Posted: June 11th, 2015

Media

 

Part A

In 1990, Papua New Guinea imposed a blockade on Bougainville; this action was the trigger for the War in Bougainville which had far reaching effects on the people of Bougainvillea and Papua New Guinea. This war which came to be known by many names with the most common ones being the Bougainville conflict and the Bougainville civil war was fought on many fronts with its effects felt in the Bougainville islands, Papua New Guinea and the neighboring Solomon Islands. Named after the late French Explorer, Louis De Bougainville, the island of Bougainville lies is mildly large approximated to be 200 kilometers in length, 60 Kilometers and 100 Kilometers Wide to the East of Papua New Guinea. The occupants of the Island are Melanesians of distinct ethnicity as attested by Matilda’s classmates who spoke different ethnic languages based on their tribes.

The discovery of Copper ore deposits in Bougainville island in 1969 forever changed the fortunes of the people of the island with the establishment of the Panguna mine in 1972 in the island by the Australian mining giant Rio Tinto Zinc (RTZ).The Island was considered part of Papua New Guinea (PNG) which acquired its independence from Australia who had annexed it from Germany following the end of world war 1. The people of Bougainville who had much in common with the Solomon’s Islands than the mainland PNG held for long held strong separatist ideas and although these were unsuccessful they maintained some form of self governance which fueled the civil war. Elements of World War 1 were also present in the Island during the war as a result of the Allied forces assault to claim the Island from the Germans and this is evidenced by the existence of Mr. Watts popularly known as Pop Eye by the children, a World War 1 veteran who remained behind, married a local woman called Grace and took it upon himself to educate the children after the blockade was introduced and schooling interrupted.

The main conflict in the Bougainville civil war was between the Bougainville copper Limited, BCL, Papua New Guinea Government and the landowners of Bougainville who advocated for fair compensation and rents as well as the negation of the negative impacts of copper mining on the environment. The conflict was also fueled by the immigration of ‘redskins’ and ‘white skins’ from PNG and Australia respectively who came to work in the mines and this did not go down well with the dark skinned natives of Bougainville. When the war broke out, the PNG forces committed atrocities against the natives and violated their human rights. According to Regan, the PNG Defense Forces, were bashing people without questioning them, they destroyed property, destroyed food gardens, maimed and killed people as well as raped women and children. Matlida’s Village was completely destroyed, her mother raped and later killed together with Mr. Watts who was working on an escape plan. The burning of villages killed thousands of people and children like Matilda were left without parental guidance and unlike Matilda who was able to escape to Australia and link up with her father, many children perished during and in the aftermath of the war.

The people of Bougainville acted to defend themselves in the face of aggression from the PNG defense forces. According to the Documentary the coconut Revolution which tells the story of the Islanders, after the blockade was imposed, Bougainville Interim Government BIG under the leadership of Francis Ona was set up an Ona declared the island’s independence. This move although made with positive intentions resulted in more lose of life and suffering for the natives. With the existence of some unofficial self governance before the blockade, the declaration of independence and subsequent formation of BIG and its military wing called the Bougainville Revolutionary Army (BRA) did not go well with the other clan kingpins and the BRA broke into factions of criminal gangs called ‘raskos’ that salvaged and equipped themselves with weapons from World War II. These factions terrorized villages, murdering, raping and pilling their own people alongside the external enemy consequently pledging the Island into a full blown civil war.

Suspicion was ripe and people fled their homes interrupting the normal life routine like in Matilda’s village where teachers left leaving behind unattended students and schools. Mr. Watts took it upon himself to take over and educate the children introducing them to literature and the works of Charles Dickens including the Great Expectation and the main character Pip who greatly influenced Matlida’s life especially when her life was at its lowest. Mistrust among the people was rampant as attested by Matlida,s mother, Dolores, suspicion of Mr. Watts intention. She even steals his ‘Great Expectations’ book which becomes the source of the problem when Rebel soldiers descended on the village and find Pip’s name a character from the book carved into the sand. This leads to the death of the Mr. Watt and Delores and the village is destroyed. Matilda losses her will to live and almost drowns. The loss of human life is further increased by the assassination of Theodore Miriung a Nasoi clan chief who entered into negotiations with the PNG government resulting into more bloodshed. The new PNG government under Prime Minister Wingiti and his Foreign Minister Chan Sir Julius Chan elected in 12992 contemplates hiring mercenaries to deal with the situation ion Bougainville which leads to a deadlock between the army and the government prompting more bloodshed and suffering before a workable and organized reconciliation process at the tribal level begun in 2000. In total, the Australian government estimates over15000 military and civilian deaths in the Bougainville civil war.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Part B

Anti War Poster

 

 

 

Part C

  • The research into the Bougainville civil war was the most interesting par for this assignment because I was able to learn lot about the pacific islands. I learnt and understood the geopolitical of Papua New Guinea in relation to Australia and the Solomon’s Islands which enabled me to understand the reasons why the people of Bougainville felt the need to identify with the other Solomon’s Island rather than the mainland PNG
  • In this assignment I am proud of Part A especially the way I was able to connect the events in the Bougainville civil and the characters from the novel Master Pip.
  • I feel that I could I improve on the Poster. This is because I do not posses the best skills to make that kind of media.
  • During the course of this assignment I developed questions about how the media functions. From watching the documentary and my research, I found some conflicting bits of information. I would like to know who is responsible for establishing the level of information accuracy to ensure that these differences in information across various media outlets do not exist.

 

 

 

 

 

Works Cite

Regan, J. Anthony. “Causes and Course of the Bougainville Conflict Vol. 33.” The Journal of Pacific History, (1998): 3.

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