A woman who was part of a group kidnapped in Papua New Guinea in February has spoken out after the kidnapping and reported rape of 17 schoolgirls in the same area of Southern Highlands earlier this month.

Cathy Alex, the New Zealand-born Australian academic Bryce Barker and two female researchers, were taken in the Mt Bosavi region and held for ransom.

They were all released when the Papua New Guinea government paid a ransom of US$28,000 to the kidnappers to secure their release.

• LISTEN TO RNZ PACIFIC WAVES: Cathy Alex’s kidnapping story
• Other PNG kidnapping reports

Alex, who heads the Advancing Women’s Leaders’ Network, said that what the 17 abducted girls had gone through prompted her to speak out, after the country, she believed, had done nothing.

A local said family members of the girls negotiated with the captors and were eventually able to secure their release.

The villagers reportedly paid an undisclosed amount of cash and a few pigs as the ransom.

Alex said she and the other women in her group had feared they would be raped when they were kidnapped.

‘My life preserved’
“My life was preserved even though there was a time where the three of us were pushed to go into the jungle so they could do this to us.

“We chose death over being raped. Maybe the men will not understand, but for a woman or a girl rape is far worse than death.”

Alex said they had had received a commitment that they would not be touched, so the revelations about what happened to the teenage girls was horrifying.

She said her experience gave her some insight into the age and temperament of the kidnappers.

“Young boys, 16 and up, a few others. No Tok Pisin, no English. It’s a generation that’s been out there that has had no opportunities. What is happening in Bosavi is a glimpse, a dark glimpse of where our country is heading to.”

The teenage girls from the most recent kidnapping are now safe and being cared for but they cannot return to their village because it is too dangerous.

Need for focus
Cathy Alex said there was a need for a focus on providing services to the rural areas as soon as possible.

She said people were resilient and could change, as long as the right leadership was provided.

Bosavi is one of the remotest areas in PNG, with no roads and few services

It suffered significant damage during earthquake in 2018.

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

Western Province Premier David Gina has called for reintroduction of capital punishment in Solomon Islands and has appealed to the country’s legal community to start preparing for this.

Gina made this statement following the brutal killing of a seven-year-old girl in Kolombangara, Western Province, last weekend.

In a statement, Gina said the incident should send a signal to every lawmaker that the current penalties to address such crimes were too lenient.

• READ MORE: Two suspects remanded for 14 days over suspicious death of a 7-year-old girl in Western Province, say police

“It does not give true sentences which are often short, even for someone given a life sentence.

“Therefore, I am calling on all lawmakers to act now so a law be introduced in the country,” Gina said.

The premier joined leaders around the country in condemning the senseless, brutal killing of the primary school girl who went missing after returning home from school on Friday.

When her body was found on Monday, her two arms were reportedly missing with wounds to her shoulder and bruises to her thighs.

Gina said the only solution was for the country to reintroduce capital punishment for people carrying out such brutal crimes.