Trading Bougainville Copper (ADRs) 867948

.............on Solomons-PNG border

Posted at 23:03 on 25 February, 2013 UTC

The Australian government is to be asked to step in and provide security management at the border between Solomon Islands and Papua New Guinea’s Bougainville.

The people of the Shortland Islands in Western Province are concerned at what will happen when the intervention force, the Regional Assistance Mission, leaves the area later this year.

An elder, Edward Kingmele, says they want AusAid, to finance weapons, logistics and infrastructure for the border security posts.

He says the security guards should be armed to counter any threats from foreigners who misuse the border.

Mr Kingmele says they want an assurance from the Solomon Islands Government and RAMSI that the departure of Participating Police personnel in July won’t result in a security vacuum at the border.

News Content © Radio New Zealand International
PO Box 123, Wellington, New Zealand

http://www.rnzi.com/pages/news.php?op=read&id=74261

Referendum needed to re-open PNG’s Panguna mine, says Bougainville landowner
Radio New Zealand

A landowner from the Panguna region in the autonomous Papua New Guinea province of Bougainville says a referendum would be needed before the green light is given to resume mining at Panguna.

The Bougainville government is holding the second of four planned community meetings to hear the people’s views on whether the huge copper and gold mine can be re-opened.

In 1988, anger over alleged environmental damage and human rights abuses at Panguna sparked a civil war and closed the mine.

A former presidential candidate and a landowner at Panguna, Martin Miriori, says before any re-opening there would need to be compensation, reconciliation and awareness building, followed by a referendum.

“So that people can just vote on whether the mine should be opened or whether it should remain closed. And with that mandate from the people then, we can go ahead and, say, talk about reviewing the Bougainville Copper agreement, or a new agreement that needs to be negotiated.”  

....Government in Bougainville

http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/WO1302/S00241/...t-in-bougainville.htm

Tuesday, 26 February 2013, 3:06 pm
Press Release: Commonwealth Local Government Forum Pacific

Press Release, 25 February 2013

Advancing Gender in Local Level Government in Bougainville

BUKA, The Commonwealth Local Government Forum (CLGF) Pacific is currently on a two week scoping mission to Bougainville to implement a component of the Pacific FLOW Program. The team is visiting the region’s main administrative centre of Buka and will also travel to Arawa in the southern part of the country.

Funding Leadership and Opportunities for Women or FLOW, is a new fund initiated by the Dutch Foreign Ministry to strengthen the rights and opportunities for women and girls worldwide. The Pacific FLOW Program is a four year (2012-2015) multi-country program managed by the International Women’s Development Agency (IWDA), a not-for-profit civil society organisation based in Australia. The Program works with a wide range of Pacific regional and local partners to increase women’s civil and political leadership in Fiji, the Solomon Islands and Bougainville to drive gender equality.

The Program focuses on four outcomes: increasing women’s civil society engagement and representation, mobilising young women to participate in decision-making, increasing gender equality commitments at the local government level and increasing voter willingness and community support for women in leadership positions.

CLGF Pacific is a lead partner responsible for the implementation of the local government component of the Pacific FLOW program. Since arriving in Buka, the introduction of the FLOW program has been greatly received and supported. The scoping team has met with the Division of Local Level Government for Bougainville, the Minister for Local Government Hon. Rev Joseph Nopei and the Minister for Community Development, Hon. Melchoir Dare. The team has also been working with officers of Buka Urban Council, women representatives from the Councils of Elders as well as the Bougainville Women’s Federation (BWF). CLGF plans to continue meetings with relevant stakeholders when they travel to Arawa next week.

A core aim of the mission is to introduce the idea of using urban councils in Bougainville as Centres of Excellence (COE’s) for Gender in Local Government. This will involve providing sustained support to the Buka and Arawa Urban Councils to mainstream gender into their policies, programs and service delivery through technical support, on-the-job training and council-to-council technical twinning with PNG Urban LLGs and Australian Councils. The concept will build on experience that CLGF Pacific has gained over several years working at the local government level in adapting and implementing gender training across the Pacific region (most recently in PNG) using the UN-Habitat Gender in Local Government Toolkit and the PNG Good Practice Scheme involving council-to-council twinning between Urban LLGs and Australian Councils. It has arisen from the realisation that the only way to make a difference at the local level is to start council by council. The Pacific FLOW Program aims to target eight councils across Fiji, the Solomon Islands and Bougainville for the pilot phases of the COE’s.

The Commonwealth Local Government Forum (CLGF) is a not-for-profit, intergovernmental organisation representing the interests of its members who are ministers of local government, local government associations and individual governments together with other organisations with a professional interest in local government across the Commonwealth.

CLGF Pacific is based in Suva, Fiji and works with nine countries in the Pacific region: the Cook Islands, Kiribati, Marshall Islands, PNG, Samoa, the Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu and Vanuatu. Its key role is to advocate to and on behalf of the local government sector on key governance and development issues, including gender equity and women’s empowerment. CLGF Pacific also provides program and policy advice, technical assistance and training, and applied research services to its members and the local government sector generally.

ENDS

http://hotcopper.com.au/...p?fid=1&tid=1952895&msgid=11425792

Thursday's buyer chipping away with an algo was through UBS, whom
I assume was the buyer doing the same yesterday, clearly someone is happen to accumulate at these levels, as am I with catalysts to come!

http://lfongroka.blogspot.com/

Rough bisnis: How the Americans came seeking gold
Quelle: LEONARD FONG ROKA in PNG Attitude, 26.2.2013

IT WAS IN 2008 that Edwin Moses from Sireronsi village and Amos Ove from Kongara got in contact with Americans Steve Strauss and Mike Holbrooke.

The Americans and their company, Tall J, said to be specialists in small scale mining, also had connections to the so-called Meekamui government of Panguna led by Philip Miriori (president) and Philip Takaung (vice president) – 2 people who, when talking about BCL to the media, had being so anti-mining.

In early 2009, Edwin Moses, Amos Ove and Philip Takaung formed their own company with the blessing of the Meekamui government. They called it O’orang with all the executives from their respective villages and Amos Ove as manager and Edwin Moses as director. Its first job was to start formal negotiations with the Americans.

After O’orang was established, Tall J money began entering Bougainville. O’orang was assigned to do the groundwork for possible mining operations in Panguna, especially in the Tumpusiong Valley where Amos Ove was married.
Back in the US there was excitement to have established a link with one of the Pacific’s richest islands and its landowners. Money flowed in and O’orang members drove around in new vehicles.

In mid-2009, the Americans and O’orang met in Honiara to finalise the go-ahead for a joint venture in alluvial gold mining at Panguna. A week later, under the leadership of Steve Strauss, a team of 9 Americans arrived in Panguna with a Komatsu front-end loader and other equipment for sampling and other preparatory work. They learned that nothing had been done with their money or to earn it.

Spending months in Panguna in rented rooms owned by Philip Takaung, they tried to sort things out. Half of the Americans left, seeing that their money was wasted. But the others stayed on, including Steve Strauss and Mike Holbrooke.

With the Americans around them and Amos Ove gone due to illness, Philip Takaung and Edwin Moses began to fast track negotiations with various people around Kieta. They visited the Eivo area, went into certain parts of Kokoda, and frisked the whole Panguna valley for partners, especially the Tumpusiong Valley.

They entered Kupe, where an Australian company once had a gold mining operation in the 1930s, 3 times and, on the fourth visit, the angry Kupe people chased them away.

By Christmas 2009, all the Americans left except Strauss, who was concerned to find ways to recover the money already spent. By early 2010, the Americans had spent some K1.7 million through O’orang to secure alluvial gold mining operations.

With 2009 winding down, Strauss saw no hope and was packing to leave Bougainville when Michael Dendai and Michael Tona, who were not involved with Tall J, met him in Panguna with a claim that they and their families owned much of the west Tumpusiong Valley tailings area. Strauss was relieved and made an agreement with the pair and also donated an open Landcruiser to serve the Tumpusiong communities.

In a series of meetings held at Panguna over a period of 2 months, a new company, Middle Tailings Resources Limited (MTRL), led by Michael Dendai, who now controlled the Landcruiser, and Michael Tona was born.

O’orang fought hard not to be left out of this new relationship and was accepted. Strauss sought to secure more offshore funding for the new operation.

This time funds were committed by a Chinese partner and once again Americans began to arrive to pave the way for the Tumpusiong project. Having the Chinese money in their hands, Dendai and Tona carelessly fast-tracked the project without engaging the majority of the west Tumpusiong community in decision making. The project went steaming on with a happy MTRL gang.

The joint venture, named as Jaba Industries, consisted of O’orang with 33.33% of the shares, MTRL with 33.33% and Tall J holding the last 33.33%. The unidentified Chinese financier was catered for by being a shareholder in all 3 companies. At the same time, Tall J had a percentages of the 33.33% owned by O’orang in Jaba.

With the business arrangements sorted, equipment and plant funded by the Chinese started arriving one piece a time for the whole of 2011 and half of 2012.
The equipment was kept at Birempa on the Morgan-Panguna mine access road near Edwin Moses’ home. It included dump trucks, an excavator, a front-end loader, a number of open Landcruisers and gold processing equipment.

Over Christmas 2012, project development began at Toku village in the western section of Tumpusiong Valley.

Conflict surfaced. The locals brawled with MTRL executives over decision-making processes as landowners witnessing that Michael Dendai was running MTRL as his private business.

Also, despite the fact the men involved with the creation of MTRL were close relatives of current Autonomous Bougainville Government mining mister, Michael Oni, the parliamentarian was said to know nothing of this development.
So people publicly condemned MTRL and Jaba Industries as illegal businesses.

Furthermore, the main village of Toku boiled with strikes. At a launching and dedication ceremony held at the mining site just before Christmas 2012, half the Toku villagers did not attend nor did they eat the food that was brought to them.

The locals were also angered by all executive positions in the joint venture being held by O’orang people who were not even landowners at the Panguna mine site or in the Tumpusiong Valley.
They were from the inaccessible hinterland villages of Pangka and Mosinau to the south-east of the Panguna mine; people who now squat in the remains of Panguna township causing a lot of disharmony with the people who own the mine and town areas, like the Moroni people, and even with the Panguna District administration.

Most of the Tumpusiong men were employed as security guards earning a K75 per fortnight. Plant operators and other better paid workers were O’orang employees.

And the former Bougainville Revolutionary Army fighters disliked that Dendai had not been home during the conflict and was now walking over them as sole decision maker in the project.

In late 2012, the Chinese partner that it would release K300,000 and 2 vehicles for the Tumpusiong Valley as a community development package.

The people watched a week’s test-run of operations in January 2013 that produced samples that were shipped overseas.

In mid-January, a new accusation surfaced that the K300,000 development money was already deposited into Michael Dendai’s bank account. Without hesitation, the villagers torched the gold processing equipment in broad daylight. All the Tumpusiong men working as security guards walked off the mining site with a demand to Jaba Industries to resolve the issue or pack up and leave.

The valley has tonnes of gold washed down from the Panguna mine’s long operations and today is one of the main alluvial gold attractions in the Kieta District. O’orang’s attempts to lure the targeted people often met with opposition but the reports that went to America were of positive progress.  

auch wenn es wieder unglaublich viel Zeit verschlingen würde, aber alles läuft wohl auf so ein Panguna-Referendum hinaus. Aber damit wäre dann auch die BOU-politisch größte Baustelle beseitigt. Und die Insel Bougainville könnte dann endlich mit einer Stimme Richtung PNG rufen: "Gebt uns endlich die Mining-Power und die 19% BCL-Aktien!!!"  

http://ramumine.wordpress.com/2013/02/26/...ng-unsafe-waste-disposal/

The National

THREE of four major mines in PNG use a tailings system that is banned in most countries, according to Attorney General Kerenga Kua.

And the country does not have a specific law that regulates the management and disposal of tailings from mining activities and other industrial waste.

Kua, whose speech was read out by Constitutional and Law Reform Commission secretary Dr Eric Kwa at the launching of the paper on environmental and mining laws relating to the management and disposal of tailings, said the Porgera, Tolukuma and Ok Tedi mines used the riverine tailings disposal system which involved releasing tailings directly into the river system.

   “It is regarded as so environmentally-unfriendly that many developed nations such as Australia, Canada and the US have effectively banned it,” Kua said.

   “And the World Banking Group’s 2003 extractive industries review consultation recommended that no WBG-supported mining project should use riverine tailings disposal.

   “Since 2005 only four mines continue to employ this method – Ok Tedi, Porgera and Tolukuma mines in PNG and the Grasberg mine in West Papua (Indoneesia).”

He said there were several other methods of storing or disposing tailings available in the world of mining.

Kua urged participants to come up with the best available method for the country and future generations.

He also called all participants to use this opportunity to come up with the best legislation to address the issue.

http://bougainville.typepad.com/newdawn/2013/02/...s-by-aloysius.html

260213SECOND FORUM OPENS
By Aloysius Laukai

The second forum on Panguna negotiations for North Bougainville, that covers Bougainville mainland from Tinputz, Kunua, Kereaka,Selau and Suir officially opened this morning at the Hutjena Secondary School hall on Buka island.
The first forum was held last year at the same location but covered areas in North Bougainville starting from Tasman islands, Nissan district, Atolls and Buka district.
The aim of all these workshops is to gauge the views from all Bougainvilleans on the upcoming Bougainville Copper Agreement negotiations.
Other districts that are yet to stage these forums are Buin and Bana in South Bougainville and Panguna and Kieta district in Central Bougainville which are scheduled for March this year.
In his welcome remarks this morning, the ABG Mining Minister, MICHAEL ONI said that it was an opportunity again for all stake holders to meet and discuss issues affecting the region today in terms of the Panguna negotiations.
The meeting is being attended by leaders from both the Mekamui faction led by its President PHILIP MIRIORI and his deputy PHILIP TAKAUNG and other leaders from Central Bougainville.
ABG President DR JOHN MOMIS is also attending this forum with ABG Ministers and members of ABG.
The two-days forum will end tomorrow afternoon.

Ends

Die Eier könnten zu Ostern gelegt sein ;-)))

Die Jungs scheinen langsam übung zu bekommen.Vergingen zwischen "Forum 1+2" noch 2 Monate, so sind die letzten 2 schon für März terminiert.

"Other districts that are yet to stage these forums are Buin and Bana in South Bougainville and Panguna and Kieta district in Central Bougainville which are scheduled for March this year."

Mitte März dann die ABG Sitzung mit Verabschiedung??? des Mining Act, voraussichtlich gefolgt von einem JSB Meeting mit Transfert von Miningpower? u. BCL Shares??

Nach Ostern dann Anfang April zum BCL AGM Meeting könnte wenn alles planmässig verläuft, der Start der BCA Review verkündet werden.

Köstlicher Bericht!
Alles sehr zivilisiert. Verlässliche Geschäftspartner.
Gleich packe auch ich mein Schäufelchen ein, nehme ein, zwei (offene) Landrover mit, fliege rüber  und beginne ein wenig  zu graben ...

oyoo, überwältigt ...  

...ist wieder einmal völliger Quatsch und unsinnige Pusherei! Richtig ist: Es geht in kleinen Schritten vorwärts und das Ende des Tunnels könnte jetzt in Sicht kommen. Eine Übertragung aller 19% BCL Aktien halte ich für Träumerei. Allenfalls werden es wohl im besten Falle ein paar Prozent sein.

Die neuen Nachrichten auf www.bougainville-copper.eu stimmen zuversichtlich!

Noch allerdings machen die Kursmanipulationen in Sydney zu schaffen.

Aber ewig wird das auch nicht gehen.

Dass die Aussicht auf ein Miiliardengeschäft Ganoven auf den Plan ruft, ist spätestens seit dem Gold-Rush in den USA im 19. Jahrhundert bekannt.

http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kalifornischer_Goldrausch

Zudem: Der Hinweis auf bevorstehende Verhandlungen in Sachen Bougainville Copper Agreement scheint hier nicht aufgefallen zu sein.

Ganz neben bei: Heute erwarten wir auf www.bougainville-copper.eu den 88888sten Zugriff auf unsere Homepage. Die "8" ist in China die "lucky number" schlechthin. Wenn das kein gutes Omen ist, was dann?

glaube auch, das wir die Übertragung der Mining-Power und der 19% in 2013 nicht sehen werden. Ich tippe auf Ende 2014, kurz vor den 2015-Bou-Referendum-Aktivitäten.  

............passt denn:

"JSB Meeting ist wieder einmal völliger Quatsch und unsinnige Pusherei!"

zu:

"Zudem: Der Hinweis auf bevorstehende Verhandlungen in Sachen Bougainville Copper Agreement scheint hier nicht aufgefallen zu sein."

Trotzdem......

.....Ohne Mining Act keine Uebertragung der Miningpower beim JSB Meeting

Ohne Uebertragung der Miningpower kein Start der BCA Review.

denke ich mal.

können doch davon ausgehen, das all diese Themen (BCA-Review, Übertragung der Miningpower, 19%-BCL-Aktienübertrag, und andere kritische Themen) in den 2013ff-JSB-Meetings verhandelt werden. Alle diese Themen hängen miteinander zusammen und haben untereinander Wechselwirkungen. Am Ende wird es EINE strategische Gesamtlösung zu allen Themen geben, quasi einen BIG-Bang. Und das alles wird dauern, bestensfalls nur bis Ende 2014.  

'A former presidential candidate and a landowner at Panguna, Martin  Miriori, says before any re-opening there would need to be compensation,  reconciliation and awareness building, followed by a referendum.

“So  that people can just vote on whether the mine should be opened or  whether it should remain closed. And with that mandate from the people  then, we can go ahead and, say, talk about reviewing the Bougainville  Copper agreement, or a new agreement that needs to be negotiated.” '

Hier scheint fast jeder davon überzeugt zu sein, dass im Falle eines solchen Referendums die Möglichkeit, die im zweiten Halbsatz angedeutet wird, völlig außerhalb jeder Realität ist - ist sie es tatsächlich?

 

für mich ja  

Reines Bauchgefühl - oder gibt's auch 'ne Begründung?

 

wohnen,irgendwann werden die das zu Geld machen,auch glaube ich das irgendwann irgendwer den Kurs wieder pushen wird,die 10 Mio. Stücke von. Citi.... Sind auch bald weg,und die Stücke kauft ja auch jemand und nicht ohne Grund  

- "weil sie sehr arm sind und auf einem Haufen Kohle wohnen,irgendwann werden die das zu Geld machen"

Du denkst wie „man“ halt denkt in unserem Kulturkreis. Woher die Sicherheit nehmen, dass das auch dort mehrheitlich so sein muss?

In der Öffentlichkeit sind immer wieder nur die gleichen Stimmen wahrzunehmen, wenn es ums Für und Wider eines Reopening geht. Die „gemeine“ Bevölkerung hat sich meines Wissens bislang noch nicht geäußert – weder repräsentativ noch in anderer Form. Hast Du sichere Anhaltspunkte dafür, dass in einem Referendum sich die Mehrheit der B’viller Bevölkerung für ein Reopening aussprechen würde? Wenn ja, wäre ich mal dankbar für ’ne Quellenangabe …

 

 

können alle diese Fragen noch Jahre dauern. Man ist sich nicht einig, wohl wissend das auch die Unabhängigkeit so nicht möglich sein wird.
Und wenn es wirklich zum Schwur kommen sollte - werden alle sagenhafte Beteiligungen fordern.
Wäre ich RIO, ich würde warten bis sich alle darauf geeinigt haben was genau sie nun wollen, um dann zu entscheiden ob sich die Wiederaufnahme für RIO unter diesen Bedingungen lohnt.  

PNG hat jedenfalls weiterhin die Fäden in der Hand.
Und PNG wird weiterhin auf Zeit spielen.
Weil PNG genau weiß, BOU will um jeden Preis die Insel-BOU-Autonomie.

Und spätestens, wenn die BOU-Fraktionen real merken, das ohne Panguna für eine Autonomie die Finanzen fehlen, dann werden die verschiedenen BOU-Fraktionen von ihren übersteigerten Forderungen abrücken, damit Panguna wenigstens mit reduzierten aber realisierbaren Forderungen endlich ans Laufen kommt und damit die Autonomie überhaupt erstmal möglich macht.

PNG hat ja auch jede Menge Zeit. PNG verliert nichts, wenn Panguna nicht an den Start geht. Im Gegenteil, sie gewinnen sogar etwas sehr wichtiges.
Ohne Panguna keine BOU-Autonomie. Ohne BOU-Autonomie bleibt die Insel BOU weiterhin ein Asset von PNG. So einfach ist das.

Insofern ist das Szenario, dass Ende 2014 alle hier genannten offenen Punkte gelöst sein werden, signifikant optimistisch. Wahrscheinlicher ist natürlich zunächst, dass es bis 2016/2017/2018/2019 braucht, bis die BOU-Fraktionen merken, dass niemand auf ihre Forderungen eingehen will und sie diese dann endlich reduzieren.

Die Chance, dass Ende 2014 dann doch vielleicht alle offenen Punkte gelöst sein könnten liegt darin begründet, das die BOU-Fraktionen bis dahin lernen könnten, wo sie eigentlich stehen und was durchsetzbar ist und was nicht. Vielleicht sagt es ihnen ja bis dahin auch irgendjemand?

Von allen Beteiligten hätten die BOU-Fraktionen mit Abstand den größten Vorteil von einer wiedergeöffneten Panguna-Mine. Tragisch ist, das genau diese BOU-Fraktionen mit ihren überzogenen Forderungen die Panguna-Öffnung um viele Jahre verschleppen und verhindern. Man könnte fast glauben, in den BOU-Fraktionen befinden sich Personen, die in voller Absicht die Insel-Autonomie zu Gunsten von PNG sabotieren.

Mein aktueller Eindruck ist, bei allem Respekt vor Momis und den konstruktiven Pro-Landbesitzern, die BOU-Bewohner blicken im Ergebnis leider immer noch nicht, das sie seit Jahren ihre eigene Zukunft boykottieren.  

Besonders der letzte Satz.  

by ramunickel
Kristian Lasslett* | Green Left Weekly

British-Australian mining giant Rio Tinto is seriously contemplating reopening its Bougainville copper and gold mine, Reuters reported on February 7.

Situated on Papua New Guinea’s (PNG) eastern border with the Solomon Islands, the company's Bougainville operation was forcefully closed down in November 1988 by traditional landowners who objected to the mine’s environmental and social effects.

A bloody civil war ensued, which took up to 20,000 lives on an island of 175,000 people. The war crimes committed by government security forces in the conflict were horrific.

Bougainvillean nurse, Sister Ruby Mirinka, recalled:

“One of the victims was a 24-year-old pregnant woman. Shot dead by the PNG soldiers, her abdomen was then cut open to remove the foetus. The dead foetus was then placed on the chest of the dead mother for all to see — as a warning.”

Rio Tinto stands accused of being complicit in these atrocities. In a US class action launched under the Alien Tort Statute, Bougainvillean landowners maintain that Rio Tinto’s subsidiary, Bougainville Copper Limited (BCL), supplied the military with trucks, fuel, accommodation, storage facilities, mess halls, communications equipment and secretarial services.

These allegations were featured in a hard-hitting Dateline report aired on SBS TV in 2011.

In response, company executives adamantly denied complicity. They claimed Rio Tinto’s equipment was commandeered by the defence force after the mine had been abandoned.

BCL director Sir Rabbie Namaliu told The Australian on July 16, 2011:

“To suggest that Rio did it deliberately is factually wrong. When I heard about those claims, I thought the whole thing was rather unfair.”

Namaliu was prime minister of PNG from 1988 to 1992. Amnesty International said PNG forces stationed in Bougainville during this period took part in extra-judicial killings, village burnings and the rape of women.

Namaliu is hardly an uncompromised source.

There are other problems with his account. For example, I interviewed eight senior managers who worked for BCL during 1987-1992. They were confident the company did supply the defence force with the aforementioned equipment.

One manager told me:

“We did everything they [PNG security forces] asked of us to make their life more comfortable, and better able to manage through, with transport, communications, provisions, whatever, fuel.

“You know, we gave them everything, because as a far as we saw it we were hoping that they were going to solve the situation, so we could start operating again. So we supported them every way we could.”

Perhaps BCL was unaware of the ends to which this logistic support would be applied? Well, its executives seem fairly cogent on this front too.

One manager recalled:

“These guys [PNG security forces] were ignorant thugs with guns. Frightened ignorant thugs with guns. Frightened, ignorant thugs with guns a long way from home.”

Another executive remembered surveying the destruction inflicted upon local villages by government forces during April 1989:

“Forty, 50 villages, and the crops [were destroyed]. The villages were varying from five or six houses to 20 or 30 houses.”

Naturally, Rio Tinto wants to take advantage of skyrocketing copper and gold prices by dusting off its old South Pacific jewel. I am sure they are attracting a degree of community support from war-weary Bougainvilleans looking to rebuild their shattered island.

That said, 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. So it would be difficult to argue that this support is based upon informed consent.

Until Rio Tinto commits to full disclosure, any attempt to reopen the Bougainville mine will be another corporate blight on the deeply scarred people of this Melanesian island.

* Dr Kristian Lasslett is an executive board member of the International State Crime Initiative. The International State Crime Initiative’s multi-media presentation on the Bougainville conflict, which includes BCL memorandums  

Die Macher haben sich doch schon längst auf ein "Reopening Panguna with BCL" geeinigt.

Die "Forums on Panguna negotiations" dienen dazu der Bevölkerung das Gefühl zu geben mitentscheiden zu können und sie gleichzeitig darüber aufzuklären dass ohne Panguna keine finanzielle u. ergo auch keine politische Unabhängigkeit möglich ist.

Hinter den Kulissen wird momentan darüber diskutiert wie eine "Compensation" aussehen soll welche allen Bewohnern gleichermassen zugute kommen könnte (Strassenbau,Medizinische Versorgung etc.)

Präsident Momis wird sich beim nächsten JSB Meeting hinsichtlich der Miningpower garantiert nicht mehr vertrösten lassen, ansonsten wird das ABG Parlament nach der Verabschiedung des Mining Act die Mining Policies auch ohne PNG Zustimmung voten.

Der PNG Anteil an BCL wurde übrigens von AU finanziert,gut möglich also dass eine Uebertragung der Shares von AU finanziell unterstützt wird.Da käme ein niedriger Sharepreis gerade recht,ein Transfert zum "fairen Wert" könnte ansonsten leicht das AusAidbudget sprengen. ;-))))