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TIME: Almanac 1990
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1990 Time Magazine Compact Almanac, The (1991)(Time).iso
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time
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101689
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10168900.041
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1990-09-19
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WORLD, Page 47World NotesPAPUA NEW GUINEABlood and Copper
For nearly five months a bloody sabotage campaign by rebel
landowners on the island of Bougainville has idled one of the
world's largest copper mines and terrorized the town of Panguna and
its environs. The rebels are seeking higher royalties from the
mine's joint owners, an Australian company and the government of
Papua New Guinea, an island nation in the southwest Pacific.
The spiral of bloodletting, which began in November, escalated
last week, when landowners raided a mining camp, killing four
people and setting houses ablaze. An angry mob from the settlement
retaliated by slaughtering a Bougainvillean woman and her baby and
torching her home. So far 39 have died in the dispute.
The violence could worsen since the rebel gang, headed by
former mine surveyor Francis Ona, has grown increasingly radical
in its aims. In April the group called for the secession of the
North Solomons province, of which Bougainville forms the major
part. Meanwhile, the economy of P.N.G., which draws 20% of its
domestic revenues from the mine, is hemorrhaging. The government
is offering a $200,000 reward for Ona and seven others, dead or
alive.