Bougainville says yes to independence

The inhabitants of the Autonomous Region of Bougainville, in the South Pacific, have voted overwhelmingly to demand full independence from Papua New Guinea: the small archipelago could thus become the youngest state in the world if the negotiations between the two parties are successful and the Parliament of Papua New Guinea will approve the constitution of the new nation, a procedure that could last for years.
The referendum was foreseen in the 2001 peace agreement that ended a civil war in which at least 15,000 inhabitants of the archipelago died. The violence broke out in the late 1980s following a conflict over a giant open-air copper mine in Panguna. The mine, located on the island of the same name in the archipelago, was a great source of income for Papua New Guinea, but many residents complained that they received no benefit and protested about the high degree of pollution. The mine has been closed since then.