http://pacificempire.org.nz/2006/10/05/resource-wars-part-2-bougainville/ Wed, 10 Mar 2010 00:48:03 -0600 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.5 hourly 1 http://pacificempire.org.nz/2006/10/05/resource-wars-part-2-bougainville/comment-page-1/#comment-21270 Pacific Empire » Blog Archive » Cursed by riches: Melanesian resource wars Mon, 13 Aug 2007 00:25:51 +0000 http://pacificempire.org.nz/?p=55#comment-21270 [...] As has been explored in previous Oceania Day posts, conflict in Oceania - particularly in Melanesia - is often related to resources. The prime example is Bougainville, where in 1989 - in a scene straight out of John Robb’s Brave New War - angry landowners toppled transmission towers, sabotaged equipment and threatened workers at the Panguna copper mine, blaming it for economic inequality and environmental damage. The mine has never reopened, but the resulting insurgency and naval blockade led to 10-20,000 deaths before Australia and New Zealand helped broker a peace deal, finally ending the fighting in the mid-1990s. And when the government hired heavily-armed mercenaries to bring the islanders back into line, the army mutinied and the government toppled. [...] [...] As has been explored in previous Oceania Day posts, conflict in Oceania – particularly in Melanesia – is often related to resources. The prime example is Bougainville, where in 1989 – in a scene straight out of John Robb’s Brave New War – angry landowners toppled transmission towers, sabotaged equipment and threatened workers at the Panguna copper mine, blaming it for economic inequality and environmental damage. The mine has never reopened, but the resulting insurgency and naval blockade led to 10-20,000 deaths before Australia and New Zealand helped broker a peace deal, finally ending the fighting in the mid-1990s. And when the government hired heavily-armed mercenaries to bring the islanders back into line, the army mutinied and the government toppled. [...]

]]> http://pacificempire.org.nz/2006/10/05/resource-wars-part-2-bougainville/comment-page-1/#comment-9680 James Sun, 13 May 2007 04:12:53 +0000 http://pacificempire.org.nz/?p=55#comment-9680 interested in everything about Bougainville interested in everything about Bougainville

]]>