In any democracy the will of the people is paramount! Independence can be achieved along with regional autonomy, without cutting all ties!

And should be contemplated and offered as a compromise solution. And better than going to war along with grievous loss of life and treasure!

And would signal a new maturity and statesmen like wisdom in PNG. Autonomy!
Alan B.

Looks like Bougainville is going through the same motions with PNG as PNG did with Australia !
Will the outcome be very similar also ?

I understand Bougainville is part of the Solomon Islands Archipelago and was given by the British to PNG about 100 years ago.

These days Bougainvillians seek Independence.

Many problems would be solved including economic hardship and regional unrest if the British negotiated with PNG and Bougainville and returned Bougainville back to the Solomons

All island people in the Solomons Archipellego desperately need resources that GNP from Bougainville mining could generate

Right JF Aus, it is a short canoe paddle from Bouganville to the Shortland islands, part of the Solomons, but out of canoe range to anywhere in PNG. It is naturally part of the Solomons, but for it to become so is not currently in our interest.

There is still a hell of a lot of copper left in "them there hills", greatly needed with the irrational rush to wind power & the electrification of transport. China will be most interested in that, but I very much doubt the locals would see much wealth from China exploiting that copper.

The whole reason for the rebellion was the lack of value to the Bougainvilleans. Bougainvilleans are big & very black. They have long been the least well served by the PNG government, & Oz administrators before that, with poor education opportunities. One of the main reasons for the uprising was all the good jobs, housing & facilities were being filled by the "red skins" as they refereed to the much better educated lighter skinned PNG mainland imports to work the mine jobs. They very much resented having these imports as their boss in their homeland.

I was there for some of the so called riots. They were very gentle protests to start with. The importation of more "red skin" police & army inflamed the situation. Mine management did not mind, in fact almost encouraged them when they started pushing the old dump trucks over the edge to crash into the mine pit. They had new much larger dump trucks already coming.

It was stupid management by the government & mine company that turned some discontent to a major catastrophe.

Well said, Hasbeen. And it is part of the SIs.
Alan B.

A properly crafted agreement to federate with PNG would seem to be a sensible solution - independence is a bit of a stretch and becoming a Province of PNG will be against the interests of the people of Bougainville.