(CU)_More than three decades ago, Anglo-Australian mining giant Rio Tinto was forced to halt its operations at its Panguna mine, on Bougainville Island of Papua New Guinea, after customary landowners from local communities sabotaged activities and blew up Panguna’s power lines, demanding the mine be closed. Therefore, the government of Papua New Guinea deployed troops against its own citizens who blocked the operations of the foreign-owned mine, a move which prompted a decade-long civil war that took the lives of about 20,000 people.
The parties reached a settlement in 2001, and in 2019…
