Bougainville's gold mine sparked a war that killed 20,000 - now it could be reopened

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The people of Bougainville will vote in a referendum this weekend that will decide on its independence from Papua New Guinea

Almost 20 years ago a brutal civil conflict ended in Papua New Guinea in which one in ten people on Bougainville died - but the war set the island on the road to independence.

Over the next 10 years, during the ‘Bougainville crisis’, up to 20,000 people died either from fighting with the PNG defence force and its local collaborators or from disease and starvation.Despite backing from the Australian government and Rio Tinto subsidiary Bougainville Copper Limited , the PNG government was brought to the negotiating table by the BRA and a peace agreement was signed in 2001.

The mine oozes blue polluted water and just downriver a devastated landscape unfolds where the tailings were pumped.“It destroys everything, like fish, we used to catch fish here before,” said Barnabas Piruari, a downstream villager who blames his skin disease on the pollution. “We were the first ones to establish this business, now some companies start up here, business is very good now but we have competition but we make 200 grams or 300 grams a day,” he said after melting down a customer’s gold dust.The lump of gold is the result of weeks of backbreaking work by the villager in the tailings waste of the Panguna mine.“After the crisis I left Bougainville [for Port Moresby] to go find a job to support family and children get an education.

“They’re talking about the economic side of agriculture and fisheries but we cannot do it quickly because we have to turn it into cash, Panguna is readily available,” Ms Jaintong said.With Bougainville expected to vote for independence this weekend, there is a new generation of leaders emerging with hopes for a return to the good times in Arawa.

 

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Is it their currency?

الجنوب العربي كذلك يريد الإستقلال عن اليمن الشمال

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