About 4500 Bougainvillean residents now back a lawsuit against mining giant Rio Tinto.
This is an additional 1500 people from the autonomous Papua New Guinea region joining the action since it was filed in May this year.
Bougainville President Ishmael Toroama said the lawsuit was disappointing and was pursued by those people acting against Bougainville’s interests.
The government was not backing it in any way, shape or form, he said.
The claimants are seeking billions of dollars in compensation from Rio Tinto which operated the Panguna copper and gold mine in the 1970s and 1980s before it was forced to shut by civil war.
The mine was at the heart of that war which brought death and devastation to Bougainville over a 10-year period until 1997.
They say Rio Tinto, which was the majority shareholder in Bougainville Copper Ltd (BCL) at the time, is responsible for the large scale environmental and social harm that resulted from what was one of the biggest mines in the world.
A former senior Bougainville political leader, Martin Miriori, who is the lead claimant of the class action, said the “large increase in claimants demonstrates the strength of feeling among local people that Rio Tinto and BCL must make amends for decades of environmental devastation”.
He said “this issue will not go away, as the legal action has attracted strong support, and reminded the world of the destruction caused by the mine operator’s reckless actions.”
A first court hearing is set for Port Moresby on 10 October 2024.
This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.
This content originally appeared on Asia Pacific Report and was authored by APR editor.