Anthony Regan

Causes and course of the Bougainville conflict

Abstract In its very early stages, the Bougainville conflict was analysed by academic observers in terms of three main perspectives: ethno‐nationalist demands precipitated by grievances about the Panguna copper and gold mine; cultural perspectives which emphasise the impact of a large mining project on either Melanesian communities generally or particular Bougainvillean communities; and class conflict and other forms of economic inequality. To assess the extent to which these perspectives illuminate the dynamics of almost 10 years of conflict, they are re‐considered in the light of both other published material about Bougainville and an overview of the main stages of development of the conflict. While each perspective illuminates aspects of the conflict, none of them stands alone as an explanation. Rather each tends to reinforce the significance of the others. Stresses in Bougainvillean societies caused by interaction of evoloving cultures with growing economic inequality within and between societies are ...

Unitary state, devolution, autonomy, secession: State building and nation building in Bougainville, Papua New Guinea

Abstract This paper compares the experience of two main attempts to accommodate secessionist pressures in Bougainville, a sub-national island unit of Papua New Guinea (PNG). In 1976 constitutionally based devolution was established on a largely uniform basis for Bougainville and PNGs 18 other provinces. A 2001 agreement to end a secessionist war has resulted in constitutionally guaranteed asymmetrical autonomy and a right to a deferred referendum on independence for Bougainville. The paper considers whether the Bougainville experience supports the view that autonomy creates pressure for secession and whether secessionist pressures might be accommodated by development of innovative economic policy and governance practices of the kind utilized by many other small non-sovereign island autonomies.

Resolving the Bougainville Self-Determination Dispute: Autonomy or Complex Power-Sharing?

This chapter examines the origins, main features and implementation of the power-sharing arrangements in the Bougainville case, with particular emphasis on main features and implementation of the 2001 Agreement. It compares the agreements of 1976 and 2001 and the conflicts that produced them provide insights into both the reasons why the two agreements were necessary, and the significant differences between these two sets of power-sharing arrangements. The central issues examined include: the geographical, political and economic factors that contribute to the focus on territorial autonomy as the central aspect of power-sharing arrangements in 1976, and a key aspect in 2001; whether the ending of the self-determination dispute in 2001 would have been possible through other strategies - for example, some form of assimilation, or arrangements for separation; whether the resolution of the conflict would have been possible without international involvement in both the process that produced the 2001 agreement and its implementation. Keywords: 2001 agreement; Bougainville case; power-sharing arrangements; self-determination dispute; territorial autonomy

Bougainville: Origins of the Conflict, and Debating the Future of Large-Scale Mining

The 50-year relationship between large-scale mining (LSM) and locallevel politics in Bougainville has been complex and fraught. Bougainville is the only place in the world where host community violence has resulted in the long-term closure of a large-scale mine. Bougainville Copper Ltd (BCL), a subsidiary of Conzinc RioTinto Australia (CRA), operated the huge Panguna copper and gold mine from 1972 to 1989 under a 1967 agreement with the Australian colonial administration of the then Territory of Papua and New Guinea (TPNG). The first large-scale mine in what is now Papua New Guinea (PNG), it closed in 1989, early in a violent conflict that lasted from 1988 to 1997 (Regan 1998, 2011; Braithwaite et al. 2010), and it was still closed in 2016.