Fiji, Oct. 23 -- For decades, the distant island of Bougainville has fought for secession from Papua New Guinea, for a future as an independent nation of its own.
This week, that long-running aspiration faces further challenge, with PNG's parliament slated to debate the ratification of Bougainville's 2019 UN-sanctioned referendum, in which nearly 98 percent of Bougainvilleans voted for independence.
That referendum was a key element of the 2001 Bougainville Peace Agreement, which ended a 10-year long civil war estimated to have killed as many as 15,000 people.
Even as violence has reemerged around the controversial Panguna mine - a catalyst for the conflict, but now seen as critical to the island's independent financial future - Bougainv...