Mistah Ona — he dead

The recent death of Francis Ona, leader of the Bougainville Revolutionary Army and the secessionist Me’ekamui Movement, brings to a close a major chapter in the sad tale of the South Pacific island of Bougainville, and the guerrilla war that brought to a halt operations at the Panguna copper mine in easternmost Papua New Guinea (PNG).

More than anyone, Ona is responsible for this avoidable conflict that started in 1988 and degenerated into a decade-long civil war that left at least 10,000 dead on an island of only 160,000, and totally destroyed Bougainville’s economic and social infrastructure.

Bougainville is 1,000 km northeast of Port Moresby, the PNG capital, but only 20 km from the Solomon Islands. Bougainvilleans consider themselves to be ethnically distinct from the rest of PNG, and much closer to their cousins in the Solomons.

Copper was discovered at Panguna in the mid-1960s and construction of the mine got under way in 1972.

Before acts of sabotage forced the mine’s closure in May 1989, it ranked as one of the world’s largest open-pit mines, employing 4,000 people (one-third Bougainvillean) and accounting for 44% of PNG’s annual export revenue.

The mine paid out US$1 billion in tax and dividends to the PNG government, US$33 million to local landowners and US$83 million to the provincial government.

The Panguna mine was owned 54% by Rio Tinto predecessor company CRA, 19% by the PNG government and 27% by public shareholders. The mine, which will not re-open for the foreseeable future, is now owned wholly by the PNG government. (Though Australian-listed Bougainville Copper is still involved in a tax dispute with the PNG government.)

While Ona had once worked at the mine as a surveyor and truck operator, by 1987 he and his cousin Pepetua Sereo had founded the Panguna Landowners Association and began pressing their demands for US$10 billion from Panguna, plus back payment of mine profits. They claimed the mine had set up a system of apartheid on the island, with one set of facilities for white workers, and one set for the locals, and accused it of being responsible for poisoning the entire length of the Jaba River, and causing birth defects and even extinction.

Rebuked, Ona lived out the ultimate employee’s revenge fantasy in late 1988 as he and his gang began attacking the mine infrastructure with stolen dynamite. They blew up electrical towers leading to the mine and murdered the crews sent to repair the damage.

The PNG government responded by sending in riot police and the ill-disciplined PDG Defence Force. The conflict turned into a full-scale civil war.

The PNGDF were ineffective, and withdrew from the island in 1990, prompting Ona to sign a unilateral declaration of independence for Bougainville from PNG, and declare himself interim president. Then he went into hiding in the mountainous, dense jungles of southern Bougainville.

As leader, Ona’s main economic policy for Bougainville was to shut down industry and not accept money from overseas. His Me’ekamui ideology also rejected formal education and modern medicine.

Ona’s moves were met with an economic blockade of the island that lasted until 1998, and a periodic return of PNG troops.

By the mid-1990s, as factions of the BRA tore each other apart, roughly one-third of all Bougainvilleans fled to refugee camps in the Solomon Islands.

In a 1997 debacle, the PNG government secretly hired British-South African mercenaries Sandline International to take back the mine. The PNG army was deeply insulted that outsiders were being brought in and paid to do their job, and subsequent domestic and international pressure led to the resignation of the PNG prime minister, and new elections.

The “Sandline Affair,” as it came to be known, ultimately proved to be the turning point in the conflict, and a ceasefire agreement was reached April 1998.

Under the 2001 Bougainville Peace Agreement, Bougainvilleans have been promised a referendum on independence in ten to fifteen years. Also the PNGDF agreed to gradually withdraw from the island, and were replaced by international peacekeepers, led by New Zealand and Australia.

On Dec. 21, 2004, PNG Governor General Sir Paulias Matane signed the constitution for an autonomous Bougainville as approved by the PNG government and the island’s constituent assembly. Under Bougainville’s “autonomy,” all government functions have been transferred to the island government except for defence, foreign affairs, international shipping and aviation, and the supreme court.

After 16 years of seclusion, Ona emerged from his mountain retreat a few weeks before the elections on May 20 of this year to declare that Bougainville was already independent from PNG, and no election was necessary.

Most Bougainvilleans ignored Ona and turned out in large numbers to elect their new government, led by President Joseph Kabui, a former Ona ally.

Kabui began his tenure by asking Ona to join in peace talks. Ona refused and instead crowned himself “King of Me’ekamui,” the name he had chosen for an independent Bougainville, with Me’ekamui meaning “sacred island” in his local tongue.

While the island does not have a history of home-grown royalty, Ona claimed many other monarchs around the world supported his kingship, but refused to name one specifically, saying it was secret information.

Ona also created what he described as a new world monetary system based on a currency no one recognizes, called the UV dollar.

Kabui says Ona was assisted in these recent bizarre delarations by two mysterious foreign advisors in Ona’s compound, Australian Jeff Richards and Briton James Nessbit.

However, after the election, Ona did contact the government to start a reconciliation process involving the exchange of gifts of pigs and beetlenuts.

We’ll never know how far Ona would have gone with this reconcilaition: he died unexpectedly, possibly of malaria and pneumonia at the age of 52, or so, in his village of Guava, near Panguna, which remains a no-go area to outsiders.

News of his death reverberated around Papua New Guinea, and shocked his many supporters in Bougainville.

Plans were for the United Nations to fly his body from Guava to the Bougainville capital of Buka for a state funeral and week of official mourning.

Ona is survived by two sons, two daughters and his wife Magdalene from Manam Island in Madang province.

Kabui said his honouring of Ona was a gesture to Ona’s family and supporters that his government is sincere about reconcialiation.

“Francis Ona will remain a folklore in Bougainville politics,” said Kabui. “Mr. Ona and the Bougainville crisis had come hand in hand.”

Me’ekamui’s leaders, however, rejected a coffin offered by the Bougainville government and their armed followers turned away any non-Me’ekamui people from paying respects to Ona in Guava.

Hopefully the Me’ekamui Movement will dissolve now that Ona is dead.

The new Bougainville government wants to resume mineral exploration on the island, though Kabui and PNG’s Mines Minister Sam Akoitai have already indicated that Panguna will remain closed indefinitely as it’s such a sensitive issue.

Certainly there are compelling, historical reasons justifying secession for Bougainville, with ownership of the islands being tossed around in recent centuries between French, British, German, Japanese, Australian and PNG colonial interests.

But Ona’s leadership led the island’s inhabitants into avoidable bloodshed, psychological trauma and extreme poverty.

His death means the people of Bougainville can make a decisive turn away from their past mission of self-destruction and, instead, continue the difficult task of replacing the island’s utterly destroyed infrastructure and economy.