent from 28 September 1934 to 23 February 1935, it had 58 members....
 mandatory power, administered it from 1918 until the Japanese invaded in 1942 and then again from 1945 until PNG independence
Independence

Independence is the self-government of a nation, country, or state by its residents and population, or some portion thereof, generally exercising sovereignty....
 in 1975, as a United Nations mandatory power.

The island was occupied by Australian, American and Japanese forces in World War II. It was an important base for the USAAF
United States Army Air Forces

The United States Army Air Forces was the military aviation arm of the United States of America during and immediately after World War II. The direct precursor to the United States Air Force, its peak size was over 2.4 million men and women in service and nearly 80,000 aircraft in 1944, and 783 domestic bases in December 1943....
, RAAF and RNZAF. On 8 March 1944 during World War II
World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global military conflict which involved a Participants in World War II, including all of the great powers, organised into two opposing military alliances: the Allies of World War II and the Axis powers....
, American forces were attacked by Japanese troops on Hill 700 on this island. The battle
Battle

Generally, a battle is a conceptual component in the hierarchy of combat in warfare between two or more armed forces, wherein each group will seek to defeat the others within the scope of a military campaign, and are well defined in duration, area and force commitment....
 lasted five days, ending with a Japanese retreat
Withdrawal (military)

A withdrawal is a type of military operation, generally meaning retreating forces back while maintaining contact with the enemy. A withdrawal may be undertaken as part of a general retreat, to consolidate forces, to occupy ground that is more easily defended, or to lead the enemy into an ambush....
.

The island is rich in copper
Copper

Copper is a chemical element with the symbol Cu and atomic number 29.It is a ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity....
 and gold
Gold

Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au and atomic number 79. It is a highly sought-after precious metal, having been used as money, as a store of value, in jewelry, in sculpture, and for ornamentation since the beginning of recorded history....
. A large mine was established at Panguna
Panguna

Panguna is a town and a copper mining on Bougainville Island, Papua New Guinea. By the end of its operations on May 15, 1989 it was the largest open-cut mine in the world; it was also a major catalyst in the unrest in Bougainville in the 1970s and 1980s....
 in the early 1970s by Bougainville Copper Limited, a subsidiary of Rio Tinto
Rio Tinto

Rio Tinto may refer to:*Rio Tinto Group, a multinational mining company** Rio Tinto Alcan, the mining company's aluminum division** Rio Tinto Stadium, a football stadium in Sandy, Utah, USA sponsored by the above company...
.

Disputes over the environmental impact, financial benefits, and social change brought by the mine renewed a secessionist movement that had been dormant since the 1970s. The independence of Bougainville (Republic of North Solomons) was unsuccessfully proclaimed in 1975 and in 1990.

In 1988 the Bougainville Revolutionary Army
Bougainville Revolutionary Army

The Bougainville Revolutionary Army was formed in 1988 by Bougainvilleans seeking independence from Papua New Guinea .BRA leaders argue that Bougainville Province is ethnically part of the Solomon Islands and has not profited from the extensive mining that has occurred on the island....
 (BRA) increased their activity significantly. Prime Minister Sir Rabbie Namaliu
Rabbie Namaliu

Sir Rabbie Langanai Namaliu, Order of Logohu, Papua New Guinea Honours System, Order of St Michael and St George is a Papua New Guinea politician....
 ordered the Papua New Guinea Defence Force (PNGDF) to put down the rebellion, and the conflict escalated into a civil war. The PNGDF retreated from permanent positions on Bougainville in 1990, but continued military action. The conflict involved pro-independence and loyalist Bougainvillean groups as well as the PNGDF. The war claimed an estimated 15,000 to 20,000 lives. In 1996 Prime Minister Sir Julius Chan
Julius Chan

Sir Julius Chan Order of Logohu Order of St Michael and St George Order of the British Empire was Prime Minister of Papua New Guinea from 1980 to 1982 and from 1994 to 1997....
 requested the help of Sandline International
Sandline International

Sandline International was a private military company based in London, established in the early 1990s. It was involved in conflicts in Papua New Guinea in 1997 causing the Sandline affair, in 1998 in Sierra Leone and in Liberia in 2003 ....
, a private military company previously involved in supplying mercenaries
Mercenary

A mercenary is a person who takes part in an armed conflict, who is not a national or a party to the conflict, and is "motivated to take part in the hostilities essentially by the desire for private gain and, in fact, is promised, by or on behalf of a party to the conflict, material compensation substantially in excess of that promised or p...
 in the civil war in Sierra Leone
Sierra Leone

Sierra Leone, officially the Republic of Sierra Leone, is a country in West Africa. It is bordered by Guinea in the northeast, Liberia in the southeast, and the Atlantic Ocean in the southwest....
, to put down the rebellion. This resulted in the Sandline affair
Sandline affair

The Sandline affair was a political scandal that became one of the defining moments in the history of Papua New Guinea, and particularly that of the conflict in Bougainville Province....
.

Peace agreement and autonomy

The conflict ended in 1997, after negotiations brokered by New Zealand. A peace agreement finalised in 2000 provided for the establishment of an Autonomous Bougainville Government
Autonomous Bougainville Government

The Autonomous Bougainville Government is the government of the Autonomous Region of Bougainville, Papua New Guinea.The government was established in 2000 following a peace agreement between the Government of Papua New Guinea and the Bougainville Revolutionary Army a guerrilla movement....
, and for a referendum in the future on whether the island should become politically independent.

Elections for the first Autonomous Government were held in May and June 2005, Joseph Kabui
Joseph Kabui

Joseph C. Kabui was a secessionist leader and the first President of the Autonomous Region of Bougainville of the Autonomous Region of Bougainville, off the coast of Papua New Guinea, from 2005 to 2008....
 was elected President.He died on 6 June 2008.

On 25 July 2005 rebel leader Francis Ona
Francis Ona

Francis Ona was a Bougainville Island secessionist leader who led an uprising against the Government of Papua New Guinea motivated at least initially by his concerns over the operation of the Panguna mine by Bougainville Copper, a subsidiary of Rio Tinto Group....
 died after a short illness. A former surveyor with Bougainville Copper Limited, Ona was a key figure in the secessionist conflict and had refused to formally join the island's peace process.

See also

  • Noah Musingku
    Noah Musingku

    Noah Musingku is a businessman, warlord and Bougainville Province separatist leader from Tonu in the Siwai subprovince of Bougainville. He succeeded the late Francis Ona as the self-proclaimed King of Papala on 24 July 2005, taking the title of King David Peii II....
  • Bougainville campaign (1943–45)
  • Empress Augusta Bay
  • Battle of Empress Augusta Bay
  • North Solomon Islands
    North Solomon Islands

    The North Solomons are the former German Solomon Islands in Melanesia which were part of German New Guinea. The islands are also known as Bougainville Island after their principal island....
  • Francis Ona
    Francis Ona

    Francis Ona was a Bougainville Island secessionist leader who led an uprising against the Government of Papua New Guinea motivated at least initially by his concerns over the operation of the Panguna mine by Bougainville Copper, a subsidiary of Rio Tinto Group....


Further reading

Repeats text from previous 1973 reference and updates with summaries of Papua New Guinea press reports on the Bougainville Crisis

External links

  • — United Nations
    United Nations

    The United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are to facilitate cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, Social change, human rights and achieving world peace....
     map of the vicinity of Bougainville Island, PDF
    Portable Document Format

    Portable Document Format is a file format created by Adobe Systems in 1993 for document exchange. PDF is used for representing two-dimensional documents in a manner independent of the application software, hardware, and operating system....
     format
  • , a documentary film about the Bougainville Revolutionary Army
    Bougainville Revolutionary Army

    The Bougainville Revolutionary Army was formed in 1988 by Bougainvilleans seeking independence from Papua New Guinea .BRA leaders argue that Bougainville Province is ethnically part of the Solomon Islands and has not profited from the extensive mining that has occurred on the island....
    .