Constitutional accommodation and conflict prevention Yash Ghai and Anthony J. Regan (2002) While tensions in Bougainville centred on the island’s copper mine, the broader context of the conflict was the longer-term development of Bougainvillean identity and political aspirations. Yash Ghai and Anthony Regan describe the process that resulted in Bougainville declaring itself independent as the Republic of North Solomons, before being reincorporated into PNG through the Bougainville Agreement in 1976. This included very limited provisions for decentralization that were unable to address the inequalities and tensions later aggravated by the mine. However, the authors note that the decentralization arrangements should not necessarily be dismissed as a failure because the tensions that fuelled the secessionist movement were the result of new and external forces.
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