Talk:History of Bougainville

Translation of 'bel isi'
Changed translation of 'bel isi' from 'cool stomach' to 'peace'. Rationale for this is that 'cool stomach' is a apparently a literal translation of a different Tok Pisin expression (kolim bel) which means 'to calm someone down'. It is generally not a good idea to translate Tok Pisin expressions literally, since this leads to a number of false friend-type problems. 'Bel' should not be translated as stomach unless the context specifies one is takling about the internal organ; it typicallly means belly. 'Isi' means slow, relaxed or calm. The expression 'bel isi' means 'peace' in this context, literally it means 'calm belly'.

Sure, 'peace' is not as colourful, but English speakers must reconcile themselves to the fact that their language does not exactly match Tok Pisin. Also, "calming bellies" sounds very weird in English, in a way that "bel isi" doesn't to the Tok Pisin speaker. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 59.101.93.2 (talk • contribs)
 * Agreed - while "calm stomach" is a (kind of) literal translation, "peace" is a far more meaningful and accurate translation. Wantok (toktok) 05:05, 26 October 2007 (UTC)

Rebellions in Asia?
Why is this page listed in the category "Rebellions in Asia"? This island is not in Asia definitely. --Jakas1 (talk) 14:52, 18 January 2008 (UTC)
 * Good point. I've removed the category. There currently is no Category:Rebellions in Oceania, but I don't think this article should be in any "rebellions" category anyway, as the article is about the whole history of the province and not about a single rebellion.- gadfium 18:18, 18 January 2008 (UTC)

Civil war

During construction of the Panguna Mine on Bougainville island in 1967, Papua New Guinea was still an Australian colony. The mining leases and agreements guaranteed the population of Bougainville that they would receive cash benefits (so-called royalties) from copper and gold mining operations. Such an agreement came into force some seven to nine years after mining work began, after resentment grew, in particular from profits reported in 1973. Of the dividend shares paid out by the company to the state of Papua New Guinea, only a fraction eventually reached Bougainville. Mining operations continued to cause ecological damage. Papua New Guinea (PNG) had a 19.06% stake in the Bougainville copper mine and this came to be seen by the Bougainville island population as symbolic of repression by PNG.

These factors taken together caused rising tension between segments of the Bougainville population and PNG. As a result of this festering conflict, a revolutionary army was formed.

Local groups living near the copper mines called up a Bougainville Revolutionary Army (BRA) and began to undertake resistance actions. Their attacks were often carried out with bows and arrows, handmade mines and rifles made using bombshells dating from WW II. At the beginning violence was concentrated on setting off bombs to destroy power line masts supplying the copper mines. This forced the mine to repeatedly stop production. Buses transporting mine workers were attacked and workers killed.

In March 1989, the PNG Army was sent in to restore order. However, the army failed to accomplish its mission and the conflict escalated.

Because a large portion of the power line ran through tropical rainforest and could therefore not be protected and, in addition, local as well as Australian mine workers' lives were under threat, in 1989 Rio Tinto/CRA decided to give up the mine.

At first, civil war erupted with the world community paying little notice. During the next nine years the conflict claimed the lives of between 1,000 and 2,000 people. Approximately 15,000 more died as a result of the economic and medical blockage imposed by Papua New Guinea which effectively cut off medicine, clothing and other essential supplies from reaching the island people. At the time, the population of Bougainville island was under 200,000.

Because of the harsh and bloody methods employed by the government army against civilians, the BRA was able to gain the support of a large portion of the population. The BRA unexpectedly won battles against the far better trained and armed government army, who retreated from the island in March 1990.

The PNG government imposed a blockade of the island which cut it off from food and medicine, leading to the death of several thousand from preventable diseases within the indigenous population. The BRA, which was always loosely organized, lost support within the local population because of in-fighting and violence among individual groups under the BRA umbrella. Resistance forces were organized and supported the government army when it regained control of the island in 1992. During the crisis, many groups changed their allegiance several times. The Kangu Beach Massacre in Buin, the resistance forces and the BRA joined in fighting against the PGA army. Wanton violence, torture and murder occurred on the part of the army as well as by various BRA and Resistance fighters.

Terrorist acts were repeatedly committed and a political arm, the Bougainville Interim Government, was founded with Francis Ona elected as its first president. Sam Kauona, an Australian-trained officer within the PNG Defence Force, defected to the BRA at an early stage and became their highly successful commander. Radio Free Bougainville helped coordinate and guide various cells of the BRA. The signal for this rogue broadcaster could even be picked up by Bougainville Freedom Movement members in Australia.

Matthew of Hamburg (talk) 15:05, 7 March 2010 (UTC)

Spelling and minor suggestions
I did some minor edits to this interesting article. It doesn't have a spelling tag but I changed some US spellings. Hope that's okay. This sentence may need rewording but I wasn't sure how... "In 1987, Ona and Serero had called a meeting of landowners around Panguna, forming the Panguna Landowners' Association was formed." Also the shooting down of Yamamoto (as mentioned on Buin, Papua New Guinea page) is notable under Second World War? JennyOz (talk) 10:32, 14 May 2016 (UTC)

External links modified
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 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20110706152118/http://www.ibom.biz/public%20docos/Issue%2012.pdf to http://www.ibom.biz/public%20docos/Issue%2012.pdf
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External links modified
Hello fellow Wikipedians,

I have just modified 3 external links on History of Bougainville. Please take a moment to review my edit. If you have any questions, or need the bot to ignore the links, or the page altogether, please visit this simple FaQ for additional information. I made the following changes:
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20080906175904/http://www.bougainvillecopper.com.pg/orereserv.htm to http://www.bougainvillecopper.com.pg/orereserv.htm
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20110706152130/http://www.ibom.biz/public%20docos/Issue%2017.pdf to http://www.ibom.biz/public%20docos/Issue%2017.pdf
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20070907145145/http://www.opbelisi.com/ to http://www.opbelisi.com/

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Page reorganisation + post-peace history
I noticed the page did not cover any history since the early 2000s, and have made two significant changes. Firstly, I have reorganised the headings (for instance all sections related to the conflict are now sub-sections under the heading of Secessionist Conflict). Secondly, I have added in an overview of the region's history since the 2001 peace agreement. If anyone has strong objections to either of these (or thinks there should be more/less information on the autonomous government) please let me know. GeorgmentO (talk) 09:39, 30 August 2022 (UTC)