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.Australia funded the PNGDF operationsin Bougainville and provided ammunition, helicopter gunships andpatrol boats which caused much human suffering and destruction.Helicopters were flown by Australian hired mercenaries with theapproval and support of the Australian government under specialprovisions of the Crimes Act.The arms and ammunition used to killBougainvilleans came from Australia and Australian forces providedexpertise and advisers to direct and advise the PNG forces in theirday-to-day operations against the BRA.Probably around 1995, PNG s government decided to hire theLondon-based Sandline International a branch of Executive 124 Little AmericaOutcomes, a South African white mercenary organisation to dealwith the problem.Mercenaries began arriving in PNG in 1996 aswell as heavy military transport from Ukraine carrying arms andhelicopters, and ammunition ordered from a Singapore government-owned company.The arrival of mercenaries in PNG caused a scandaland a political crisis between PNG s military and the government.The military took over parliament, deported Sandline s foreignmercenaries, and forced the resignation of Prime Minister Julius Chan,replacing him with another corrupt politician, Bill Skate.Sandline splan was to cash in on the reopening of the Bougainville mine and ina secret deal acquire CRA shares.This was part of Sandline s growthstrategy to move in on poor countries with a peace problem andexchange some of their services for a share of the country s resources.In the process it bribed a number of PNG individuals including PNG smilitary leader General Singirok who received US$500,000 via Cairns.PNG s government has had to pay the full cost of a contract withSandline validated in international law about US$46 million.All inall the Bougainville fiasco cost the country some US$1.2 billion.Australia played an active role in the Bougainville disaster.Australian intelligence had access to all communications in PNGand the region through the use of telephone-tapping equipmentlocated in Port Moresby s Australian High Commission.Intelligencegained information tapping into international calls, e-mail, faxes andother means via their satellite intercept station located at Kojarenanear Geraldton in Western Australia, or via links to another station atShoal Haven near Darwin.At the time of the crisis, Australia set up amobile listening post at Cape York aimed specifically at interceptingcommunications on the island and with the neighbouring SolomonIslands, where many of the rebels spent much of their time(O Callaghan 1999:131).Australia eventually organised and funded a peace process whichresulted in an accord with the separatists to end hostilities andnegotiate terms to bring peace to the island.The Peace MonitoringGroup (PMG) which includes troops from Australia, New Zealand,Fiji and Vanuatu, have managed to bring some order on Bougainvilleand collect some weapons from the insurgents.In 2000 Bougainvilleentered into a class action in California against the Anglo-Australianmining giant Rio Tinto for the killings and damage to the island,an action opposed by the Australian and US governments.Anagreement was signed between Bougainville and PNG in 2002 toset up a Provincial Administration and establish the province s Australian Imperialism 125independence process.Joseph Kabui became the first president ofan autonomous Bougainville following the internationally monitoredelections in June 2005.THE SOLOMON ISLANDSTo the west of Bougainville is the archipelagic state of the SolomonIslands with some 500,000 people three hours flight time fromBrisbane.A British protectorate until granted independence in 1978when it was known as the happy isles.Some twenty years later thepopulation had nearly doubled and Mary-Louise O Callaghan, a longtime observer of Pacific affairs, wrote about the dramatic decline ofthe once happy isles, make no mistake, it is a nation that s dying ayoung foolish, weak and vulnerable nation.And with it, an entirepeople s chance for a better life (O Callaghan 2002).At the time of independence the British left the new nation-statewith little to constitute a sound basis for development.Few islandershad been trained, and the infrastructure needed for the task of buildinga modern state was almost non-existent.Since independence theeconomy has been largely based on the exploitation of the country sconsiderable natural resources by foreign entities.The Australian-owned Golden Ridge gold mine provided some 25 per cent of thecountry s revenues while it operated.Other major enterprises are thetuna factory operated by Japan-based Taiyo Ltd which once employedabout 3,000 workers and the British-registered CommonwealthDevelopment Corporation which owns Solomon Islands PlantationLtd, the country s largest oil-palm plantation and another majorcontributor to government revenue before it also closed down withanother major loss of employment.There has been extensive logging of the country s forestparticularly by Chinese, Japanese and Malaysian companies.Manyof their operations are illegal and involve deals with local chiefsfollowed by operations to quickly log whole areas and load andship the timber out.Foreign operators have also been involved inextensive fishing operations within the Solomon Islands maritimejurisdiction
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