| Date from | 01 January 1998 |
|---|---|
| Date to | 31 December 2003 |
| Collection type | Conflict |
| Scope note | The Peace Monitoring Group (PMG) operated on Bougainville from 1998 to 2003. The PMG comprised a mix of military and civilian personnel from Australia, New Zealand, Fiji and Vanuatu. They played an important role in facilitating the peace process between Papua New Guinea and Bougainville, by monitoring the ceasefire, increasing awareness of the peace process and providing a neutral presence to assist the discussion of important issues regarding the future of Bougainville. The PMG was deployed in on 1 May 1998, taking over from the New Zealand-led Truce Monitoring Group (TMG) that had been in place since December 1997. The PMG withdrew in August 2003. In total over 5,000 unarmed personnel, including over 3,500 Australian Defence Force personnel and over 300 Australian civilians, deployed with the PMG. Assessing the peace process to be sufficiently robust to warrant the withdrawal of its military contingent, Australia announced in February 2003 that its PMG contingent would cease operations on 30 June 2003, and withdraw shortly afterwards. This decision was supported by a similar announcement from New Zealand. On 30 June the PMG held a ceremony to mark the cessation of operations and hand over to the Bougainville Transition Team. The final contingent of the PMG withdrew in HMAS Tobruk on 23 August 2003. |