Bougainvillean Refugees in Solomon Islands During the Crisis

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(Photo: Point Cruz, Honiara, Solomon Islands from Kola'a Ridge, 1996)

Much has been written about the deleterious effects on the people of Bougainville caused by the nine-year (1988-1997) conflict ("The Crisis") between the Bougainville Revolutionary Army (BRA), on one side, and the Papua New Guinea (PNG) Government and Bougainville Resistance Forces (BRF) on the other. In addition to the tragic death toll on both sides, of a population of 160,000, an estimated 60,000 Bougainvilleans were displaced, many of them fleeing to nearby Solomon Islands. By 1994 there were an estimated 2,000 Bougainvillean refugees in Solomon Islands.

From 1989 onwards, many of these displaced people were granted refuge at care-centres in the western islands of Solomon Islands, the most prominent of which was the International Red Cross Care-Centre at Taro Island, at the northern tip of Choiseul Island, two hours away from Bougainville by motor-boat.  There were also two care-centres at Gizo Island, further south. Living conditions in the Taro Island Care-Centre were crowded, with very basic facilities, no school and irregular access to medical care. To add to the difficulties of living in the care-centre, the Solomon Islands Government prohibited Bougainvillean refugees from working. 

Bougainvillean refugees who managed to travel to the Solomon Islands capital, Honiara, lived in care-centres run and supported by the Catholic Church or were sheltered by sympathetic Solomon Islands families. Though many Solomon Islanders were themselves living in badly overcrowded and impoverished conditions, they generously supported the refugees as best they could. 

Despite the official ban on the employment of Bougainvilleans, some of them were able to gain casual employment driving taxis in Honiara, while others, due to their technical skills developed during their employment as tradesmen at the Panguna copper and gold mine in Bougainville, found more permanent employment. Some Honiara businessmen employed skilled Bougainvillean plumbers, welders and carpenters at a fraction of the cost of employing local tradesmen, because the Bougainvillean tradesmen were in no position to bargain for fair wages and adequate working conditions.  This unfair practice was tragically exposed in the mid-1990s when a Bougainvillean welder died following an explosion while he was repairing a fuel tank at a Honiara engineering business site. 

Among the Bougainvilleans living in Honiara during the Crisis were prominent members of the Bougainville Revolutionary Army (BRA), including Martin Miriori, and the late Simon Kekero. Up until late 1995 the Bougainville Interim Government (BIG) maintained an office in Honiara that provided a focus for their cause, but in January 1996, the BIG Office and Miriori's house were burned down, supposedly by members of the PNG security forces or the BRF. In May, 1996, following threats against his life, Miriori and his family were air-lifted from Honiara by an Australian Defence Force aircraft and eventually they took up residence in Holland. 

Despite various efforts towards the end of the Crisis in the late 1990s to repatriate Bougainvillean refugees back to Bougainville from Solomon Islands, most of these refugees were unwilling to return home until a lasting solution to the political situation could be arranged between the PNG Government and Bougainville leaders. By late 2000, the majority of the Bougainvillean refugees had returned to Bougainville as work progressed on the Bougainville Peace Agreement that was signed in August the following year. By this time, some of the Bougainvillean refugees in Solomon Islands had been living there for over ten years.