Villagers relocated by Bougainville Copper suffer most says peace advisor
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Updated August 4, 2011 09:13:05
A leading academic and adviser to the Bougainville Autonomous government says the communities who have suffered most from the Rio Tinto owned Panguna copper mine are those that were relocated from villages at the mine site or from sites affected by mine tailings.
The mine was closed down in 1989 after it sparked a bloody civil war but, with Bougainville due to hold a referendum on independence from Papua New Guinea within the next ten years, moves are afoot to re-open the mine.
Landowners from the 6 mine lease areas are now going through a process to set up representative organisations to negotiate with the Rio Tinto subsidiary, Bougainville Copper Limited.
Presenter: Jemima Garrett
Speaker: Anthony Regan, a Research Fellow at the Australian National University
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GARRETT: When it shutdown, Rio Tinto's Bougainville copper mine was one of the biggest in the world and it had been operating for 17 years.
Anthony Regan, a Research Fellow at the Australian National University has been an adviser to the parties in the Bougainville Peace process since 1994.
He says the people who have been most adversely affected by the mine are those that had to be relocated.
REGAN: The ones in the mine site were relocated up onto hard rocky ledges created by the digging of the mine pit. The relocated houses built by BCL were burnt by the army and the police in 1989 and the people are living in squatter camp conditions in scrap metal constructed houses. The septic tanks sunk into the rock are completely full, to the brim, so when it rains, and it is very high rainfall up there, water rushes down over the top of the septic tanks and there is raw sewage running through the villages. The fact that people have avoided death by cholera and typhoid is amazing.
GARRETT: The mine operator, BCL was also forced to relocate people affected by the mine's tailings.
At the time, it was considered to be too expensive to send these people home so they were moved to relatives land, either along the coast or at Moratona, around 15 kilometres inland.
REGAN: On this land of relatives, it was OK at the time because there weren't so many people but, since then, populations of the relocated people and relatives have risen dramatically. There are now thousands of relocated villagers and they have no rights to timber, to the sak sak leafing used for roofing. They have no water supply, they can't grow cash crops and tensions are developing between them and the original owners whose land is running short for their own purposes.
GARRETT: As part of the peace process set up in the wake of the civil war, Bougainville will hold a referendum on independence from Papua New Guinea sometime between 2015 and 2020.
Many people believe the only way they will get a real choice during in that referendum, is if their island has at least a measure of economic self-reliance.
It is that desire for development that is behind the push to re-open the mine.
Bougainville's President, John Momis, has made it clear Panguna will not re-open without the support of the people and his government is working with landowners to set up representative associations for each of the 6 mine lease areas.
Peace process adviser, Anthony Regan, says the people of the relocated villages will be a significant voice in those associations.
REGAN: One of the reasons the landowners wanted to have separate associations for each lease area was because there are special needs, quite distinct needs, in each area and this issue alone indicates how different the needs are in the villages in the special mining lease as opposed to those in the lower tailings lease. So it will be a matter for each association to carefully document the needs and the problems of the people within their lease area and bring those to the table through the umbrella association but, in the process of setting up the associations, the Autonomous Bougainvlle Government, of course, is getting a tremendous window, on the issues that are facing the people, because in these long and detailed consultations the administration is having with the people, their problems are being put right on the table. I was in the tailings lease the special mining lease, in a series of meetings and the people are very clear, they know what their problems are and they are identifying them with tremendous clarity and great emotion. They really feel they have suffered, they are aware that they are the real victims of mining, and they are not opposing mining, for the future for the most part, but they are saying if it is to happen again, then it has to be done very differently and they, amongst others, have to be looked after in very different ways.
GARRETT The Bougainville Autonomous government is keen to ease the suffering of the relocated villagers but it is relying on funding promised by Port Moresby.
Until now the PNG government has been slow to deliver. With the current turmoil in Waigani hopes of receiving that $40 million soon, are fading.
Quelle ABC Radio Australien