Bougainville was part of German New Guinea, a protectorate of Imperial Germany, from the late 1800s until it was occupied by Australia after the outbreak of World War I in 1914.

[4] The discovery of vast copper ore deposits in the Crown Prince Range on Bougainville island during the 1960s led to the establishment of the huge Panguna mine by the Australian company Conzinc Rio Tinto.

[9] Both sides reported abuses against the native population during fighting between government forces and the rebels of the Bougainville Revolutionary Army (BRA), and the conflict developed into a general separatist insurgency.

Fighting continued for a year, during which widespread human rights violations were alleged to have occurred, including the burning of many villages.

[12] It was enforced using UH-1 Iroquois helicopters and Pacific-class patrol boats that had been supplied to PNG as aid by the Australian government in the late-1980s as part of a defence co-operation program underway since independence.

[13][14] Other Australian support, as part of its capacity-building effort, included funding for the PNGDF, provision of arms and ammunition, logistics, training, and some specialist and technical advisors and personnel.

[23] A number of raskol (criminal) gangs that were affiliated with the BRA, equipped largely with weapons salvaged from the fighting in World War II, terrorized villages, engaging in murder, rape and pillage.

[10] On the island of Buka, north of Bougainville, a local militia was formed which succeeded in driving out the BRA in September, with the help of Papuan troops.

[31] Papuan Foreign Minister Sir Julius Chan attempted to gather a peacekeeping force from the nations of the Pacific, but Wingti quashed the idea.

[33] The PNGDF increasingly sustained losses at the hands of the insurgents in the interior of the island, where the jungle limited the visibility and effectiveness of its patrols.

[31] Chan announced his intention to find a peaceful solution to the conflict, arranging a ceasefire at a meeting with Kauona in the Solomon Islands in September.

They agreed to hold a peace conference in Arawa that October, with security provided by an Australian-led South Pacific Peacekeeping Force.

[37] Chan's government subsequently entered into negotiations with a group of chiefs from the Nasioi clan, headed by Theodore Miriung, a former lawyer for the Panguna Landowners Association.

[40] Following a round of negotiations in Cairns, Australia, in September and December 1995, between the BRA, BTG and the PNG government, in January 1996 the BRA/BIG representatives, including Kabui, were fired on by PNGDF forces after returning to Bougainville.

[42] With the government of Australia declining to provide direct military support and advocating a political solution to the conflict, Chan sought alternatives.

[46] In September, BRA militants attacked a PNG army camp at Kangu Beach with the help of members of a local militia group, killing twelve PNGDF soldiers and taking five hostage.

[49][39] Discipline and morale was rapidly deteriorating within the ranks of the PNG military, and they were withdrawn in August after the offensive ended in a stalemate.

The Australian government placed pressure on PNG to terminate the contract with Sandline, and intercepted the heavy equipment that was being flown in for the mercenaries.

An unarmed Truce Monitoring Group (TMG) led by New Zealand and supported by Australia, Fiji and Vanuatu was subsequently deployed.

Breaking with Ona, Kauona and Kabui entered into peace talks with the Skate government in Christchurch, New Zealand, which culminated in the signing of the Lincoln Agreement in January 1998.

[55] Under the terms of the agreement, PNG began to withdraw its soldiers from the island, and steps were taken to disarm the BRA and BRF, while a multinational Peace Monitoring Group (PMG) under Australian leadership was deployed, replacing the TMG.

[56] A Bougainville provincial government of the same status as the other eighteen provinces of Papua New Guinea, with John Momis as Governor, was established in January 1999.

[10] Throughout the decade, he continued to resist overtures to participate in the new government, occupying an area around the mine which remained a no-go zone and declaring himself 'king' of Bougainville before dying of malaria in 2005.

[61] In March 2006, Dr Shaista Shameem of the United Nations working group on mercenaries asked Fiji and Papua New Guinea for permission to send a team to investigate allegations about the presence of former Fijian soldiers in Bougainville.

[68][69] The Bougainville conflict was depicted in the 2006 novel Mister Pip, by the New Zealand journalist Lloyd Jones, who had written about the war but had not been able to visit PNG.