The conflict was sparked by an Australian-run gold and copper mine, then the world’s largest. The Autonomous Region of Bougainville is comprised of Bougainville Island and several other nearby islands in the Solomon Islands archipelago. The conflict spread throughout the island and lasted a decade. A new report by the Human Rights Law Centre in Australia details the continuing devastation wrought by a copper and gold mine that closed more than 30 years ago in the Papua New Guinean territory of Bougainville. 'Land to us is our lifeline and we cannot be separated from it,' Ona was to write in 1988 as he attempted to explain his anger and his despair. The copper mining on Bougainville Island was carried out by Bougainville Copper Limited of PNG, a subsidiary of the Australian-British Rio Tinto Group. The Bougainville Conflict. Company limited by guarantee registered in England and Wales (03196482) Bougainvilleans, whether resentful of a clansman's prominence or coveting another's land, whether wishing to avenge the death of an antecedent or the despoiling of a female relative leapt into the lawless vacuum of civil strife, maiming and killing their own. The conflict which sparked this ongoing injustice began in November 1988. In 1988, locals on Bougainville Island began killing the migrant copper workers. According to their account, the young university student was struck repeatedly with wood and rifle butts by soldiers of the PNGDF. The more the Australian administration insisted upon the construction of the copper mine – for the sake of the future state of Papua New Guinea they said – the more the issue of the mine and Bougainville's future political status became inextricably mixed. As to landowner grievances, see John Conncll, 'Compensation and conflict: the Bougainville Copper mine in Papua New Guinea', inJohn Connell and Richard Howitt (eds), Mining and Indigenous Peoples in Australasia (Sydney 1991), 55-75. Police Riot Squads were sent in by the national government to capture him – dead or alive – but this only served to broaden Ona's support. It was no longer simply the copper mine that was in the hands of the BRA but the island's airstrips, roads and even doorway security at the largest supermarket. Seemingly unaware of this growing backlash, in Port Moresby the Cabinet of Prime Minster Rabbie Namaliu approved a call-out by the PNG Defence Forces (PNGDF). By the time Sandline's front man, Tim Spicer, first saw the Panguna mine in early 1997, it was overgrown with almost a decade of disuse. This is due to the fact that Australia, New Zealand and their ally, the United States, are now fighting to maintain their influence in the Asia-Pacific, as China has been gaining economic, political and military power for many decades, and is now keen to become the dominant force in the Pacific Ocean. Chan's first attempt to negotiate a comprehensive solution with the secessionists at the Arawa Peace Conference in October 1994 was not a resounding success, despite agreeing to their request for the United Nations to be present and cajoling the Australians into funding a small regional peacekeeping force. It has remained closed since 1989. In 1997, negotiations mediated by New Zealand began between the PNG government and secessionist leaders. As part of this strategy, China is doing everything it can to increase the influence it has in the region’s small and underdeveloped states, primarily through economic cooperation. With little left of traditional or modern structures which might have restrained them, elements of the BRA and others who claimed to be acting at their behest, committed murder, rape and robbery in the name of the 'war'. 'We are generally peace-loving, law-abiding people. The conflict showed no signs of ending, and in January 1990, Bougainville Copper announced the mothballing of the Panguna mine. English. Bougainville Copper Limited estimates that the mine still holds more than five million tonnes of copper and 19 million ounces of gold -- worth tens of billions of dollars at current market prices. It chose the latter. But the real trouble came in 1990 when Australia 'gifted' four ancient Iroquois to the PNGDF on condition that they would not be used in the offensive. Bougainville within Germany 's sphere of influence some 10,700 mineral resources the independence Bougainville! Found his spinal column had been shut down, 16 people had died – of! 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