A sentiment was emerging that found expression in political form and culminated in Napidokae Navitu, a major social movement for indigenous identity and autonomy. It had its inception at a Nasioi meeting to protest the resumption of the Arawa plantation, in 1969. By 1972 the movement had attracted some 8000 followers, and it became the vehicle for Bougainvillean nationalism. In 1975, labor unrest and inter-ethnic hostilities culminated in a violent strike against BCL, which involved damage to infrastructure and production. The then-self-governing PNG administration punitively withheld investment royalties that were due to the Bougainvilleans.

The earliest demands for liberation can be also traced to this period, as PNG approached its own independence from Australia. A new generation of leaders built solidarity among the peoples of Bougainville by casting both the state and BCL as their common enemies. They proposed a post-independence national constitution that would have established unity through diversity and regional autonomy. However, their regionalist vision clashed with and threatened the idea of a managed neo-colonial state of Papua New Guinea that would be dependent on the unobstructed flow of transnational investments.

As a result, the Bougainville Provincial Assembly met with 200 village leaders and decided to break free from PNG. On 1 September 1975, a fortnight before PNG independence from Australia, the Republic of North Solomons was declared. Bougainville leader Moses Havini and his father, the paramount chief of the Naboin on Buka Island, designed the flag. However, the United Nations refused to recognize Bougainville, and within a year, it was encapsulated as the new North Solomons Province within PNG. The PNG government cemented Bougainville's affiliation and subordination through the restoration of mineral extraction royalties and the creation of an autonomous provincial government.

Through the 1980s, the people realized that they were being neglected economically. The loss of land and pollution together had destroyed the subsistence lifestyle in portions of Nasioi, Nagovisi and Banoni homelands. However, there was still some continuity in peoples' lives, as they lived close to their ancestral homelands, spoke Bougainvillean languages and maintained their values, ceremonies and kinship relations of production. In fact, a distinctive Bougainvillean identity flourished. Even though social classes emerged, their development was complicated by the politics of culture and nationalism. Bougainvilleans employed what they perceived to be their most important distinctive characteristicstheir mungkas (black) skin color, peacefulness, living conditions and social customsto contrast themselves from outsiders and to strengthen and maintain boundaries. Meanwhile, traditional matriliny remained strong; the role of women in kinship relations of production had not been eliminated by social change.

In 1979, the Panguna Landowners Association (PLA) was formed under the leadership of Michael Pariu. It was led by a small group of more educated village men who effectively negotiated a Compensation and Occupation Fees Agreement with BCL, in 1980. Eventually, women like the late Perpetua Serero took stronger leadership roles in the PLA in making further demands on BCL. Before her unfortunate death, Ms. Serero commented that from Richard West's (1972) book River of Tears: The Rise of Rio Tinto Zinc Corporation, Ltd., "we knew we could expect the worst."

In March 1988, 500 landowners organized by the PLA marched on BCL with a petition demanding increased basic services, localization of employment, and greater control of the erosion and pollution they perceived as threats to their health and livelihood. When BCL did not respond, they closed the mine during a one-day sit-down protest, in May 1988. BCL brought in Applied Geology Associates as consultants and in a public meeting, in November 1988, they used their report to refute claims that the mine was responsible for the loss of wildlife, declining agricultural production, and a range of human illnesses. PLA leader Francis Ona declared BCL's environmental inquiry to be a "whitewash" and walked out of the meeting, which degenerated into an uproar.

A few days after the "whitewash" meeting, armed Bougainvilleans took a large quantity of explosives from the BCL magazine. They shut down the Panguna mine, in December, with fires and explosions that destroyed mine installations valued at about US$850,000. In the following weeks, more Panguna installations were blown up professionally with the assistance of Bougainvillean Sam Kauona, an explosives expert trained in Australia who left the Papua New Guinea Defense Forces (PNGDF) to join the armed struggle with Francis Ona.

Early in 1989, the armed Bougainvilleans began referring to themselves as the Bougainville Revolutionary Army (BRA).

In radio broadcasts of 3 and 25 November 1988 and in letters to the PNG Post Courier, in April 1989, Mr. Ona set down BRA demands for K10 billion in environmental compensation payment, for BCL to be closed and for Bougainville's liberation from PNG. The BRA succeeded in closing the Panguna mine in May 1989, which had immediate economic implications for PNG. The mine has yet to be reopened.

Police Commissioner Paul Tohian issued shoot-to-kill orders against the "saboteurs," while then-Prime Minister Namaliu labelled the Bougainvilleans as "rebels" and "Rambo-style terrorists" and ordered PNGDF troops into the conflict. However, in unleashing counter-insurgency reprisals, code-named "Operation Footloose," against the BRA, the PNG state failed to meet any of its priorities. Operation Footloose drained the PNG economy, and the PNGDF failed to defeat the BRA and only succeeded in becoming an army of occupation against Bougainvillean civilians. The PNGDF lost the initial phase of the war with the BRA; Operation Footloose resulted in more than 200 casualties.

In early March 1990, the PNGDF withdrew from Bougainville, and BRA Supreme Commander Francis Ona declared the independent Republic of Bougainville, in May. The BRA took control of every district in Bougainville, set up its headquarters at the Panguna mine site and established an interim government. No states have recognized the Republic of Bougainville, and PNG blockaded the island to cut off all essential services. However, there is widespread Melanesian nationalist support, especially from the adjacent Solomon Islands, for the self-determination struggle.

PNGDF counter-insurgency tactics used in Operation Footloose generated ever greater Bougainvillean support for the BRA. Civilians were forcibly "relocated" from their homelands to coastal camps, using strategic hamletting tactics to cut BRA supply lines. Several suspected members of the BRA, including a United Church pastor, were murdered by PNGDF troops and their bodies dropped into the sea from a helicopter supplied by Australia. An Amnesty International report confirmed claims of human rights violations and PNG police and army brutality. Police and Defence Force reputations were seriously damaged, as PNG state authority and control over its security forces was seen to be very limited.

Fourth World Bulletin • July 1994

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