Timeline Papua New Guinea (PNG)
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New Guinea Island is the 2nd
largest island in the world and is shared by West Papua, formerly Irian
Jaya, an Indonesian province, and the independent nation of Papua New
Guinea. The island of Bougainville was governed by Papua New Guinea.
(SFC, 5/17/96, p.A-16)(WUD, 1994, p.962)(SFC,
10/10/97, p.A13)(NH, 10/98, p.92)
A cultural turning point was caused when the Portuguese introduced the
sweet potato.
(SFC, 9/7/96, p.B4)
Papua New Guinea is about the size of California and counted some 869
tribal languages.
(SFC,11/14/97, p.D2)(Econ, 5/7/05, Survey p.11)
Papua New Guinea is an impoverished, corruption-riven country
struggling with an underfunded, undertrained police force struggling to
keep a lid on violence in society. The capital, Port Moresby, is
considered one of the world's most dangerous cities outside a war zone.
(AP, 9/1/05)
50,000 BCE The
stone age culture of this area goes back this time.
(SFC, 5/29/96, p.A8)
c5,000BCE Research in 2003 indicated that bananas and
taro were cultivated in the highlands of Papua New Guinea as long as
7,000 years ago. The first signs of human habitation in the area
occurred c5,800 BCE and included a change from forest to grasslands and
increase in charcoal in the sediments. The earliest Asian influence on
the islands occurred about 1,500 BCE.
(AP, 6/19/03)
1522 18 survivors of the original
Magellan expedition completed the circumnavigation of the globe under
Sebastian del Cano. Plumes of the bird of paradise from New Guinea were
first brought back to Europe.
(TL-MB, p.12)(NH, 9/96, p.8)
1767 Louis Antoine de Bougainville
of France sailed to the islands of New Guinea. He encountered the
ritual of gift giving to one's enemy, which obligated the enemy to give
back even more.
(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R4)
1878 Apr, A Fijian minister and
three teachers were killed and eaten by Tolai tribespeople on the
Gazelle Peninsula of Papua New Guinea. In 2007 descendants of the Tolai
apologized for their forefathers' actions. Englishman George Brown
directed and took part in a punitive expedition that resulted in a
number of Tolais being killed and several villages burnt down. Official
investigations by British colonial authorities in the Pacific cleared
him of criminal charges.
(AFP, 8/16/07)
1906 Sep 1, Papua was placed under
Australian administration.
(SC, 9/1/02)
1910 Jun 2, Pygmies were
discovered in Dutch New Guinea (Papua).
(SC, 6/2/02)
1920-1950 Fore people of Papua New Guinea were
devastated by an epidemic of kuru, a brain-destroying disease caused by
abnormal proteins called prions.
(SFC, 4/11/03, p.A6)
1937 Jul 2, Amelia Earhart and
navigator Fred Noonan left Lae in Papua, New Guinea and disappeared
over the Pacific Ocean while attempting to make the first
round-the-world flight at the equator. They failed to arrive at their
scheduled stop at Howland Island. Noonan was alcoholic and had been on
a binge the night before. Radioman Leo Bellarts was the last person to
communicate with Earhart.
(SFC, 3/1/97, p.A8)(SFC, 5/20/97, p.A12)(AP,
7/2/97)(SFEC, 7/6/97, p.B10)
1942 Mar 7, Japanese troops landed
on New Guinea.
(HN, 3/7/98)
1942 Aug 26, Japanese troops
landed on New Guinea, Milne Bay.
(MC, 8/26/02)
1943 Jan 2, The Allies captured
Buna in New Guinea.
(HN, 1/2/99)
1943 Sep 4, Allied troops captured
Lae-Salamaua, in New Guinea.
(HN, 9/4/98)
1943 Dec 17, U.S. forces invaded
New Britain Island in New Guinea.
(HN, 12/17/98)
1944 Feb 15, Nathan Gordon
(1916-2008), US Navy pilot from Arkansas, and his crew made 4 separate
flying boat landings to rescue a number of aviators from B-52 bombers,
which had been shot down while attacking Japanese positions near
Kavieng harbor on New Ireland Island, Papua New Guinea. Gordon later
became the longest-serving lieutenant governor of Arkansas.
(SFC, 9/15/08, p.B8)
1944 Feb 29, US forces caught
Japanese troops off-guard and easily took control of the Admiralty
Islands in Papua New Guinea.
(HN, 2/29/00)
1944 Apr 22, During World War II,
U.S. forces and Allies began invading Japanese-held New Guinea with
amphibious landings near Hollandia, New Guinea.
(AP, 4/22/97)(HN, 4/22/98)
1944 May 27, Gen. MacArthur landed
on Biak Island in New Guinea.
(HN, 5/27/98)
1944 Jul 5, The Japanese garrison
on Numfoor, New Guinea, tried to counterattack but was soon beaten back
by U.S. forces.
(HN, 7/5/98)
1945 Australian soldier Edward
Kenna (d.2009 at 90) single-handedly stormed a Japanese machine-gun
nest at Wewak, New Guinea, firing a Bren gun from his hip with enemy
bullets passing under his arms as he advanced. Kenna was awarded a
Victoria Cross for his valor.
(AFP, 7/9/09)
1945 The Territory of New Guinea
under Australia merged with the Territory of Papua.
(WUD, 1994, p.962)
1950s The first outsiders to
regularly contact the Bahinemo people were traders looking for
crocodile skins and carvings.
(SFC, 5/29/96, p.A8)
1950s Cannibalism was banned in
Papua New Guinea.
(SFC, 4/11/03, p.A6)
1951 The Lamington volcano erupted
and 2,942 people were killed.
(SFC, 1/19/02, p.A14)
1953 Dec, Ornithologist E. Thomas
Gilliard (d.1965 at age 52) and his wife, Margaret, arrived in New
Guinea to study birds in the Viktor Emanuel Range. Police activities
forced them to remake plans and they proceeded to survey the Sepik
River and to photograph the Iatmul and Sawos people who lived along its
banks.
(NH, 10/98, p.92)
1956 Evangelicals from the Summer
Institute of Linguistics, based in Dallas, began to translate the Bible
into local languages.
(SFC,11/14/97, p.D2)
1959 Papua became independent from
Australia.
(WUD, 1994, p.962)
1961 Dec 1, The Territory of New
Guinea declared independence from the Netherlands.
(WUD, 1994, p.962)(SFC, 6/5/00, p.A8)
1963 Sovereignty over West Papua
was transferred from the Netherlands to Indonesia. A UN approved
referendum, involving some 1,000 handpicked pro-Jakarta Papuans,
ratified the annexation in 1969.
(WSJ, 6/6/00, p.A23)
1967 Australia pressured
mining-company officials to develop the Panguna mine on Bougainville in
the face of local opposition. Cabinet minutes of this were not
declassified until 1998.
(WSJ, 3/18/98, p.A14)
1969 Jul 14-Aug 2, In West Papua
the "Act of Free Choice" was conducted by the Indonesian military
forces. In papers released in 2004, it has been revealed that US
Ambassador, Marshall Green in 1969 had fore knowledge that Indonesia
had no intention of allowing a Papuan vote that might prevent Indonesia
from annexing West Papua as a Indonesian province; he further pointed
out that any UN member would unwise to expect free or direct elections.
(http://tinyurl.com/7cxq3)
1969 A UN approved referendum,
involving some 1,000 handpicked pro-Jakarta Papuans, ratified the 1963
annexation of West Papua.
(WSJ, 6/6/00, p.A23)
1969 Australian bulldozers arrive
on Bougainville and began work at the Panguna mine. Local women were
unsuccessful in trying to stop the work.
(WSJ, 3/18/98, p.A14)
1971 Australia joined with New
Zealand and 14 independent of self-governing island nations to form the
South Pacific Forum. The name was changed in 2000 to Pacific Islands
Forum. Member states include: Australia, the Cook Islands, the
Federated States of Micronesia, Fiji, Kiribati, the Marshall Islands,
Nauru, New Zealand, Niue, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, the Solomon
Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu, and Vanuatu. Since 2006, associate members
territories are New Caledonia and French Polynesia.
(Econ, 10/20/07,
p.61)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pacific_Islands_Forum)
1975 Sep 1, Bougainville Island
announced the formation of the "Republic of the North Solomons," but
failed in its bid to secede from Papua New Guinea.
(WSJ, 3/18/98,
p.A14)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Bougainville)
1975 Sep 16, Papua New Guinea
(PNG), a former Australian colony, became independent. Michael Somare
(b.1936) served as the first prime minister.
(WSJ, 12/20/96, p.B8)(WSJ, 3/18/98, p.A14)
1980 Mar 11, Julius Chan (b.1939)
succeeded Michael Somare as PM of Papua New Guinea.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Somare)
1982 Former PM Michael Somare
(1975-1980) succeeded Julius Chan as prime minister of Papua New
Guinea. This was his 2nd term.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Somare)
1985 Paias Wingti (b.1951)
succeeded Michael Somare as prime minister of Papua New Guinea and
served to 1988.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paias_Wingti)
1988 Sir Rabbie Namaliu (b.1947)
began serving as Prime Minister of Papua New Guinea and continued to
1992.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rabbie_Namaliu)
1988 Francis Ona threatened to
close down the Panguna open-pit copper mine on Bougainville. He
demanded half the profits for local landowners, $11.5 billion
compensation for environmental damage, and independence for
Bougainville.
(WSJ, 3/18/98, p.A1,14)
1989 May, Fighting on Bougainville
Island forced the closure of Bougainville Copper, one of the
world’s ten largest copper mines. It was jointly owned by RTZ-CRA and
the government. Part of the cause for the civil war was environmental
damage caused by the huge Panguna copper mine and insufficient land
royalties paid to landowners.
(WSJ, 3/4/97, p.A15)(SFC, 10/10/97, p.A13)(WSJ,
3/18/98, p.A14)
1989 Bougainville islanders formed
the Bougainville Revolutionary Army (BRA) under former land surveyor
Francis Ona. Papua new Guinea imposed a naval and air blockade. A
counterinsurgent group called Resistance was formed.
(SFC, 12/29/01, p.A9)
1990 Francis Ona declared
independence and himself president of what he called Meekamuii. Papua
New Guinea tightened its blockade.
(SFC, 12/29/01, p.A9)
1990 In Papua New Guinea soldiers
withdrew from Bougainville following a ceasefire with the Bougainville
Revolutionary Army (BRA).
(Econ, 2/9/08, p.48)
1990 Businessmen and politicians
journeyed into the Hunstein Forest to collect the “x’s” of clansmen on
a deal to sell their forest for royalty payments. The government in
Port Moresby, the capital, has since suspended the deal.
(SFC, 5/29/96, p.A8)
1992 Former PM Paias Wingti
(1985-1988) succeeded Rabbie Namaliu as Prime Minister of Papua New
Guinea and continued to 1994.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rabbie_Namaliu)
1994 Former PM Julius Chan
(1980-1982) succeeded Paias Wingti as Prime Minister of Papua New
Guinea and continued to 1997.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rabbie_Namaliu)
1994 In California at Stanford
Univ. 10 master artists from the Kwoma and Iatmul cultures of the Sepik
River of New Guinea carved poles for the New Guinea Sculpture Garden
near Robley Hall.
(SFC, 8/18/99, p.D5)
1994 Two volcanoes on the opposite
sides of one of the Duke of York Islands erupted for 4 months. Evacuees
moved back to the islands but found that the lands had begun sinking
into the Pacific. [see 1999]
(SFC, 11/6/99, p.A24)
1996 Oct 12, Theodore Miriung,
head of the Bougainville Transitional Government of Papua, New Guinea,
was assassinated.
(SFC, 10/16/96, p.A10)
1996 Nov, A volcano on Manam
Island erupted. 7,000 villagers were on standby for evacuation.
(SFC, 11/16/96, p.C1)
1996 Edward Marriott, English
reporter, authored “The Lost Tribe,” an account of his search for the
“Stone Age” Liawep people.
(SFEC, 4/9/00, BR p.6)
1996 The 500 Bahinemo people and
the several hundred Bitara people were faced with the decision over
whether to allow logging in their 2,300 sq. miles of primeval woodland.
(SFC, 5/29/96, p.A8)
1997 Jan, The government of Prime
Minister Sir Julius Chan decided to hire foreign mercenaries for $36
million to crush the revolt in Bougainville.
(WSJ, 3/18/98, p.A1)
1997 Feb, The government under
Prime Minister Sir Julius Chan hired Sandline Int’l., a company that
provides military training and support, to help put an end to the
bloody secessionist movement on Bougainville Island. Sandline in turn
subcontracted much of the work to the South African mercenary firm
Executive Outcomes, known for its effective work in Angola and Sierra
Leone.
(WSJ, 3/4/97, p.A15)(SFC, 3/21/97, p.A20)
1997 Mar 1, Prime Minister Julius
Chan announced that the government would buy the 54% stake in
Bougainville Copper held by RTZ-CRA Ltd.
(WSJ, 3/4/97, p.A15)
1997 Mar 17, The government fired
army commander Brigadier Gen’l. Jerry Singirok. He refused to accept
the hiring of the British mercenary firm Sandline Int’l.
(SFC, 3/18/97, p.A12)
1997 Mar 19, In Port Moresby,
Papua New Guinea, police fired tear gas and warning shots at more than
2,000 civilians protesting the government’s $27 million contract with
Sandline Int’l. to quell rebels on Bougainville.
(SFC, 3/20/97, p.A12)(AP, 3/29/03)
1997 Mar 26, Prime Minister Julius
Chan resigned due to the public uproar over plans to use mercenaries in
Bougainville.
(SFC, 3/26/97, p.A14)
1997 Jun, In elections the
government of Sir Julius Chan was swept out of office.
(WSJ, 3/18/98, p.A1)
1997 Jun, Papua New Guinea PM Bill
Skate formed a shaky coalition government: “...if I tell my gang
members to kill, they kill... there’s no other godfather. I’m the
godfather...” He later claimed to be drunk using the described “Johnny
Walker defense.” Skate resigned in 1999 after serving 18 months as
prime minister.
(WSJ, 4/14/98,
p.A19)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Skate)
1997 Jul, Gen’l. Jerry Singirok,
leader of the March revolt against prime minister Chan, was
decommissioned. Elections were completed and a new government was to be
announced at the end of the month.
(SFC, 7/11/97, p.A11)
1997 Nov 26, It was reported
that gas reserve of 4 trillion cubic feet around Kutubu, in Papua
New Guinea, was planned to be delivered to Australia across a 1,500
mile pipeline by Chevron Corp. by mid-2001.
(SFC,11/26/97, p.B1)
1998 Jan 23, Warring parties on
Bougainville signed a peace agreement that would go into effect on
April 30. An estimated 10,000 people died during the 10 year civil
strife, mostly non-combatants from untreated disease. Some 1,000 rebels
died and about 2,200 government sympathizers.
(WSJ, 3/18/98, p.A1)
1998 Apr 1, it was reported that
Port Moresby, a fortress city of 320,000, had 8% of the nation’s
population and 46% of its crime. Assault rifles were reported to be
becoming part of the weaponry of Huli tribesmen.
(WSJ, 4/1/98, p.A1)
1998 Jul 17, In Papua New Guinea a
23-foot tidal wave followed a 7.0 earthquake at the Solomon Islands and
killed at 2,500-3,000 people. The villages of Malol, Arop, Otto, Warupu
and Sissano were turned into barren strips of sand.
(SFC, 7/18/98, p.A10)(SFEC, 7/20/98, p.A1)(AP,
7/18/99)
1999 Nov, It was reported that the
Duke of York Islands were sinking into the Pacific at 4-6 inches per
year. Government scientists recommended that the 20,000 residents be
relocated.
(SFC, 11/6/99, p.A24)
1999 Sir Michael Morauta began
serving as prime minister of Papua New Guinea. He held office to 2002.
(Econ, 7/21/07, p.44)
2000 Jun 4, In West Papua
separatists made a declaration of independence. Thaha Alhamid read the
declaration before thousands gathered in Jayapura.
(SFC, 6/5/00, p.A8)
2000 Nov 16, A tidal wave followed
a magnitude 8.0 earthquake and left at least one person dead and at
some 5,000 people homeless.
(WSJ, 11/22/00, p.A1)(SFC, 11/25/00, p.D8)
2001 May 9, In Papua New Guinea
the Bougainville Provincial Peace Consultative committee adopted a
peace plan and opposing factions agreed to lay down their weapons. The
agreement entailed the PNG government’s accepting greater autonomy for
Bougainville and a referendum on independence to be held between
2015-2020.
(SFC, 5/11/01, p.D8)(Econ, 2/9/08, p.48)
2001 Jun 26, In Papua, New Guinea,
police killed at least 3 students protesting government austerity
measures. Another 13 were wounded and rioting ensued.
(WSJ, 6/27/01, p.A1)
2001 Nov 11, In Indonesia Theys
Eluay (64), an independence movement leader in Irian Jaya, was found
strangled in his wrecked car and riots erupted. He had spent the
previous evening at dinner with local army commanders. In 2003 7
members of the Indonesia special forces were convicted for involvement
in the murder. Their maximum sentence was 31/2 years.
(SFC, 11/12/01, p.A12)(SFC, 11/27/01, p.A3)(SFC,
4/22/03, A7)
2002 Jan 23, Papua New Guinea
voted to grant autonomy and the right to a referendum on total
independence to Bougainville.
(SFC, 1/24/02, p.A8)
2002 Jun 14, Voting began in Papua
New Guinea's general election with hopes that it would bring some
stability to the struggling Pacific nation. Former 2 time PM Michael
Somare returned to power.
(AP, 6/14/02)(Econ, 7/21/07, p.44)
2002 Jul 10, Two people were
hacked to death and a police station was overrun by armed tribesmen who
stole ballot boxes and freed prisoners in the latest election-related
violence in Papua, New Guinea.
(AP, 7/11/02)
2002 Aug 5, In Papua New Guinea
lawmakers elected founding father Michael Somare as the new prime
minister, as armed riot police surrounded Parliament.
(AP, 8/5/02)
2002 Sep, Mount Pago spewed
silicone ash and a serious eruption was expected. Parts of New Britain
Island were made uninhabitable.
(SFC, 9/7/02, p.A18)
2002 Sep 9, An earthquake struck
just off Papua New Guinea's north coast, killing 3 people and causing a
tidal wave that washed away at least 40 homes.
(AP, 9/9/02)
2003 May 2, In Papua New Guinea a
landslide buried a meeting hall under mud and debris, killing at least
eight people as they listened to election results.
(AP, 5/3/03)
2003 Jun 19, A team of Australian
researchers reported that bananas and taro were cultivated ion the
highlands of Papua New Guinea as long as 7,000 years ago.
(AP, 6/19/03)
2003 Dec, Australia launched an
enhanced cooperation program for Papua New Guinea.
(Econ, 5/7/05, Survey p.11)
2005 May, Papua New Guinea’s
Supreme Court ruled that Australian deployment of policemen to fight
lawlessness and corruption violated its constitution. This upset a $760
million enhanced cooperation program (ECP) aimed at fighting
lawlessness and corruption.
(Econ, 8/27/05, p.36)
2005 Aug 31, A new report said
police last January in Papua New Guinea had collared a teen suspected
of picking the pocket of a soldier and dispensed their own justice. The
officers beat him, slammed his head into a truck and burned him.
(AP, 9/1/05)
2005 Sep 9, A magnitude 7.3
earthquake struck off the northeast coast of the Pacific island nation
of Papua New Guinea.
(AP, 9/9/05)
2006 Jan 20, In Papua New Guinea a
landslide sent mud and boulders smashing through a remote village,
killing at least eight people and leaving five more missing and feared
dead.
(AP, 1/23/06)
2006 Apr 24, The annual Goldman
Environmental Prizes were awarded in San Francisco. The winners
included Craig Williams (58) for helping to persuade Congress to order
the Defense Dept. to consider alternatives to incinerating chemical
weapons; Tarcisio Feitosa (35) of Brazil for his campaign against
rampant logging; Olya Melen (26) of Ukraine for her suits forcing the
government to scale back a large canal project impacting wetlands; Yu
Xiaogang (35) of China for his reports on damages caused by new dams;
Silas Siakor (36) of Liberia for his documentation showing how logging
was used to fund civil war; and Anne Kajir of Papua New Guinea for her
work to get reimbursements from logging companies to peasants.
(WSJ, 4/24/06, p.B7)
2006 Aug 1, The Papua New Guinea
government declared a state of emergency in the resource-rich Southern
Highlands province. PM Somare said security forces had been sent to the
graft-ridden province and government controllers appointed to try to
restore good governance.
(AFP, 8/1/06)
2006 Oct 15, Foreign Minister
Alexander Downer said Australia would cut ministerial contacts with its
northern neighbor until an investigation was held into the escape from
Papua New Guinea of a Solomon Islands official wanted on child sex
charges. Julian Moti, now in custody in the Solomons and facing charges
of illegal entry, is wanted in Australia on child sex charges involving
a 13-year-old girl in Vanuatu in 1997.
(AFP, 10/15/06)
2007 Jun 30, Voting in general
elections began in Papua New Guinea and was scheduled to continue to
July 10. An average of 25 candidates stood for each of 109 seats. Bad
weather pushed completion to mid July. The population numbered about 6
million.
(Econ, 7/7/07, p.42)(Econ, 7/21/07, p.44)
2007 The Beck's petrel was
photographed by an Israeli ornithologist in the Bismarck Archipelago, a
group of islands northeast of Papua New Guinea. The pale-bellied bird
species was last seen in 1929 and long thought to be extinct.
(AP, 3/7/08)
2008 May 6, Two senior Taiwanese
officials resigned over the loss of millions of dollars in a failed
attempt to persuade Papua New Guinea to officially recognize Taiwan.
(AP, 5/6/08)
2009 Jan 27, Pacific Island
leaders gathered in Port Moresby and threatened to expel Fiji from from
their forum if coup leader Frank Bainimarama fails to announce credible
plans for elections.
(Econ, 1/31/09,
p.48)(www.abc.net.au/pm/content/2008/s2475598.htm)
2009 Mar 25, Conservation
International, a Washington D.C.-based conservation group, announced
the discovery of over 50 new animal species in a remote, mountainous
region of Papua New Guinea. The group spent the past several months
analyzing more than 600 animal species found during its expedition to
the South Pacific island nation in July and August.
(AP, 3/25/09)
2009 May 15, In Indonesia 6
Asia-Pacific countries, meeting at the World Oceans Conference, agreed
on a management plan to protect one of the world's largest networks of
coral reefs, promising to reduce pollution, eliminate overfishing and
improve the livelihoods of impoverished coastal communities. The Coral
Triangle Initiative on Coral Reefs, Fisheries and Food Security covered
an area defined as the Coral Triangle, which spans Indonesia, the
Philippines, Malaysia, Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands and East
Timor.
(AP, 5/15/09)
2009 Aug 11, In Papua New Guinea a
charter plane carrying 13 people to a popular tourist site vanished on
approach in bad weather to an airport nestled in rugged terrain. No
survivors were found in the wreckage, which was located the next day in
the mountainous Kokoda region.
(AP, 8/11/09)(AP, 8/12/09)
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