One of the most volatile and reclusive figures in PNG's recent history, Francis Ona has re-emerged from his mountain hideaway.

Ona is the man who created the secessionist Bougainville Revolutionary Army, or BRA, in 1989 originally to fight against the operations of the Panguna mining company which Ona believed was destroying the land and environment, and paying little or no compensation to the owners of the land. The Panguna Mine - then the largest copper mine in the world - was closed, and remains closed today. The BRA fought a savage civil war for independence against the PNG government during the 1990s.

Last year Ona claimed to have been made King of Bougainville in a coronation ceremony, and is now making another bid for political power. This time he comes armed with loudspeakers, not guns, but he still wants independence from Port Moresby.

With Bougainvilleans about to vote for their first autonomous government on May 20 this year, Ona's dramatic re-appearance threatens to derail years of careful, and often painful, negotiations designed to bring peace to this troubled province.

And Ona has lost none of his ability to shock, as Foreign Correspondent producer/cameraman Wayne Harley learnt to his cost. Whilst filming Ona at a public rally, the self-styled monarch suddenly lashed out and felled Harley with a well-aimed blow.

It's this sort of unpredictability that concerns Ona's former comrades in the BRA. For them, this King has no clothes.

"The thing is, there has not been a King in Bougainville before", his one time military commander, Sam Kauona told reporter Shane McLeod, "some just couldn't believe it. Some say it's all just bullshit".

And more worryingly still, Ona is apparently making promises to his fellow Bougainvilleans about their future wealth based on a shady business venture orchestrated by Noah Musingku, a man described as a "wanted person" by Bougainville police.

In fact, the court of King Francis is populated by a number of colourful advisers, including another 'royal', the mysterious Prince Jeffrey from the so-called independent Sovereign State of Mogilno - a man better known as Jeff Richards from Kempsey in New South Wales.

So is Francis Ona 'King of the Mountain' or a 'Fool on the Hill'?