Jungle Fever

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Just five kilometers from Bougainville's former provincial capital of Arawa, a rusting sign sprouts from the roadside jungle. "restricted," it reads in washed-out blood-red letters. "No Go Zone by order of the Mekamui government." The paint may be faded, but the warning is current. Beyond it, a jumble of petrol drums, sticks and signs blocks the narrow bitumen strip, and in the shadows a group of young men stand guard. For most people, Morgan Junction is as close as they dare come to the island's forbidden zone.

But in the middle of May, a procession of Papua New Guineans, accompanied by a lone white man, was waved through on their way to a ceremony remarkable even in a land used to strange and ancient rites. Near the village of Guava, high in the mountains of central Bougainville, they gathered on a plateau. After a procession of traditional dancers swaying to the music of pan pipes, marching militia and strutting chiefs, two men mounted a stage in the center of the clearing. Bare-chested, in a floral head-dress, grass skirt and neatly cleaned tan boots was Francis Ona, leader of the region's independence fighters; alongside him stood one of Papua New Guinea's most wanted conmen, Noah Musingku.

As light rain drizzled onto more than a thousand people, Musingku held up a crown of shells and placed it upon the head of Ona, the new King of Mekamui. In turn, Musingku - alleged to have defrauded thousands of Papua New Guineans of their savings in a disastrous pyramid scheme - was crowned Prince of Papala, with special responsibility for managing the government's finances.

The May 17 coronation of Ona might appear comic, but it is a sinister scene in the tragedy that looms over the beautiful but ravaged island. For more than 14 years, Ona and his band of rebels in the Bougainville Revolutionary Army have occupied a no-go zone around the vast Panguna copper mine. The villagers who fall inside his territory are denied essential services, and face a fragile security situation. Blundering by corporate jet into this dysfunctional society came an eccentric Australian businessman. His arrival brought hollow promises of multi-million-dollar business deals and benign health programs, and coincided with Musingku's growing influence over Ona. Says the head of the U.N. Observer Mission to Bougainville, Tor Stenbock: "Ona has lost touch with reality."

The island traces its troubles to protests in 1989 against Bougainville Copper Limited's mine. A local landowner, Ona led others in demands for compensation and tighter environmental controls. The P.N.G. military was brought in to suppress the revolt, and the conflict evolved into a secessionist rebellion that eventually claimed the lives of between 12,000 and 15,000 people, according to the U.N. While other elements of the original independence fighters signed a ceasefire in 1998, Ona has vowed to occupy the mine and surrounding regions until Bougainville is granted independence.

But in the past eight months a series of curious incidents have shaken the newly named Kingdom of Mekamui, and at their heart is the conman Musingku, thought to be the power behind the jungle throne. Bougainville-born, he fled P.N.G. in 2002 after the collapse of u-vistract, a pyramid scheme that swallowed millions of kina of P.N.G. residents' savings. Musingku surfaced later that year in Solomon Islands, involved in a scheme to bail the islands out of bankruptcy, but when his role became public he fled again - this time into Ona's no-go zone.