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Noah Musingku is a Bougainvillean conman. In the late 1990s, he created a highly successful Ponzi scheme called U-Vistract. Facing prosecution from Papua New Guinean authorities, Musingku fled to the Solomon Islands in 2002. He returned to Bougainville and holed up with Francis Ona, the secessionist leader. While Bougainville is administered by the Autonomous Bougainville Government (ABG), Ona claimed that Bougainville, which he called Me'ekamui, was already an independent state.[1][2][3][4][5][6][7]
Musingku stayed in the small Me'ekamui-controlled "no go zone" before returning to Tonu, his home village, in 2004. Declaring Tonu the Kingdom of Papaala, he rechristened himself King David Peii II. Musingku continued his scams, which took the form of banks. He allied with Me'ekamui, which he had convinced Ona to restructure as a kingdom. After Ona died in 2005, Musingku proclaimed himself the king of Papaala and Me'ekamui. His unrecognized micronation, a small compound, remains. The ABG has yet to prosecute him due to the potential for further political instability and because they lack armed forces, while Musingku has a small bodyguard of Fijian mercenaries. Other Me'ekamui factions do not recognize his kingdoms. After the 2019 Bougainville independence referendum, Musingku's is one of two Me'ekamui factions who still challenge the ABG's authority.[8]
Background
edit
Bougainville Island is geographically and ethnically a part of the Solomon Island archipelago. It was an autonomous region of Papua New Guinea (PNG). In 1988 a civil war began with workers and landowners from Panguna mine (See also Panguna). This mine, owned by the PNG government and Bougainville Copper, a subsidiary of Rio Tinto Group, was established under Australian aegis.[9]
A Unilateral Declaration of Independence was made on 17 May 1990, but Australian and New Zealand-brokered peace talks tended to ignore this fact. Francis Ona controlled over half of the island, and proclaimed himself king of Me’ekamui ("holy land") in May 2004. Musingku assumed the throne of Paapala Kingdom, as well as his 500-man "Me'ekamui Defense Force"[10] in the same year, and upon Ona's death from malaria in July 2005, Musingku consolidated control of the "Twin Kingdoms" on Bougainville Island.
U-Vistract
editIn 1997, seven years after the unilateral declaration of independence, the Bougainville Revolutionary Army was in control of the island, but its leadership split into factions. Ona was in control of the army, and sought full independence. His co-president in the Bougainville Interim Government, Joseph Kabui, sought rapprochement with PNG and formation of an Autonomous Bougainville Government. Musingku met with each of them as a mediator, and by 19 December 1997 had signed agreements with each. They jointly realized that it would be impossible to achieve political independence without financial sovereignty.[11] As Musingku's wrote,
- In other words, Bougainville needed to create her own independent and sovereign system in order to be free from the control of the other international financial and governing structure. Also, it was very clear that the funds we needed to work with in uprooting, pulling down, destroying and overthrowing the existing foreign control system could not be earned through the conventional system. A new international system needed to be established whose control and coordination would not be based overseas but right here on our own soil.[11]
At first, the "U-Vistract Mission" was established as a Christian mission program in Australia. Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) found it to be an unlicensed securities and investment program.
- Within a few years, some 70,000 Papua New Guineans had deposited K350 million into U-Vistract alone. U-Vistract also attracted followers in Australia, Solomon Islands and Fiji. In Australia, a small number of Queensland investors contributed some AUD500,000 between July and October 1999.[12]
"On 19 October 1999 in one of my trips to Australia the ASIC placed me under house-arrest…. After a heavy interrogatory session they demanded me to shut down all my operations in the country. The ASIC publicized the matter in the media to let the world of Australia know about the so-called illegal operations. However, U-Vistract grew even stronger, gaining momentum almost overnight. The number of my agencies grew in Kempsey, Sydney, Brisbane, Gold coast, etc."[13]
From Australia, he went to Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea. While in Port Moresby, he tried to set up a bank in the old Hawaiian Bank building, but he was shut down by the PNG government and forced to leave to the Solomon Islands. He began again to set up his system, but the Australian police in the Regional Assistance Mission to Solomon Islands (RAMSI) forced him out. In 2003 he travelled to Ona's headquarters in Guava, Panguna, Bougainville, and established a bank there. Two years later he was able to travel to his ancestral village of Tonu, where he established his bank headquarters in an old cattle farm owned by the paramount chief.[citation needed]
Beliefs
editA Pentecostal Christian, most of his talks and writings are generously sprinkled with biblical references. U-Vistract was initially created as a Christian Mission, and this has continued to be its focus.[citation needed] Musingku has compared his life and mission to that of Biblical saviors Noah, Moses or Jesus Christ. On the new currency that he intends to issue, pictures of Jesus will join the likenesses of Musingku and other Bougainvillean leaders.[5]
Fijian soldiers
editMusingku in 2005 announced that he was hiring a security force from Fiji to train his guards and other governmental personnel, as well as establish security and satellite and other telecommunications for his bank in Tonu.[14][15] He said that this Fijian security force had been hand selected "mostly Born-Again Christians with overseas experience in Iraq and other areas".
References
edit- ^ "Mercenaries return to PNG", The World Today/ABC Radio, 15 November 2005
- ^ "Musingku urged to surrender", Post-Courier, 30 November 2006
- ^ "Fijians look forward to re-uniting with families" Fiji Times Online, 12 February 2008
- ^ "SI border raids prompt talks", Papua New Guinea Post-Courier, 13 September 2006
- ^ a b Ilya Gridneff, "U-Vistract conman offers 'Jesus money'", Sydney Morning Herald, 8 July 2009
- ^ "Bougainville's conman 'king' still on the run as island edges closer to independence", ABC News, 15 November 2020
- ^ Wyeth, Grant (27 January 2021). "Musingku: Bougainville's 'Royal' Pyramid Scheme Problem". The Diplomat. Retrieved 9 February 2021.
- ^ "Bougainville extends inclusiveness to Musingku and Koike". Radio New Zealand. 2 August 2019. Retrieved 28 August 2024.
- ^ The Times, 4 September 1975
- ^ Archived at Ghostarchive and the Wayback Machine: Bougainville - Papua New Guinea. YouTube.
- ^ a b "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 6 July 2011. Retrieved 18 January 2011.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link) Papala Chronicles Issue 7 p 10 - ^ [1] Archived 23 September 2015 at the Wayback Machine http://www.csrm.uq.edu.au/docs/SSGM_09_05_bainton_cox.pdf
- ^ "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 6 July 2011. Retrieved 18 January 2011.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link) Papala Chronicles Issue 5 p 9 - ^ [2] Archived 6 July 2011 at the Wayback Machine Papala Chronicles Issue 18
- ^ [3] Archived 6 July 2011 at the Wayback Machine Papala Chronicles Issue 19