All of our previous entries in this series have discussed current and therefore not yet successful struggles against imperialist states. Today however, we get to talk about a movement that fought for secession and won. This week, Bougainville.

You probably haven’t heard of Bougainville before, but you have heard of Papua New Guinea. Papua is an incredibly diverse country with over 800 different languages spoken in it and hundreds of distinct ethnic groups. After decades of Australian rule, in 1975 it finally became independent. Since then however, those living on the large island of Bougainville, over 500 miles from the main island of New Guinea, have pushed for their independence, in some cases violently. What are their reasons, and how did they eventually win against their former masters? Let’s go back to the beginning

Bougainville, along with the neighboring Solomon islands was first colonized by the German Empire in 1899 as part of their pacific colony based in New Guinea. The Germans found little use for the island, and the natives were mostly left alone other than some small attempts by the colonial administration to found cash crop plantations. When World War One broke out, Australian forces occupied Bougainville along with the rest of German New Guinea, being granted the territory by the League of Nations after the war. The territory still had little economic value, but had some strategic value, and during World War Two the Japanese invaded it as part of their plan to attack Australia. The Bougainville Campaign raged until the end of the war in 1945, and up to a quarter of the native pre-war population of 50,000 died during the occupation.

Australia continued to administer Bougainville after the war as part of its Papua New Guinea Territory, and prospectors began to find copper deposits on the island, leading to a mining industry expanding from the 1960s. This mining was environmentally destructive, and a large part of the independence movement that formed in Bougainville was in reaction to it. This was in parallel to nationalist groups in the main island of New Guinea, who also wanted their own nation. Australia assented to a transition to autonomy and eventual independence, which was officially granted in 1975. Bougainvilleans however were not satisfied with trading a master in Canberra to one in Port Moresby, and later that year announced the independence of the Republic of the North Solomons. This state was unrecognized, and it was quickly dissolved peacefully by Papua New Guinea in exchange for more autonomy for Bougainville. This was not the end of the secessionist movement however, and it was about to get darker.

Like the Australians, the Papuans were eager to exploit the natural resources of the island, and the vast Panguna mine, opened by the Aussies, continued to operate despite its disastrous effects on both the people and the fauna of Bougainville. The mine was held in part by the Papua New Guinea government, and it contributed vastly to the treasury of the state. The native flying fox went extinct, and birth defects from the chemical processes used to extract copper were rampant. The Bougainville Revolutionary Army was founded in 1988 by frustrated political activist Francis Ona to put a stop to the mine that was poisoning the island. The group began with acts of sabotage but quickly escalated to violent confrontations with Papua New Guinea police and later soldiers. Thousands of BRA soldiers and hundreds of PNG fighters were killed between 1989 and 1992, and thousands of Bougainville civilians were killed in brutal fighting that included the burning of villages. The Papuan government pulled out of the island in 1990, leaving the BRA in de facto control of the new country they declared as the Bougainville Interim Government. A total blockade was imposed on the island by New Guinea, causing mass suffering and death in the civilian population, followed by invasions in 1992 and 1994 to retake the regional capital of Arawa and the Panguna mine. The BRA and other groups including criminal gangs kept furiously resisting the government forces, and in a scandal that shook Papua New Guinea to its foundations, the president Julius Chan attempted to use mercenaries to beat the Bougainvilleans after the military had failed so many times before. The enraged military leaders of the nation forced Chan to resign in 1997 after the so-called Sandline affair (named after the private defense company) was made public. His successor, Bill Skate finally made a successful peace agreement with Ona and his rebels, setting up the Autonomous Bougainville government. This set up a devolved legislature and executive in the island with the promise of a referendum on independence within 15 years of the creation of the Government. Formed in 2001, the referendum finally went ahead in 2019, where Bougainvilleans overwhelmingly voted for independence, by a margin of 98-2%. The ABG is now renamed the Bougainville Constitutional Transitional Government, with the Papuan government in current negotiations with them as to the mechanics of transitioning to full independence.

The Bougainvilleans finally got their independence, although they paid a heavy cost for it. Between direct violence and the deprivation of the blockade, it’s estimated that about 20,000 Bougainville’s people died in the struggle. The Panguna mine never reopened, and the island of 250,000 is about to officially join the family of nations. If a government is seriously opposed by dedicated fighters for freedom, there is a real chance they may simply give up and accept the reality of self-rule. It has happened before with independence movements all over the world throughout history, and it happened in 2019 for Bougainville. The lesson? Never stop fighting. May 1000 flowers bloom!