Bougainville is a challenging feast for the senses and bustles with a raw energy of a place that is ready to claim its independence and reopen to the world.
Australian boutique tour operator Crooked Compass is paving the way for tourism in the Autonomous Region of Bougainville and is inviting a small group of adventurous Australians to be the first foreign travellers to attend a local festival.
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Last week, Ishmael Toroama, the new president of the Autonomous Bougainville Government (ABG) in Papua New Guinea (PNG), made an intriguing visit to the southern district of Siwai. His visit was designed to continue the work of reconciliation within Bougainville as he paves the way toward independence, after the people of the region overwhelmingly voted to secede from PNG in a 2019 referendum. With this in mind, Toroama met with an unusual figure, a man named Noah Musingku, or as he prefers to be called, King David Peii II.
Musingku is the self-declared ruler of the twin kingdoms of Papaala and Me’ekamui. Yet rather than a disgruntled local chieftain who has attempted to form his own micro-state in opposition to the recognized governments in Bougainville and in PNG, Musingku is something more complex. He is the CEO of a pyramid scheme called U-Vistract, a ruse that has defrauded millions of dollars from people in PNG, the Solomon Islands, and Fiji. Musingku has used
The leader of a rebel movement in Bougainville has met with the autonomous Papua New Guinea region s president in a rare sign of reconciliation
President Ishmael Toroama made a visit to Bougainville s south where he met with U-Vistract figurehead Noah Musingku, who presides over the so-called Kingdom of Papaala. King Noah Musingku meets Bougainville President Ishmael Toroama at Tonu, 22 January 2021.
Photo: Anthony Kaybing / ABG
In 1997, Musingku formed U-Vistract, an alternative financial system likened to a pyramid scheme, which even lured in the government of neighbouring Solomon islands at one point.
With many investors having lost money with U-Vistract, and PNG authorities after him, Musingku spent most of the last two decades in hiding, guarded by armed supporters in a remote part of Siwai District.
FOUR FIJIANS GO ON TRIAL IN BOUGAINVILLE Submitted by admin on Wed, 03/14/2007 - 00:00
WELLINGTON, New Zealand (Radio New Zealand International, March 13) – Four former Fiji soldiers are to go to trial on Wednesday next week in Buka, the main town in the Papua New Guinea province of Bougainville.
They face charges of belonging to an illegal army and drilling and training with an illegal army.
It is claimed that they ran a militia allegedly established by money scam operator Noah Musingku in the south of Bougainville.
[PIR editor’s note: Noah Musingku, a fugitive from law enforcement authorities in Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands, has operated a pyramid scheme called U-Vistract which allegedly took millions of dollars from investors. While it is well known that Musinigku now lives in Bougainville, authorities have been unwilling or unable to apprehend him ]