History of Bougainville - Factors For Conflict in Bougainville

Factors For Conflict in Bougainville

There is not one single factor that should be isolated as a sole cause of the conflict. Instead, there is a series of predominant causes which can trace their roots directly to the Panguna Mine. Pan-Bougainvillean ethnicity should not be discounted as an important factor but should be seen as an external projection of economic and inter-ethnic grievances.

Secession in Bougainville is based primarily upon a separate ethnic identity from the rest of Papua New Guinea. This is not peculiar in Papua New Guinea where over 800 different languages are spoken and there remains little cohesiveness of regional let alone national identity. However, the idiosyncratic aspect of the Bougainvillean identity is its association with the Solomon Islands. Directly prior to Papua New Guinean independence, Bougainville had pursued the possibility of a political union with the British Protectorate of the Solomon Islands. This association with the Solomon Islands – an outside, distinctive identity – is a transcending force not found anywhere else in Papua New Guinea. As Anere describes it:

’’A Constitutional Planning Committee (CPC), which was set up in 1972 toured the country to gather the views of the people on independence. There was no resistance from any group except for Bougainville who wanted to secede from the rest of the country.