DOCSLIB.ORG

Fake Money, Bougainville Politics and International Scammers (PDF)

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Fake Money, Bougainville Politics and International Scammers (PDF) Fake Money, Bougainville Politics and International Scammers JOHN COX IN BRIEF 2014/7 On Saturday 16 February 2014, Barry Webb, an and religious leaders. These payments to high- American citizen, was detained as he entered Port profile people provided ‘evidence’ that the scams Moresby from the Philippines. He was travelling ‘really worked’ and were effective at drawing in to Bougainville to deliver a briefcase full of newly thousands of ordinary investors, who never saw minted ‘Bougainville kina’ or ‘BVK’. This pseudo- their money again. As with Ponzi scams elsewhere, currency is not legal tender in Bougainville (or the Papua New Guinea fast money schemes used anywhere else). Rather, the Bougainville kina is the existing social networks. In the case of U-Vistract, creation of the U-Vistract scam, an elaborate Ponzi this included the Bougainvillean community, scheme (Cox 2013). When questioned by Papua particularly educated Bougainvilleans living in Port New Guinea authorities, Webb claimed to represent Moresby, as well as churches, especially the large the ‘International Organisation for Economic urban Pentecostal churches (Cox 2013). Development’ (‘IOED’), a fictitious organisation U-Vistract was declared bankrupt in 2000 and with a name clearly intended to recall the OECD a warrant for Musingku’s arrest is still current. (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and However, while the scam has not made any Development). Webb produced a letter from the payments to investors since the heady days of founder of U-Vistract, Noah Musingku, who now 1999, its leaders have managed to evade capture represents himself as ‘King David Pei II’ of the by shifting jurisdiction. In 2003, Musingku fled to ‘Royal Kingdom of Papala’, a pseudo-state based in Solomon Islands and tried to swindle money from south Bougainville. According to the letter, Webb the national government there under the guise of had been appointed as the Kingdom of Papala’s the ‘Royal Assembly of Nations and Kingdoms’, ‘Minister for International Monetary Relations’ a fictional alternative to the United Nations. (Post-Courier 2014). This deal fell through and in 2003 Musingku These events might be simply dismissed returned to Bougainville, where he worked with as another weird ‘cargo cult’ story to come the separatist leader Francis Ona. His influence out of Papua New Guinea. However, they on Ona led to their joint coronation as Kings have a much broader political significance for of the Twin Kingdoms of Me’ekamui (Ona) and Bougainvilleans and for Papua New Guinea as Papala (Musingku). Before Ona died in 2005 he a nation. I have written elsewhere (Cox 2013) had become disillusioned with Musingku and the about why Musingku’s pseudo-state might make relationship dissolved. Without Ona’s protection, sense to Papua New Guineans disillusioned with Musingku feared for his life and recruited a number the progress of development and looking for a of Fijian mercenaries to train his own militia Christian alternative to a national government they (Regan 2010). perceive as hopelessly corrupt. In this In Brief, I Musingku survived an attack on his camp will sketch out some of the background to the story in 2006 and remains a destabilising influence in of the briefcase full of fake money and analyse Bougainville. It seems that his best chance of being the implications of the persistence of Musingku’s pardoned is to make himself into a player within scam for Bougainville politics and the possible the ongoing Bougainville peace process. To date involvement of international money-laundering this has involved being a constant ‘spoiler’ of the networks. Autonomous Bougainville Government’s efforts U-Vistract was the largest of several ‘fast money to bring services into Siwai District (Regan 2010). schemes’ that gripped the imagination of Port Musingku’s brother has been recently reported as Moresby in 1999. These Ponzi scams promised participating in local reconciliation activities in 100 per cent monthly returns and paid early Siwai (Masiu 2014). investors, who were often prominent members Musingku launched the Bougainville kina of the community, including business, political in 2009, drawing international media attention State, Society & Governance in Melanesia ips.cap.anu.edu.au/ssgm IN BRIEF 2014/7 • as it was rumoured that the BVK50 note was and the Bougainville kina are backed by gold imprinted with the image of Christ. U-Vistract resources. Musingku has been involved in conflicts has continued to promote the Bougainville kina, over small-scale gold mining between local armed prompting the Bank of Papua New Guinea to warn groups (Regan 2010). in December 2013 that the ‘currency’ was illegal. There are other local impacts of the Bougainville The Autonomous Bougainville Government has kina scam. U-Vistract agents are taking ‘deposits’ denounced Musingku on many occasions and of Papua New Guinea kina and giving Bougainville recently reaffirmed that the Papua New Guinea kina in exchange as if it were legal tender. This is kina was the only valid currency in Bougainville. already having an impact on small businesses in Webb’s arrest in Port Moresby raises the south Bougainville (Toreas 2014). question of what international connections the Musingku’s operations are more serious than U-Vistract scam might have. Webb appears to have they may at first appear and should not be dismissed a criminal record in the United States and is closely as an out-of-the-way ‘cargo cult’. Musingku is an associated with the shady Frank Mezias, who has active threat to political stability in Bougainville, attempted to defraud Native Americans while particularly in the south. U-Vistract’s networks posing as a representative of UNESCO. Mezias extend across the whole island and are still active apparently runs the ‘International Organisation for around the rest of Papua New Guinea, illegally Economic Development’ website and a number of taking deposits from people and undermining other fake companies. the nation’s financial systems. The arrest of Barry Van Fossen (2002) has described a similar Webb in Port Moresby indicates that Musingku is scam network, based around a pseudo-state, the also connected to international criminal networks ‘Kingdom of Melchizedek’. This elaborate scam that we currently know very little about. These was run by the convicted swindler Mark Pedley. networks may also be operating in other Pacific Pedley targeted separatist groups in the Pacific and countries. Tracing these connections and bringing used their aspirations for sovereignty to reinforce global fraudsters to justice is an ongoing challenge Melchizedek’s claims. Pedley invented more than for law enforcement agencies in Papua New Guinea, 300 fake banks, with names that recall the World Australia and beyond. Bank and other international lenders. In 2000, Author Notes he entered Fiji on a Kingdom of Melchizedek John Cox is a research fellow with SSGM. His doctoral ‘diplomatic passport’. Melchizedek offers close research explored the involvement of middle-class Papua parallels to Mezias and his associate Webb, not to New Guineans in ‘fast money schemes’. mention the home-grown Bougainvillean conman Musingku. References Several dubious foreigners have visited Cox, J. 2013. The Magic of Money and the Magic of the State: Fast Money Schemes in Papua New Guinea. U-Vistract’s Bougainville headquarters. They Oceania 83(3):175–91. usually appear in U-Vistract propaganda with Masiu, R. 2014. Siwai Chiefs Begin Peace Process. Post- royal titles or other official-sounding terms, such Courier 5/3/2014, p. 22. as ‘governor’. Barry Webb seems to be the latest Post-Courier 2014. American National Held with of these. These foreigners may represent broader 1.6 Million in ‘Illegal’ Currency. Post-Courier international criminal networks that have used 17/2/2014, p. 1. U-Vistract to defraud people in the United States Regan, A.J. 2010. Light Intervention: Lessons from and possibly other countries. Bougainville. Washington: United States Institute of It is likely that these international connections Peace Press. are interested in the gold produced by small-scale Toreas, W. 2014. Police Chief Tells Musingku Not to miners in south Bougainville. Musingku certainly Mislead Public. Post-Courier 5/3/2014, p. 13. buys and sells this gold, which may give some Van Fossen, A. 2002. Financial Frauds and Pseudo-States plausibility, at least among some Bougainvilleans, in the Pacific Islands. Crime, Law and Social Change to his claims that the ‘U-Vistract monetary system’ 37:357–78. The State, Society & Governance in Melanesia Program (SSGM) E [email protected] @anussgm in the ANU College of Asia & the Pacific is a recognised leading ips.cap.anu.edu.au/ssgm centre for multidisciplinary research on contemporary Melanesia, We acknowledge the Australian Government’s Timor-Leste and the wider Pacific. support for the production of In Brief. The2 views in this paper are those of the author/s State, and Society do not necessarily & Governance reflect those of the State,ANU or the Society Australian & Government.Governancein inMelanesia Melanesia.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • The Legitimacy of Bougainville Secession from Papua New Guinea
    https://doi.org/10.26593/sentris.v2i1.4564.59-72 The Legitimacy of Bougainville Secession from Papua New Guinea Muhammad Sandy Ilmi Faculty of Social and Political Sciences, Universitas Katolik Parahyangan, Indonesia, [email protected] ABSTRACT What started as a movement to demand a distributive justice in mining revenue in Bougainville, Papua New Guinea, the conflict turned into the struggle for secession. From 1970’s the demand for secession have been rife and despite early agreement for more autonomy and more mining revenue for the autonomous region, the demand never faded. Under Francis Ona’s Bougainville Revolutionary Army, the movement take a new heights. Bougainville Revolutionary Army took coercive measure to push the government to acknowledge their demands by taking over the mine at Panguna. Papua New Guinean government response was also combative and further exacerbate the issue. Papua New Guinean Defense Force involvement adding the issue of human rights into the discourse. This paper will seek to analyze the normative question surrounding the legitimacy of the right to secession in Bougainville Island. The protracted conflict has halted any form of development in the once the most prosperous province of Papua New Guinea and should Bougainville Island become independent, several challenges will be waiting for Bougainvilleans. Keywords: Bougainville secession; Papua New Guinea conflict; mining injustice; human rights violation ABSTRAK Berawal dari bentuk perlawanan untuk mencapai keadilan dalam pembagian keuntungan dari sektor pertambangan, kemudian berubah menjadi perjuangan untuk memisahkan diri dari Papua Nugini. Sejak 1970an, dukungan untuk pemisahan diri telah mendominasi diskursus politik di Bougainville dan walaupun perjanjian sempat tercapai, keinginan untuk pemisahan diri tidak pernah padam.
    [Show full text]
  • State Society and Governance in Melanesia Discussion Paper 2008/8
    Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies State, Society and Governance in Melanesia State Society and in Governance Melanesia DISCUSSION PAPER Discussion Paper 2009/5 PARALLEL STATES, PARALLEL ECONOMIES: LEGITIMACY AND PROSPERITY IN PAPUA NEW GUINEA This discussion paper presents two a major gold mining project since 1995. Elite NICK BAINTON related discussions on different aspects Lihirian leaders were inspired by Personal & JOHN COX of contemporary Melanesian economic Viability philosophies as they renegotiated engagement. We consider the case of the community compensation and benefits U-Vistract, a mass pyramid scheme which package with the mining company throughout not only promises limitless wealth to its 2000-2007 and as they tried to develop investors but even envisages a new global strategies to achieve greater self-reliance economic system, blessed by God and and financial independence to address the centred in Bougainville under the leadership so-called resource dependency syndrome. of a self-proclaimed king. This is followed by a discussion on a contrasting movement While apparently obscure and even called “Personal Viability” which is based deceptive or ridiculous, these movements upon self-help philosophies that aim to have offered alternative accounts of states cultivate an entrepreneurial persona. and the global economy, and the place of Melanesian states and communities within In the first section John Cox addresses them, which are sufficiently convincing to the recent wave of “fast money schemes”, draw thousands of followers. In Bougainville, discussing institutional and ideological they can involve direct challenges to the links between these scams and Christian legitimacy and authority of the state, and in churches, particularly Pentecostal prosperity Lihir they have been crucial to the generation gospel teachings.
    [Show full text]
  • 'The Bougainville Conflict: a Classic Outcome of the Resource-Curse
    The Bougainville conflict: A classic outcome of the resource-curse effect? Michael Cornish INTRODUCTION Mismanagement of the relationship between the operation of the Panguna Mine and the local people was a fundamental cause of the conflict in Bougainville. It directly created great hostility between the people of Bougainville and the Government of Papua New Guinea. Although there were pre-existing ethnic and economic divisions between Bougainville and the rest of Papua New Guinea, the mismanagement of the copper wealth of the Panguna Mine both exacerbated these existing tensions and provided radical Bougainvilleans an excuse to legitimise the pursuit of violence as a means to resolve their grievances. The island descended into anarchy, and from 1988 to 1997, democracy and the rule of law all but disappeared. Society fragmented and economic development reversed as the pillage and wanton destruction that accompanied the conflict took its toll. Now, more than 10 years since the formal Peace Agreement1 and over 4 years since the institution of the Autonomous Bougainville Government, there are positive signs that both democracy and development are repairing and gaining momentum. However, the untapped riches of the Panguna Mine remain an ominous issue that will continue to overshadow the region’s future. How this issue is handled will be crucial to the future of democracy and development in Bougainville. 1 Government of the Independent State of Papua New Guinea and Leaders representing the people of Bougainville, Bougainville Peace Agreement , 29 August 2001 BACKGROUND Bougainville is the name of the largest island within the Solomon Islands chain in eastern Papua New Guinea, the second largest being Buka Island to its north.
    [Show full text]
  • The Bougainville Referendum Arrangements: Origins, Shaping and Implementation Part One: Origins and Shaping Anthony Regan Discussion Paper 2018/4
    The Bougainville Referendum Arrangements: Origins, Shaping and Implementation Part One: Origins and Shaping Anthony Regan Discussion Paper 2018/4 The Bougainville Peace Agreement (the BPA)1 is a These two linked Discussion Papers seek to provide complex agreement, produced by a succession of insights into the referendum arrangements, starting compromises made during more than two years with an historical overview of the development of of often intense negotiations (June 1999 to August support amongst Bougainvilleans for the separation 2001), directed towards permanently ending a deeply of Bougainville from PNG. This first paper points to divisive violent conflict and generally referred to in emergence of a pan-Bougainvillean identity during the Bougainville as ‘the crisis’. The agreement sought to 20th century and how it was that secession became transform violent conflict through provision of new a widely discussed possibility for Bougainville from constitutionally provided governance arrangements that the late 1960s, largely in reaction to decisions of the were acceptable to all the previously divided parties then Australian colonial government to permit the that participated in the negotiations. It is significant establishment of a large-scale mine in Bougainville. that it is not just the autonomy arrangements that It then briefly reviews the origins and impacts of provide a new governance framework applicable to the Bougainville conflict (1988–97) and highlights what is still a little known and understood fact of both Bougainville and the Papua New Guinea (PNG) Bougainville history: that the origins of the conflict do national government. The referendum arrangements not lie in the mining-related grievances and actions are also intended to be a part of the new governance of young landowners from the Panguna mine area, framework that are in large part designed to allow for but rather in the grievances and actions of a broad the peaceful management of disputes that once were coalition of Bougainville groups.
    [Show full text]
  • The Contemporary Pacific, Vol. 19, No. 1
    book and media reviews 313 the chapter on air transport sees some Bougainville: Before the Conflict, basis for hope through a discussion edited by Anthony J Regan and that embraces the impact of the Pacific Helga M Griffin. Canberra: Panda- Islands Air Services Agreement, the nus Books and the Research School entry of low-cost carriers, moves to of Pacific and Asian Studies, The privatization, and questions of needed Australian National University, 2005. infrastructure development. isbn 1-74076-138-3; xl + 566 pages, Finally of note is Philip Powell’s tables, figures, maps, photographs, skeptical contribution (“Too Young to historical chronology, glossary, notes, Marry”), asserting that a Pacific eco- bibliography, index. Cloth, a$85.00. nomic and political community, as envisioned by Australia and other Events in Bougainville would chal- regionalists, might achieve integration lenge even the Queen in Lewis in form but not in substance. Required Carroll’s Through the Looking Glass in the first instance are stronger states, (1873), who sometimes believed as endowed with national legitimacy, many as six impossible things before and no longer beholden to the levels breakfast. In 2004 the arch-secession- of external subsidy and assistance ist Francis Ona, ignoring seven years currently in place. An imposition of of peacemaking and the election of relatively advanced regional institu- an Autonomous Bougainville Gov- tions on Pacific economies that have ernment within Papua New Guinea, no more than partially evolved had himself crowned king of an “would generate inefficient complex- independent Bougainville. His ally ity and impede the region’s ability to Noah Musingku, another fantasist break its underdevelopment bottle- and creator of fraudulent pyramid neck” (237).
    [Show full text]
  • Papua New Guinea
    Papua New Guinea KEY FACTS Joined Commonwealth: 1975 Population: 7,321,000 (2013) GDP p.c. growth: 1.9% p.a. 1990–2013 UN HDI 2014: World ranking 157 Official language: English Time: GMT plus 10 hrs Currency: Kina (K) Geography Area: 462,840 sq km Coastline: 5,150 km Capital: Port Moresby The Independent State of Papua New Guinea in the South Pacific shares a land-border with Indonesia; its other near neighbours are commercial demand for tropical timber; Arawa (on Bougainville, 38,600), Mount Australia to the south and Solomon Islands to pollution from mining projects; and severe Hagen (Western Highlands, 29,176), Madang the east. drought. (Madang, 29,100), Wewak (East Sepik, Papua New Guinea includes the eastern half Vegetation: Rich and very varied: five kinds 27,031), Goroka (Eastern Highlands, 16,700), of the world’s second biggest island, New of lowland, and 13 kinds of mountain Kimbe (on New Britain, 16,004), Daru (Fly Guinea, bordering the Indonesian province of rainforest, five kinds of palm and swamp River, 14,373), Vanimo (Sandaun, 13,357), Irian Jaya to the west. The rest of the country forests, three differing mangrove forests, and Alotau (Milne Bay, 12,628), Kundiawa is made up of about 600 small islands, the the world’s greatest variety of orchid species. (Simbu, 11,455), Popondetta (Oro, 10,200), chief of which are the Bismarck Archipelago, Forest covers 63 per cent of the land area, Kavieng (on New Ireland, 9,900), Bulolo the Trobriands, the Louisiade Archipelago, the having declined at 0.5 per cent p.a.
    [Show full text]
  • Voices of Bougainville
    CONCLUSION VOICES OF BOUGAINVILLE Nikana Kangsi, Nikana Dong Damana (Our Land, Our Future) This report is a publication of the Jubilee Australia We would like to acknowledge the people in Australia, Research Centre, in collaboration with partners the PNG, Bougainville and around the world whose work, International State Crime Initiative and the Bismarck dedication, advice and assistance went into the Ramu Group. production of this Report. We thank you all. The report was made possible by the generous financial Photographs of people from the Panguna region have support of the McKinnon Family Foundation and the not been included in this report due to the sensitive UK Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC); nature of the issues raised. the valuable support and assistance provided by the This report was designed by DZ Graphic Design. Melbourne University School of Government was also greatly appreciated. September 2014. 2014 ©JUBILEE AUSTRALIA RESEARCH CENTRE ABOUT JUBILEE AUSTRALIA ABOUT INTERNATIONAL STATE CRIME The Jubilee Australia Research Centre undertakes INITIATIVE scientific research exploring options for policy The International State Crime Initiative is a reform of the global economy and global financial transdisciplinary research centre devoted to system. It also explores new Australian frameworks understanding and preventing state crime; it is for responsible international financing, global poverty managed through a consortium that includes Queen reduction, ecologically sustainable development and Mary University of London, Harvard University, the promotion of democracy in developing countries. University of Ulster, and University of Hull. The Jubilee Australia Research Centre is the research For more information go to arm of Jubilee Australia, a Sydney-based non- www.statecrime.org governmental organisation.
    [Show full text]
  • Fuzzy-Wuzzy Devils 3°1
    ~:- .. Fuzzy- Wuzzy Devils: Mass Media and the Bougainville Crisis Suzanna Layton Francis Qna nem bilong em nau long dispela taim i save kamap long nius pepa, radio na TV long dispela kantri bilong yumi PNG na tu long wol. Nogat planti man na meri ali save long Francis Qna bipo, nau long PNG 01 liklik pikinini, bikpela man, meri, 01 lapun, ai pas tasol 01 save long nem bilong Francis Qna. 1 LETTER TO THE EDITOR, Arawa Bulletin, 21 APRIL 1989 The Papua New Guinea (PNG) Office of Information, charged in 1978 with reformulating government communication policy, characterized the mass media as "invaluable ... for communication and information of a balanced nature conducive to national unity and democratic progress" (IRC 1979, 78). However, it admitted the country had "never formulated a theoretical foundation for its communication activities and has experi­ enced frustration in communication servicing, planning and assessing" (ibid, 81). A decade later this frustration escalated to anger when a Bougainvillean juggernaut by the name of Francis ana began making headlines in what has come to be known as the Bougainville crisis. 2 ana's public career began relatively uneventfully. In March 1988 the university-educated father of five was elected spokesperson for a group of disenfranchised landowners at the Bougainville Copper Limited (BCl) mine in Panguna. Over the next eight months this group, known as the "new" Panguna Landowners Association (PlA),3 attempted to pressure BCl and the national government for increased compensation and better living conditions in the mine site area, with little success. Then, in The Contemporary Pacific, Volume 4, Number 2, Fall I992, 299-323 © I992 by University ofHawaii Press 299 300 THE CONTEMPORARY PACIFIC· FALL 1992 November 1988, one faction of the new PLA led by Ona turned to indus­ trial terrorism to demonstrate their resolve.
    [Show full text]
  • Ngos and Post-Conflict Recovery: the Leitana Nehan Women's
    : E G : H H Co-Published by ANU E Press and Asia Pacific Press The Australian National University Canberra ACT 0200, Australia Email: [email protected] Web: http://epress.anu.edu.au National Library of Australia Cataloguing-in-Publication entry NGOs and Post-conflict recovery: the Leitana Nehan Women’s Development Agency, Bougainville. Bibliography. ISBN 0 7315 3745 9 ISBN 1 9209 4218 1 (Online document) 1. Leitana Nehan Women’s Development Agency. 2. Non-governmental organizations - Papua New Guinea - Bougainville Island. 3. Peace-building - Papua New Guinea - Bougainville Island. 4. Humanitarian assistance - Papua New Guinea - Bougainville Island. 5. Bougainville Island (Papua New Guinea) - History. I. Hakena, Helen. II. Ninnes, Peter, 1960- . III. Jenkins, Bert A. 361.77 All rights reserved. You may download, display, print and reproduce this material in unaltered form only (retaining this notice) for your personal,non-commercial use or use within your organization. Editor: Matthew May Publisher: Asia Pacific Press and ANU E Press Design: Annie DiNallo Design Printers: University Printing Service First edition © 2006 ANU E Press and Asia Pacific Press CONTENTS Abbreviations vi Acknowledgments viii 1 Bougainville from crisis to peace 1 Peter Ninnes 2 We must help ourselves 11 Peter Ninnes 3 Projects, partners and politics 22 Peter Ninnes 4 Strengthening communities for peace 37 Bert Jenkins 5 From peace to progress 70 Bert Jenkins 6 Gender, development and peace 90 Peter Ninnes 7 Partnerships, post-conflict development and peace-building
    [Show full text]
  • A Stitch in Time: Preserving Peace on Bougainville 3
    SPECIAL REPORT November 2013 A stitch in time Preserving peace on Bougainville Peter Jennings and Karl Claxton Executive summary This report sets out a plan that Australia should adopt now to help deliver a sustainable solution for the future From late 1997 to mid-2003, Australia at first supported and of Bougainville. The proposal is designed to help prevent then led a pathbreaking unarmed regional peacekeeping the need for a costly military intervention of the type seen mission that helped end a decade of conflict on Bougainville. so regularly in the Pacific in the past 15 years. A concerted The mission ensured that large-scale fighting didn’t resume pre-referendum focus on peacebuilding in Bougainville, and bought time to prepare for a more measured and coordinated with regional partners, will forestall the need for orderly future political settlement. Sadly, those preparations a Timor or Solomon Islands-style stabilisation later. haven’t been sufficient to give confidence that a workable political settlement has taken shape. The Papua New Guinea Government, donors, neighbours and officials on Bougainville have failed to build the capacity needed by the Autonomous Bougainville Government (ABG) to remediate the causes of the 1990s conflict. Bougainvilleans do not yet have realistic options to choose either autonomy or independence. Although there have been some positive developments, most indicators are far from encouraging as the 2015–20 window for a referendum approaches. Misunderstandings between Port Moresby and the ABG persist, while Bougainville remains a deeply divided society. Economic imperatives to resume mining add new pressures. The most likely referendum outcome at the moment—Papua New Guinea refusing to ratify a clear but far from unanimous vote for an independence Bougainville is utterly unprepared for—would be destabilising.
    [Show full text]
  • Leadership Challenges for the Autonomous Bougainville Government
    Leadership Challenges for the Autonomous Bougainville Government PATRICK NISIRA SSGM DISCUSSION PAPER 2017/3 This discussion paper is based on a public speech 1990s become increasingly conscious of the long- delivered by the Hon. Patrick Nisira MHR, the Vice- term dangers for Bougainville if violent conflict President of the Autonomous Region of Bougainville, between Bougainvilleans continued. Any dreams of which was organised by the State, Society & Govern- self-determination for Bougainville would be under ance in Melanesia Program of the Coral Bell School grave threat. of Asia Pacific Affairs, ANU College of Asia and the Against that background, it should be no Pacific on 28 April 2016. surprise that from the very beginning of the peace The subject of the leadership challenges facing process, the focus amongst the Bougainville leaders the Autonomous Bougainville Government (ABG) committed to the process was on unification is an important one, especially with the referendum of Bougainville. It was for that reason that the on the possible independence of Bougainville fast first step was the extended meeting of opposing approaching (it must be held no later than mid- Bougainvillean leaders in the Burnham One talks 2020). Leadership challenge is a subject that raises in New Zealand in mid-1997. And of course, those key issues about the central roles for the Autono- talks were in fact a resumption of the previous talks mous Bougainville Government (ABG) envisaged between the divided Bougainville leadership held by the Bougainville Peace Agreement (BPA). Many in Cairns, Australia, in September and December of the ABG’s leadership challenges are inherent in 1995, initiated largely by Theodore Miriung, the general situation of Bougainville in 2016.
    [Show full text]
  • Forest for All Forever
    Centralized National Risk Assessment for Papua New Guinea FSC-CNRA-PG V1-0 EN FSC-CNRA-PG V1-0 CENTRALIZED NATIONAL RISK ASSESSMENT FOR PAPUA NEW GUINEA 2019 – 1 of 241 – Centralized National Risk Assessment for Papua New Title: Guinea Document reference FSC-CNRA-PG V1-0 EN code: Approval body: FSC International Center: Performance and Standards Unit Date of approval: 26 June 2019 Contact for comments: FSC International Center - Performance and Standards Unit - Adenauerallee 134, 53113 Bonn, Germany +49-(0)228-36766-0 +49-(0)228-36766-30 [email protected] © 2019 Forest Stewardship Council, A.C. All rights reserved. No part of this work covered by the publisher’s copyright may be reproduced or copied in any form or by any means (graphic, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, recording taping, or information retrieval systems) without the written permission of the publisher. Printed copies of this document are for reference only. Please refer to the electronic copy on the FSC website (ic.fsc.org) to ensure you are referring to the latest version. The Forest Stewardship Council® (FSC) is an independent, not for profit, non- government organization established to support environmentally appropriate, socially beneficial, and economically viable management of the world’s forests. FSC’s vision is that the world’s forests meet the social, ecological, and economic rights and needs of the present generation without compromising those of future generations. FSC-CNRA-PG V1-0 CENTRALIZED NATIONAL RISK ASSESSMENT FOR PAPUA NEW GUINEA 2019 – 2 of 241 – Contents Risk assessments that have been finalized for Papua New Guinea .........................
    [Show full text]