Original story at Jubilee Australia
Rio Tinto in Bougainville
“It is important to understand the significance of holding Rio Tinto responsible for its actions and the actions of the PNG Government. At all times, Rio Tinto, through BCL, controlled the government’s actions on Bougainville.” (Signed Declaration, 2001).
With its wealth of precious metals underground, Bougainville is a treasure island. Bougainville’s Panguna mine is one of the richest copper mines in the world. Credit: ABC
These are not the words of an outsider but of Bougainville’s current President John Momis, speaking of enormous mining conglomerate Rio Tinto’s role in the brutal military attacks against innocent villagers in and around its controversial Panguna mine, from 1989 onwards. He went on to swear in the same signed statement, submitted to US Court proceedings against Rio Tinto in 2001:
“BCL requested that PNG reopen the mine by whatever means necessary, and later assisted in planning and the imposition of the blockage. I was aware of one meeting where BCL management instructed PNG to “starve the bastards out.” The military actions and the blockage were undertaken for the purpose of reopening the mine so that BCL and PNG could continue to benefit from their commercial enterprise.”
Since 1972 the island of Bougainville, located 500km off the PNG mainland, had played host to the Panguna copper and gold mine – a lucrative operation for Rio Tinto and the PNG state.
Being a large, open-cut mine, surrounding villages suffered from land appropriation, poisoned rivers, village relocation and social disruption, while receiving little over 1% of the earnings.
When negotiations with the company failed and some locals revolted in early 1989, the PNG government staged a military-led counterinsurgency which evidence suggests was funded, facilitated and encouraged by both Bougainville Copper Limited (BCL), a local subsidiary of Australian mining giant Rio Tinto, and the Australian government.
Civilians faced the most brutal campaign of state violence witnessed in the region since the Second World War – including internment camps, the mortaring of children, aerial bombardments, assassinations, rape, and the denial of medicine and humanitarian assistance.
When the war finally ceased in 1998, between 10,000 – 20,000 people had died, some 10% of the island’s population, the majority of deaths being civilians.
Unlike neighbouring East Timor and the Solomon Islands, no truth commission has been held for this war, nor has there been an independent investigation into the systematic violations against the people of Bougainville, reparations for the injuries suffered, or necessary steps taken to prevent a recurrence.
Attempts by victims to obtain justice through PNG’s national court system have been blocked. Citizens of Bougainville filed a landmark class action lawsuit in the US against Rio Tinto in 2001, for environmental damage and war crimes during the civil war. Soon after, evidence was released showing the lengths to which Papua New Guinea was going, with the support of the Australian government, to pressure the US to stop the case. Rio Tinto successfully argued the case should be dismissed on the grounds the claims were not resolvable in a US court. In June this year, after more than a decade, the appeals court finally upheld the dismissal.
The Company is now negotiating to restart the highly controversial mine it was forced to abandon in 1989, wanting to take advantage of skyrocketing copper and gold prices; the Chairman has told media he believes only a minority of Bougainvilleans oppose the mine’s reopening.
The Company has yet to explain how it will remove the huge amount of toxic waste still polluting much of the site. Worse still, communities on Bougainville have yet to be fully briefed on Rio Tinto’s role in defence force operations during the bloody years of 1988-1990.
Until Rio Tinto commits to full disclosure, any attempt to reopen the Bougainville mine will be another exercise of unaccountable corporate abuse against an already deeply scared people.
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Watch some short videos to find out more background about the Bougainville Crisis of 1988-1998.
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