Papua New Guinea’s opposition has called on Prime Minister James Marape to immediately recall Parliament to address the escalating killings in the upper Highlands provinces.

The opposition also wants the debate to include other law and order issues that have spiralled out of control in other parts of the country.

The call was made by Deputy Opposition leader Douglas Tomuriesa following images of victims lined up along the highway in the Enga Province.

• READ MORE: Other PNG crime reports

“I strongly urge the Prime Minister to recall Parliament for us leaders to come together as one and discuss the possibility of passing an Emergency Act as allowed for by the Constitution to address this serious issue,” he said.

“These gruesome images of human beings been murdered, stripped naked and lined up next to the highway by their enemies or criminal elements, especially in the upper Highlands provinces of Enga, Hela and Southern Highlands, is becoming a regular activity and the government and elected leaders must not take this lightly, its human lives we are talking about.

“It’s a national emergency and I call on the Prime Minister to immediately recall Parliament for a bipartisan committee to be formed to address this issue,” Tomuriesa said.

He said parliamentarians were elected to lead and address such serious issues affecting citizens and the country as a whole.

‘Killings too frequent’
“We as elected leaders shouldn’t be taking long breaks — these killings are becoming too frequent and we should be addressing them head on during Parliament sessions.

“We just cannot ignore it as fake social media posts,” he said.

Tomuriesa said he was making this call as a concerned citizen, a Papuan leader and deputy opposition leader.

“The spillover effects of what is happening up in the upper Highlands region will be felt everywhere — in Mamose, New Guinea Islands and the Southern Region. So as mandated leaders we must do something.”

Republished from PNG Post-Courier with permission.

Papua New Guinea police have arrested three men and seized a stockpile of unlicensed firearms, ammunition, explosives and other illegal items in a raid in Western Highlands province last week.

The arrests identified a further seven men who were alleged to be part of a blackmarket network who move the illegal items from Western Highlands into the upper Highlands provinces. They were also arrested.

About 800 rounds of ammunition, firearms, explosives and other illegal items were  confiscated from the trio, including a Winchester shotgun, shotgun belts, sniper scopes, a Glock pistol and a hand grenade.

• READ MORE: Other PNG crime reports

Deputy Commissioner of Police-Operations Dr Philip Mitna confirmed that a security operation had been carried out.

“Illegal firearms and drug trade is an ongoing issue in the highlands,” he said.

Firearms and live ammunition are smuggled into many border provinces linked by the Okuk Highway.

“A security team in Hela had made surveillance on firearms and ammunition. They visited Hagen (travelling in from Tari) and engaged with Hagen police, who organised raids and executed two search warrants on July 30, 2023, and effected several arrests,” Deputy Commissioner Mitna said.

Regular arms supply
According to information received by the Post-Courier newspaper, there is a regular ammunition and firearms supply arriving from illegal dealers in the Highlands eastern end and this is supplied to the western end, which includes Hela, Enga and Southern Highlands.

“With the continued tribal fights in Hela and Enga provinces and other criminal activities involving firearms, the intelligence had confirmed most of the ammunition was being bought from Jiwaka and Mt Hagen dealers,” Deputy Commissioner Mitna said.

“So far, the number of people being detained has increased to 10, and we anticipate more arrests. Among those arrested included a prominent businessman and security firm owner in Mt Hagen.”

According to the findings and assessment by security personnel, the Western Highlands share has built up to 80 percent of illegal ammunition and has been supplying other provinces.

The team tracked persons of interest from Tari to Mt Hagen and sought assistance, leading to several search warrants being executed by police with support from the PNG Defence Force Reconnaissance Unit.

The arrests of the 10 men came as the operations were executed in two-week intervals and continued last month.

The arrest of a local man in Hides started an investigation into the proliferation and movement of firearms and ammunition within the Highlands region.

Allegedly involved in kidnappings
The man who was picked up in Hides was allegedly involved in the recent series of kidnappings and ransom and incidents in Mt Bosavi, Southern Highlands, and parts of Western Province.

The arrest of the man in Hides and nine more in Mt Hagen led to the uncovering of a large stash of unlicensed firearms and varieties of live ammunition, including a hand grenade as well as several other illegal items at a home in Newtown, Mt Hagen.

According to reports, the intelligence gathered led to the arrest of the main suspect  who was apprehended in Mt Hagen. He is alleged to be the main supplier and distributor of unlicensed weapons and ammunition in the tribal fighting zones in the Highlands region as well as other parts of PNG.

On Tuesday, August 1, 2023, the main suspect was formally cautioned and formally charged with 10 counts under the newly Amended Firearms Act 2022 and two counts under the Explosive Act (chapter 308) respectively.

The charges are:

• Two counts of unlawfully in possession of unlicensed Firearms under section 65 (c)(ii) of the Amendment Firearms Act, 2022;
• Eight counts of unlawfully in possession of unlicensed live ammunitions under the section 65A (a) of the Amendment Firearms Act, 2022; and
• Two counts of unlawfully in possession of unlicensed explosive under the section 14(1) of the Explosive Act, Chapter 308.

The other nine men were still being interviewed and were being processed.

Police investigations were continuing.

Republished with permission.

Papua New Guinea’s police commissioner David Manning says a man allegedly involved in the kidnapping of 17 girls earlier this year has been arrested.

Commissioner Manning said the man was wanted in connection with a series of criminal activities within the Mt Bosavi area bordering Hela, Southern Highlands, and Western provinces.

“Among the alleged crimes committed by the individual are the armed robbery of K100,000 [NZ$46,000] in cash, the killing of a Chinese national, and multiple cases of rape at the Kamusi logging camp and surrounding villages in the Delta Fly region since 2019,” the commissioner said.

• READ MORE: ‘We chose death over being raped’ – PNG kidnap survivor speaks out
• Other PNG crime reports

“Recently, the arrested man was also allegedly involved in the kidnapping of 17 girls in the Mt Bosavi area.”

Manning said the police and PNG Defence Force officers, acting on intelligence reports from the community, tracked down the man at the Komon Market in Tari, Hela province.

“He was arrested, and a homemade pistol and 5.56 ammunition confiscated,” he said

The commissioner said the arrest would bring a sense of relief to the affected communities, as the investigation continues.

“At the same time, we are sending a strong message to the criminals and those who aid, abet and benefit from them, that they will be caught and dealt with, sooner or later by whatever force is deemed necessary.”

Breakthrough in election incident
Police have also arrested the main suspect in the shooting of a helicopter hired by police during the 2022 National General Election.

This man is the main suspect in the killings and the burning of Kompiam Station and has been charged with five counts of wilful murder and one count of arson.

Manning said the investigation into the various crimes carried out in Kompiam during the 2022 National General Election continues.

“New evidence has come to light of the involvement of senior provincial and national leaders in Kompiam during the election in 2022,” he said.

“Our investigation continues, but the information we have uncovered thus far is concerning.

“It is a sorry state of affairs when the government is working to end violence and we find that leaders are encouraging these crimes to be committed.”

The police chief said following the recent killings in Wapenamanda, two additional mobile squads had been deployed into the area to assist the Enga Provincial Police Command to restore law and order.

“A fight in the Kandep has already left 22 killed, and other fighting in Laiagam has resulted in the killing of six people and 20 in Wapenamanda.

“We are facing serious law and order situation in the province and engaging security personnel and applying strategies to stop those fights from escalating.

“This includes active involvement of provincial and national leaders from the province to engage and take responsibility.”

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

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.

Papua New Guinea’s Internal Security Minister Peter Tsiamalili Jr says the Royal PNG Constabulary is “stretched” with only 5000 men and women serving the country of more than 9 million people.

“Now more than ever we need leadership, we are stretched as a force, we all know that — we only have 5000 men,” he said.

“We are making recruitments happen.

• READ MORE:  Two countries, two kidnappings – Port Moresby shows Jakarta how it’s done with 3 PNG hostages freed
• Photo of naked girl with captors causes furore in Papua New Guinea
• Other PNG crime reports

“Issues in Hela — we are making every effort to manage this.

“That is happening in Hela, and it’s across the country. I am asking for help. This issue did not happen overnight, this is a culmination of the neglect our force has faced in the last 10 to 15 years.

“I am having sleepless nights, ensuring we work with the operational side of police. We are looking at stronger laws to deter citizens of such criminal acts.”

The minister — who is in charge of both the police and correctional services — was speaking during Parliament when he was asked by Mul-Baiyer MP Jacob Maki and a supplementary question from Abau MP Sir Puka Temu.

They questioned the minister on law and order issues over the latest crimes committed — in particular the alleged rape of a 15-year-old girl in Hela and the kidnapping of researchers in Southern Highlands.

Suspects on social media
Sir Puka said the rise in the use of social media had enabled many to see pictures of the suspects posted on media platforms.

“We have seen the faces of criminals being posted and what is police doing about it?” Sir Puka asked.

“Citizens are using the platform of social media to put out those criminal behaviours.”

The minister said police were working on the issue.

“In terms of the prosecution of those exposed, we have a cybercrime office and team, working on prosecution, there are processes in place,” he said.

“Police have taken action and it is a process that will take place.”

Miriam Zarriga is a PNG Post-Courier reporter. Republished with permission.

A recent cash payment by Papua New Guinea for the release of three hostages held captive by armed gunmen in Southern Highlands province has set a “dangerous precedent”, says the opposition.

Deputy opposition leader Douglas Tomuriesa said in a statement that the Marape government had set a bad precedent in allowing ransom money to be paid to the kidnappers for the release of the three hostages late last month instead of eliminating the gunmen.

The shadow treasurer said that thankfully the three captives had been set free without any harm but he expressed sadness that such a bad precedent had been set for the country which was likely to spur similar hostage-taking incidents in future.

• READ MORE:  Port Moresby shows Jakarta how it’s done with 3 PNG hostages freed
• Other PNG hostage crisis reports

Tomuriesa said since the hostages were now free, Police Commissioner David Manning must ensure that the culprits would be brought to justice and face the full force of the law.

He said it was “shameful” that the Prime Minister had contradicted his Police Commissioner by initially denying that any ransom had been paid.

“I now demand the Prime Minister tell the truth and reveal the actual amount of ransom paid to the criminals and why a third party was involved,” Tomuriesa said.

One of three women captives was released on February 23 while the other two were released with Australia-based New Zealand academic Professor Bryce Barker on February 26 after K100,000 (NZ$46,000) had been paid, according to one news report.

“If all the government can do is pay ransom to terrorists, then PNG can forget about promoting tourism and foreign investment in the country as investors will view the country as too dangerous.

“By very quickly resorting to allowing payment of ransom money, the government has now realised that the PNG police and military are very ill-equipped to deal with a dangerous hostage-taking situation.

“The whole country will remain at risk unless the gunmen are made to surrender all their guns, including the high-powered machines stolen from the PNG Defence Force armoury.”

Tomuriesa said the government must now seek specialised training and assistance from friendly countries like Australia, New Zealand, United Kingdom, or the United States to establish and train a special task force for the PNG police and military.

The special force would need to be capable of undertaking search and rescue operations should similar hostage-taking situations arise in future.

Republished from the PNG Post-Courier with permission.

Papua New Guinea’s Prime Minister James Marape has revealed that about K100,000 (about NZ$46,000) was paid to the kidnappers for the release of the three remaining hostages in the Bosavi mountains in the Southern Highlands province at the weekend.

The three hostages, an Australian-resident New Zealand professor and his two female colleagues, were set free yesterday.

In a news conference today, Prime Minister Marape clarified that the money was given through community leaders for the release of the hostages.

• READ MORE: Nightmare over for final 3 PNG freed hostages – police hunt their captors
• Prime Minister Marape warns police will come down hard on criminals
• PNG state pays partial ransom for release of the hostages
• Two countries, two kidnappings – Port Moresby shows Jakarta how it’s done with 3 PNG hostages freed
• Other PNG hostage crisis reports

”There was no K3.5 million paid [NZ$1.6 million — the original kidnappers’ demand]. The liaison money exchanged was K100,000 paid through the community leaders for a liaison to take place.

“The demand was very high and they maintained it all the way through, but we had to break the ice and ensure the safe return of the captives,” said Marape.

The look on the faces of their families said it all, as they cried awaiting anxiously for their loved ones who made their way from the aircraft into the airport terminal at the capital Port Moresby.

For the families of the last three Papua New Guinea hostage crisis captives, the nightmare of being held prisoner for an entire week had ended.

The relief was evident across the nation as pictures of two of the three hostages went viral online as they were being airlifted out of Moro in the Southern Highlands province.

• READ MORE: Prime Minister Marape warns police will come down hard on criminals
• PNG state pays partial ransom for release of the hostages
• Two countries, two kidnappings – but Jakarta and Port Moresby responses different with 3 PNG hostages freed
• Other PNG hostage crisis reports

The trio named by the Office of the Prime Minister are Professor Bryce Barker, Jemina Haro and Teppsy Beni.

From preliminary reports, all were unharmed.

According to police sources, the trio had been moved several times during the week-long ordeal with the trio and the armed men finally surrounded at Sebese village near Mount Bosavi in the Southern Highlands.

A thankful son and daughter of one of the two women released on Saturday evening shed tears of joy as they waited for the return of their mum.

Hunt continues for 21
For the perpetrators, the hunt continues for all 21-armed men who held eight people hostage before releasing all eight over a week-long crisis culminating in yesterday when the final three were released.

Security personnel, however, will remain in Bosavi for the next few months as they hunt for the men who are alleged to have been the main players in the kidnap and ransom demand.

Police Commissioner David Manning said that the trio were in “good spirits” as he arrived back into Port Moresby.

Commissioner Manning confirmed that security personnel were still in Southern Highlands, saying “we still have unfinished business and we hope to resolve that within a limited time frame”.

He also stated that a “component that required to be paid” was paid.

Prime Minister James Marape said that money was paid — but not “to the tune of K3.5 million” (NZ$1.6 million).

“Criminal enterprise has no longevity, there will not be any negotiations from here on out, you either come out or we will come for you,” Marape said.

Foot bandaged, but happy
One of the two women had one of her feet bandaged, but both women looked to be happy to be back in Port Moresby after their six-day ordeal in the jungles of Bosavi.

Professor Barker, who Marape named, was the hostage from New Zealand, but living in Australia, and has had a long standing relationship with Papua New Guinea and in particular with Gulf province and the Mount Bosavi area.

His release was welcomed by New Zealand High Commissioner Philip Taula who thanked the PNG government and the security personnel for the repatriation of the professor out of Bosavi.

Professor Barker and the two women were quickly transported to Moro where they all underwent medical check before being airlifted out of Moro.

They arrived in Port Moresby at 4.40pm yesterday where they were embraced by their children and were quickly whisked out of the APEC Terminal.

Family members screamed with joy as one of the two women waved at them before they were driven out.

Outside the terminal, there was heavy police presence with Prime Minister Marape saying there was no place in PNG for such armed criminals.

“Police firepower was more powerful and such activities has no place in the country,” he said.

“These people were there to assist the government and the people.”

Miriam Zarriga is a PNG Post-Courier reporter. Republished with permission.

RNZ Pacific

A New Zealand professor and his two Papua New Guinean colleagues have been released from captivity, more than a week after being kidnapped by an armed gang.

Archaeologist Professor Bryce Barker, who now lives in Australia and works with the University of Southern Queensland (USQ), was held alongside fellow members of his research team.

They were doing fieldwork in a remote part of PNG’s Highlands when they were taken by a criminal gang from Hela Province who demanded a ransom for their freedom.

• READ MORE: Inside the complex rescue mission for an Australian professor taken hostage by armed bandits in the PNG jungle
• Other PNG hostage reports

Their release brings to an end days of negotiations, and a complex security operation involving PNG police and defence personnel, in consultation with the Australian and New Zealand governments.

It comes two days after another woman who had also been taken was set free.

Prime Minister James Marape announced their release on his Facebook page, thanking Police Commissioner David Manning, the police force, military, leaders and community involved.

“We apologise to the families of those taken as hostages for ransom. It took us a while but the last three [captives] has [sic] been successfully returned through covert operations with no $K3.5m paid.

“To criminals, there is no profit in crime. We thank God that life was protected.”

The Post-Courier had earlier reported that the kidnappers had demanded K3.5 million (NZ$1.6 million) for their release.

However, ABC News reports that it understood a ransom payment was discussed as part of the negotiations, although it was significantly smaller than the original amount demanded.

Mahuta praises the release
Foreign Minister Nanaia Mahuta praised the release on Twitter, welcoming their safe return.

Aotearoa New Zealand welcomes the safe release of hostages in PNG including a NZer. Tenkiu tru for your leadership and cooperation governments of PNG and Australia . #tatoutatou

— Nanaia Mahuta (@NanaiaMahuta) February 26, 2023

Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong thanked the PNG government “for its leadership in securing a safe and peaceful resolution”.

She also thanked the “Australian and New Zealand officials who helped support this outcome”.

The ABC named the released fellow members of his research team as Cathy Alex (set free on Wednesday), Jemina Haro and PhD student Teppsy Beni.

The ABC reported that on February 12, Barker had shared a picture of his arrival in PNG’s capital on social media, captioning it simply “Port Moresby”.

‘Welcome to Port Moresby’
His friend Cathy Alex, a highly regarded local programme coordinator, replied: “Welcome to PNG”.

The two would soon be reuniting and heading into the country’s highlands as part of an ongoing archaeological research program with the University of Southern Queensland (USQ).

In a statement released to the ABC, USQ vice-chancellor Geraldine Mackenzie said the university was relieved to hear their much-loved colleague and his research team had been released.

“Professor Barker and his research team were in Papua New Guinea undertaking archaeological research,” Ms Mackenzie said.

“Bryce is a highly regarded archaeologist and a valued colleague at USQ and in the wider archaeological community. He has many years experience in undertaking research in PNG.

“Our deepest thanks go to the governments of Papua New Guinea, Australia and New Zealand, and the many people who worked tirelessly during this extremely difficult and sensitive time to secure their release.”

NZ pilot held in West Papua
In the neighbouring Indonesian-ruled province of Papua, another New Zealander, pilot Phillip Mehrtens, is still apparently in captivity with pro-independence rebels after he landed a plane in remote highlands near Nduga.

There was no new information about whether or not he would be released.

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

Prime Minister James Marape has urged armed captors to free the remaining four hostages which includes an Australian-based New Zealand professor, following the release of a local woman and three local guides.

“These are citizens of our country and a friend of our country. Let’s settle this the Melanesian way,” Marape said.

“We know who you are.”

• READ MORE: Priority with ‘greedy’ kidnappers is to return captives to families, says PNG police chief
• Other PNG hostage reports

Marape, who is in Fiji for the Pacific Islands Forum “unity” summit this week, said the full names and pictures of the 13 people involved in the kidnapping were with police.

“[You have] been identified. So release the [remaining] four hostages,” he said.

The armed men, reported to be from Hela, kidnapped the seven researchers and guides on Sunday for a cash ransom at Fogomaiyu village near Mt Bosavi on the border of Southern Highlands and Hela.

The PNG woman was released with the four local guides.

One guide stays with professor
But one guide chose to remain with the professor, who is a permanent resident of Australia and teaches at the University of Southern Queensland.

The seven included a female staff of the National Museum, a Woman Leader Network member, an anthropology graduate of the University of Papua New Guinea, who is doing field work with the professor, and four local guides.

Marape called on the kidnappers, who were known to authorities, to release the four remaining hostages.

Marape said that the hostages were well.

“We are working with locals in the area as intermediaries to negotiate the safe release of the four,” he said.

Second such incident
Meanwhile, Deputy Prime Minister John Rosso said this was the second such incident to happen in the area.

“It is not an organised crime, but a group of opportunists, who are heavily involved in the guns and drugs trade in the region who are doing this. It was a chance encounter,” he said.

“The safety of the remaining four people still held as hostages remain paramount.

“We are negotiating for their safe release.”

Deputy Police Commissioner Dr Philip Mitna said police were talking to the armed men through intermediaries.

“We are treating the matter as serious,” he said.

Rebecca Kuku is a reporter for The National. Republished with permission.

Warlords and armed bandits pose a threat to Papua New Guinea’s national security and must be destroyed, says Deputy Opposition Leader Douglas Tomuriesa.

“Warlords and armed bandits are very dangerous and pose a real threat to national security and freedom and must be destroyed,” he said.

“Police and the military are simply outgunned and outnumbered, and cannot effectively deal with the armed bandits.”

• READ MORE: Priority with ‘greedy’ kidnappers is to return captives to families, says PNG police chief
• Other PNG crime reports

He supported the call by former prime minister Peter O’Neill for the safe release of the hostages held by armed bandits in the Highlands region.

Three of the seven hostages held near the Mt Bosavi area at the border of the Southern Highlands and Hela provinces have been released by the bandits.

One of the captives is an Australian-based New Zealand professor and two Papua New Guinea women are among those still being held by the gunmen.

Tomuriesa said that the proliferation of warlords in the Highlands provinces armed with machine guns stolen from the PNG Defence Force armoury had been reported many times in the media.

But the James Marape-led coalition government had failed to address it seriously.

He added that the government should consider inviting the Australian and New Zealand special forces such as their SAS (Special Air Service) which possessed superior weapons and tactics to assist PNG deal with these “dangerous criminals and eliminate these so-called warlords once and for all”.

He also expressed concern over the kidnapping of innocent and harmless people, and joined the many Christians praying for the hostages.

Republished with permission.

As day five dawned in Papua New Guinea’s kidnapping drama, the family of one of the four hostages captives — one of three women held in the Bosavi mountains, Southern Highlands province — was relieved she was set free yesterday afternoon.

The Post-Courier was reliably informed of the release by the gunmen, with Police Commissioner David Manning confirming the news.

“The release of one female Papua New Guinean captive is a positive outcome, and negotiations continue for the safe release of the remaining two female Papua New Guineans and the male New Zealand citizen,” Commissioner Manning said.

• READ MORE: PNG gunmen free one of 3 women held captive, reports Post-Courier
• Other PNG kidnap drama reports

“From the information that we have received, the remaining three captives are in reasonable health, though [they] are being held in difficult terrain.

“We are continuing to work to strengthen lines of communication, which remains a challenging aspect of this operation.

“I will not go into deeper details at this point as this is an ongoing operation. The priority for police is to resolve this situation and return the remaining captives safely to their families.

“Negotiations are being undertaken with care so as to seek a peaceful resolution and minimise an escalation of tensions.”

Ten accused identified
Ten men from five clans in Komo LLG, Hela province, have been identified as the alleged kidnappers of the Australian-based New Zealand researcher and the three PNG women.

The Post-Courier understands that the men are from the clans of Pina, Hetaruku, Pi, Alo, Taburuma, and Hambuali.

Replying to questions raised by the Post-Courier, Commissioner Manning said: “We are working to negotiate an outcome.

“We are satisfied with the amount of information that we are receiving, pointing us to the area where they are kept and the identity of their captors,” he said.

“It is our intent to ensure the safe release of all and their safe return to their families. However, we also have contingencies if negotiations fail.

“At the end of the day, we are dealing with a criminal gang with no other established motive but greed.

“It is in everyone’s interest to ensure [that] we progress this effort as responsibly and safely as possible.

We have taken into consideration all factors and possible outcomes, we remain committed to ensuring a successful outcome.

“That being said, the group behind this abduction are aware that any harm coming to the people they are holding captive will be met with a swift security response.

“As one of the captives is a New Zealand citizen with Australian residency, the High Commissions of both countries continue to be briefed on the situation.”

Republished from the PNG Post-Courier with permission.

The Post-Courier has exclusively been advised of the release of one of the women held captive by armed men in the Bosavi mountains, Southern Highlands.

Police Commissioner David Manning confirmed with the newspaper that the woman was released yesterday afternoon with authorities working to bring her home.

“The release of one of the Papua New Guinean women is a positive outcome, and negotiations continue for the safe release of the remaining two women and the New Zealand professor,” he said.

The full story will be in the Post-Courier today.

Republished with permission.

• EARLIER STORY: Failure to free PNG hostages could cost captors ‘their lives’, warns police chief

Papua New Guinean security forces have been authorised to use the full force of the law to secure the four captives being held hostage by an armed gang in Bosavi, Nipa-Kutubu, Southern Highlands province since Sunday.

Police Commissioner David Manning said the abductors were being offered “a way out”.

Manning described the gang as having no “established motive but greed”.

• READ MORE: PNG police negotiators try to win freedom for hostage researchers
• PNG: Armed group seize Australian professor, 3 PNG researchers hostage, reports ABC
• PNG police say they will use lethal force if necessary
• West Papua: Wenda calls on rebels to release kidnapped NZ pilot
• Other hostage reports

“We are working to negotiate an outcome, it is our intent to ensure the safe release of all and their safe return to their families. However, we also have contingencies if negotiations fail,” he said.

“It is in everyone’s interest to ensure we progress this effort as responsibly and safely as possible.”

The four captive researchers are reported to be an Australian anthropology professor, a three women — a New Zealander and two PNG researchers.

“We have taken into consideration all factors and possible outcomes, we remain committed to ensuring a successful outcome,” said Commissioner Manning.

“We are satisfied with the amount of information that we are receiving, pointing us as to the area where they are kept and the identity of their captors.

‘Treated fairly’
“They can release their captives and they will be treated fairly through the criminal justice system, but failure to comply and resisting arrest could cost these criminals their lives.

“The full force of the law will be used to immobilise and apprehend the criminals,” Commissioner Manning said.

“Our specialised security force personnel will use whatever means necessary against the criminals, up to and including the use of lethal force, in order to provide for the safety and security of the people being held.”

Hela Governor Philip Undialu has called upon the captors of the four hostages to release them as they entered the second day of captivity.

In a response to questions by the Post-Courier, Governor Undialu said: “The location of the hostages is like two days’ walk from Komo with no communication network.

“The only access we have now is through a missionary based at Bosavi connected via a satellite phone.

“I have asked the LLG president, ward members and community leaders of Komo to find who’s missing in the community after speculation that some Komo youths are involved.

‘Act of terrorism’
“At this stage we do not have the identities of the individuals. Whatever the case maybe, no one has any right to abduct, kidnap, hold them hostage and ask for cash payment.

“This is an act of terrorism, like we hear of in other countries. Law enforcement agencies must take this seriously and deal with such crimes appropriately.”

His response comes after police said the armed men were allegedly from Komo in Hela.

He said that the situation was being closely monitored by the government.

Prime Minister James Marape, who is in Suva for the Pacific Islands Forum “unity” summit, has also confirmed that security personnel were monitoring the situation.

Across the nation, many people in the country have condemned the actions of the 21 men who are holding the four researchers hostage.

Republished from the PNG Post-Courier with permission.

An Australian-based anthropology professor and three Papua New Guinean women researchers are being held captive inside the jungles of the Southern Highlands after they were kidnapped at gunpoint in Fogoma’iu village in the Bosavi LLG.

Four local guides who were also seized were told to jump into the Hegigio river after being released by their captors after they were held for a few hours on Sunday morning.

A local villager (name withheld) spoke exclusively to the Post-Courier last night saying that the other four hostages had been moved a further 10km inland.

• READ MORE: PNG: Armed group seize Australian professor, 3 UPNG researchers hostage, reports ABC
• PNG police say they will use lethal force if necessary
• West Papua: Wenda calls on rebels to release kidnapped NZ pilot
• Other hostage reports

“The number of the gang members have now risen from 15 to 21 with the inclusion of another six men joining the group,” the villager said.

“The group remains adamant that their request for K3.5 million (NZ$1.6 million) remains before the hostages are released.”

The four who were released told locals in harrowing detail how after their release how their arms and legs had been bound with the professor threatened at gunpoint.

Fogoma’iu villagers said on Sunday morning at 2am that the home the research team were sleeping in at their village, a few kilometres from Mt Bosavi, was surrounded by several armed men.

Early hours
The group was taken away in the early hours of the morning.

Deputy Police Commissioner Philip Mitna said the armed criminals, reportedly from Komo in Hela province, were returning from Kamusi when they had sighted the victims and taken them hostage.

On Sunday morning, Prime Minister James Marape met with PNG’s Security Council and was briefed about the kidnapping and ransom demand of the group.

“This is the first time a ransom is attached to a hostage situation like this and I will make further statements in due time,” said Deputy Commissioner Mitna.

“This is the very first time and we are treating this very, very seriously; we don’t want it to be a precedent for the future. We are working with authorities concerned, at the moment the government is staying out of this picture in terms of negotiating on the ground.”

The Australian and New Zealand High Commissions in Port Moresby have both stated they were “aware of this situation but for privacy reasons no further information will be provided”.

In a short reply to questions by the Post-Courier, the PNG Defence Force said: “Yes, PNGDF is fully aware of it. Since, it’s within the context of operations, no comments/statement will be disclosed.”

Logging camp raids
The Post-Courier has uncovered that the armed group — now numbering 21 — had tried in two separate attempts to rob two logging sites in the Middle Fly area earlier this month.

However, both attempts were unsuccessful. The group left Middle Fly and trekked 101km  into Southern Highlans Province where it is alleged they came across the group of researchers.

Government and Security Council negotiators are continuing their communication with the armed men in a bid to secure their release.

• Both ABC News and the PNG Post-Courier have chosen not to name the captives given the sensitivity over this hostage situation.

Republished from the PNG Post-Courier with permission.

A Papua New Guinean businessman has been arrested and charged by police as the first of 15 “persons of interest” relating to post national election violence in the Southern Highlands Province earlier this year.

Police have confirmed the unsuccessful candidate for the SHP regional seat, Peter Nupiri, a former chair of PNG Power and a construction business managing director, has been arrested and charged over election-related crimes.

Police Commissioner David Manning confirmed the arrest and charging of Peter Nupiri.

• READ MORE: PNG police probe into Mendi mayhem names four rival political suspects

A search warrant was executed by police as confirmed by Commissioner Manning.

“We are not time bound by the elections. If these candidates think that we are, then they are sadly misinformed,” he said.

Police also confirmed a candidate personally presented himself to Commissioner Manning and was interviewed by the Police Special Investigation Team (SIT) to ascertain whether he was criminally responsible for crimes committed in Mendi, SHP.

He was not charged but will be required if evidence permits.

200 ballot boxes destroyed
Police allege that Nupiri, 46, from Olea village, Mendi, Southern Highlands, communicated with individuals to destroy about 200 ballot boxes that were stored at the Mendi police station.

Police allege his communication via mobile phone to several men led to the six-days violent destruction of Mendi town.

The ballot boxes were stored at the police station after supporters had disputed the counting of the 200 plus ballot boxes.

On August 18, several armed men allegedly entered the premises and fired several gun shots and threatened the duty officers.

They then took control of the premises and opened the two containers where the boxes were kept and took the boxes out and destroyed the ballot boxes by setting them on fire.

The result of the actions taken by the men led to the burning down of properties, killing of 15 people and destruction of other property.

Republished with permission.

Four prominent Papua New Guinean political leaders are on the police radar for their alleged involvement in the Mendi mayhem last week which left one person dead and thousands of kina worth of property burnt to ashes.

Police Commissioner David Manning named the four suspects as sitting Governor William Powi and his rivals Joseph Kobol, Peter Nupiri and Bernard Kaku.

The four men allegedly allowed their supporters to engage in armed conflict with rival candidates and supporters in Mendi, Southern Highlands, over the regional seat in PNG’s general election.

• READ MORE: Mendi a battlefield as disgruntled PNG election rivals raid police station
• Other PNG election reports

As fighting continues, four other men were arrested in neighbouring Western Highlands Province with thousands of kina in cash and bullets in their possession.

Mount Hagen police, acting on a tip off, arrested the four men who were found to be in possession of K65,400 (NZ$30,000) in cash, and 30 5.56mm rounds along with other offensive weapons.

The men were allegedly on their way to Mendi, when they were intercepted by Mount Hagen police at the back of the WHP police headquarters.

Commissioner Manning said that the men were all from Mendi and their vehicle had also been also impounded at Mount Hagen Police Station.

“I have issued instructions for all Mount Hagen police station police not to allow any visitations,” he said.

“All mobile phones were removed from these four suspects.

‘Enough is enough’
“The suspects were apprehended by the Hagen local Task Force Response Unit just at the back of Mount Hagen Police at around 11.42am on Sunday.

“Enough is enough, we have gone past the stage of negotiations for peace. We are now required to enforce the rule of law, and it starts with the list of candidates. We have credible intelligence and sufficient evidence to link them with the ongoing violence in the town of Mendi and surrounding districts,” Commissioner Manning said.

“Peace negotiations is a short term measure, true lasting peace is when we remove individuals from society and subject them to the rule of law. Only then will we have long lasting peace.

“We will be looking at all facets of the ongoing clashes in Mendi. The source of firearms, ammunition, funding, and any individual or business assets used to support this ongoing clash.”

Miriam Zarriga is a PNG Post-Courier journalist. Republished with permission.

The Southern Highlands capital — Mendi — has turned into a battlefield in Papua New Guinea this week as supporters of different candidates for the regional seat went on a warpath.

The warring parties –– believed to be supporters of the incumbent governor against the other regional candidates –– shut down the town on Thursday and during the mayhem, raided the Mendi police station and set fire to regional ballot papers.

Police Commissioner David Manning directed police in Mendi to arrest one of the candidates who was suspected of being behind the problems in Mendi and the counting.

• READ MORE: Other PNG elections reports

Manning said he had ordered the arrest of the candidate following the ransacking of the Mendi police station in which the remaining ballot boxes for the provincial seat were removed from the containers and burned to ashes.

“I have directed the apprehension of the candidate [named] for questioning in relation to the incident at the police station,” Commissioner Manning said.

The mayhem was the culmination of frustration that have been built over weeks into the on-again off-again counting of the regional ballots that has dragged on for weeks since counting started in mid-July.

Southern Highlands police confirmed that allegations over electoral fraud by counting officials have led to frequent disruptions and the PNG Electoral Commission must take a stand on this.

‘Constitutional terrorists’
“The Electoral Commissioner Simon Sinai needs to clarify if the candidates should go to court to obtain a court order or not to stop the provincial returning officer from counting the disputed ballot boxes,” provincial police commander Superintendent Daniel Yangen said.

Superintendent Yangen joined candidates Peter Nupuri, Benard Kaku and Augustine Rapa in Mendi who are accusing the EC and its official on the ground in Mendi for the turmoil.

Nupiri asked Sinai to replace the election manager, Jimmy Alwynn, to take charge of the counting.

Prime Minister James Marape condemned the burning of the ballot papers, describing those involved as “constitutional terrorists” who would be hunted down by the police.

“Those responsible are not ordinary arsonists but constitutional terrorists who can enter a police station and burn ballot boxes containing the votes of the people,” Marape said.

“This is state property and such an act is one of terrorism,” he said, adding that he had asked the police to go into Mendi, conduct the investigation and arrest those responsible.

He said people in PNG cannot continue to take the law into their own hands and his government would strengthen the police and justice system.

“I will, in the first instance, ensure that Southern Highlands Province, Hela, Enga and other hotspots are attended to at the very earliest,” Marape said.

Ialibu Pangia’s Peter O’Neill blamed the chaos in Mendi on the government.

‘Government-made shambles’
“This election has been a government-made shambles everywhere and democracy has been hijacked to make way for an autocratic style of leadership,” he said.

“I do not condone the violence in Mendi but I can certainly understand why it is happening.

“People are fed up with the way democracy has been cast aside by a power hungry few hellbent on seeking control at the expense of the people.”

O’Neill urged the Electoral Commissioner to reassert himself and take control of the Mendi counting room and ensure a fair outcome for the voters and candidates.

The destruction of the ballot papers has put an abrupt halt to the counting, which was heading into the elimination rounds.

Sinai will decide either to treat the Mendi situation as a “special circumstance” and declare the leading candidate as the winner or order a supplementary byelection.

“I will make a decision once I have gone through the report on the incident,” Sinai.

Republished with permission.

Papua New Guinea’s Electoral Commissioner Simon Sinai says he will seek a further extension from the Governor-General for the return of writ for Southern Highlands provincial seat which has faced protracted delays in counting.

He said any discussions and talks of “failing” an election and calling for a supplementary or a byelection was not on his table and would not happen as the costs of running elections had escalated and were expensive.

Sinai said he would be writing to the Governor-General, Grand Chief Sir Bob Dadae, today requesting an extension for for Southern Highlands and other remaining electorates that were still being counted.

• READ MORE: Other PNG elections reports

The last extension for the return of writs from July 29 to August 12 expired today.

The commissioner called on all Southern Highlanders to cooperate and allow the electoral process to continue without interference and delays to the counting as for the past couple of weeks.

“I am calling on all Southern Highlanders, especially those in Mendi, to observe and respect the rule of law and let the electoral process continue without interruptions,” he said.

Sinai said the commission would be seeking more police reinforcements for Southern Highlands to beef up security on the ground and ensure that counting was completed and the result delivered.

The commissioner expressed concern over a public perception people had about Southern Highlands as a “place of trouble”. He urged local leaders and supporters to put politics aside and think about building and protecting the image of the province.

“The democratic process that we have adopted is not about physical fight, but it is a fight through the ballot papers and whoever scores well during the scrutiny and counting process wins,” he said.

“It’s a game — one has to win and one has to lose. If you are aggrieved by the outcome, you can always seek an intervention of the court.”

Republished with permission.

Fresh fighting among candidates’ supporters has left another two dead in Hela’s Margarima in Papua New Guinea’s general election.

This takes the death toll to nine in the province since fighting broke out on July 4 – and nationwide election-related deaths have topped 45.

Cars and trucks were set ablaze and houses razed in Lower Wage on Sunday.

• READ MORE: Pangu Pati draws first blood in PNG election with 5 seats declared so far
• Other PNG election reports

Papua New Guinea Defence Force liaison officer Major Joshua Dorpar said fighting erupted again following the counting of election ballots for Margarima.

According to military sources in Margarima, the situation was still tense.

“Since the last fight two weeks ago, when the death toll was at seven, two more people have been killed, raising the death toll to nine. A couple of people are in hospital.

“Homes have been burnt down, vehicles destroyed, and we are working on restoring peace again, by talking to the of two groups that are fighting,” the sources said.

Lack of forces
Police commander Robin Bore said the fight started during polling on July 4 between incumbent Komo-Margarima MP Mannaseh Makiba’s (Pangu Pati) supporters and Independent Dr Benson Wakinda’s supporters at the Yambraka polling centre.

Bore said he did not have enough security forces to deal with the situation.

“We don’t have enough police manpower on the ground, especially armed/response units to attend to other law and order issues in the province, including the fighting in Margarima,” he said.

“We have one platoon of soldiers and Mobile Squad 12 but they will be concentrating on the counting and providing security for ballot boxes.

“Moreover, 40 regular members of Hela are on the roll over team led by Tari police station commander to provide polling security in nearby Highlands provinces.

“So, after completion of elections in Hela, we will look into those areas that require police help,” he added.

While election-related deaths reached 45 — as compiled by the media — many others went unreported or were unaccounted for.

Rebecca Kuku is a National reporter. Republished with permission.

• The National’s election InfoGraphics.

Papua New Guinean security forces have intercepted and stopped seven trucks carrying seven containers containing sensitive election material in the Southern Highlands after it was found that the containers had been allegedly tampered with.

“Manager Alwyn Jimmy called police in SHP to stop the trucks,” Southern Highlands commander Chief Inspector Daniel Yangen said.

“Seven trucks were stopped and taken to Mendi police station where the seven drivers were interviewed.

• READ MORE: Other PNG election reports

“The EC officer from POM was found in Mt Hagen and was taken to the Mt Hagen police station where I arrived at 11pm on Saturday night and took him back to Mendi at 10am on Sunday.”

Papua New Guinea goes to the polls next month between July 2 and July 22.

Upon initial interviews it was found that the man allegedly admitted to tampering with the containers by removing serial numbers and EC stickers on the containers, Chief Inspector Yangen said.

“The officer is expected to be arrested and charged.”

Stopped the trucks
Jimmy said in an interview: “The trucks were sent to Hela, Southern Highlands and Enga province.”

The container containing materials for Southern Highlands was sent to Hela, I asked the security personnel who went after the trucks, stopped the trucks and told the trucks to return to Mendi, he added.

He said that the containers were removed and were now in custody of the police.

In Wabag, another container is now being kept by police after it was found that the container was supposed to go to Mendi.

Enga Police commander Acting Superintendent George Kakas said: “When we were informed of the incident in Southern Highlands, I ordered that the containers not be opened.

“We will await the arrival of the SHP Election team to come to Wabag and check the containers.”

Investigations by the Post-Courier have pointed out that no election materials have been shipped. All materials have been flown into the provinces in one day.

Sensitive election materials
All sensitive election materials are not supposed to go on transport that is more than a day:

• Ballot papers and indelible ink are not supposed to be shipped as they are sensitive materials;
• Ballot papers are supposed to be airlifted to all destinations and provided security; and
• Police are supposed to accompany sensitive materials like ballot papers and ink anywhere.

Pictures obtained by the Post-Courier show that containers have been kept by security forces at Mendi and Wabag police station.

The Post-Courier understands that the officer who allegedly tempered with the containers has been questioned by police and allegedly admitted to the diversion of the trucks.

Police continue their investigations.

Republished with permission.

She is brave — no other word can describe this Papua New Guinean woman.

Ruth Undi Siwinu isn’t only challenging the norms and a huge field of male candidates in Southern Highlands, but knows the task ahead and she is prepared to take them head on.

In a province where leadership is regarded as “men’s business”, Siwinu takes on everyone –– including the sitting MP and Pangu strongman William Powi.

• READ MORE: Other PNG elections reports

“Let’s make history and vote a woman candidate into Parliament,” Siwini told hundreds of supporters at her rally in Mendi, Southern Highlands Province.

An independent candidate, Siwinu told the huge group that poverty was real in this province  and a country that were blessed with vast resources that were bringing in billions of kina every year.

“I have travelled to the length and breadth of this province. I have been to all the five districts in the province and I saw that my people are still struggling to live,” she said.

“Why are my people struggling when Southern Highlands is blessed with all resources and the country is sitting on the resources Southern Highlands produce.

‘A mistake somewhere’
“There is a mistake somewhere and we have to find out. We want a women leader to lead the province, we have given enough time to the men to lead the province but they have failed us big time,” she said.

Siwinu said male leaders in the province were not providing services that the people deserved.

“They are playing too much politics and did not serve the people for many years. We have to stop this,” she added.

She said that the national election has provided the opportunity for the people to change the leadership and vote in a women leader to drive Southern Highlands forward into the future.

She urged all mothers, girls, aunties and youths to vote in a women candidate in this election to effect change in the province. She called on all women to rally behind her for a better Southern Highlands.

‘Representing the marginalised’
“I am standing here representing you women, the marginalised. Women are the people who suffer most in this province and I want you all women to make a strong stand and make your vote count in Ruth Undi,” she said.

She said she had spent K1 million (NZ$446,000) investing in Southern Highlands, helping women through her Mama Helpim Mama Charity organisation.

“I have Mama Helpim Mama charity organisation, though this organisation I spent K1 million helping Southern Highlands mothers.

“I have seen the real struggle in the villages, I serve the people already, I am only need the political power to continue what I am doing,” she said.

Eighty six of the 2351 candidates registered for next month’s general election are women.

Kolopu Waima is a PNG Post-Courier reporter. Republished with permission.

Papua New Guinean police are investigating serious firearms offences allegedly involving five candidates contesting the election in the Highlands region.

The candidates in two different provinces are being investigated for the use of firearms at campaign rallies, for firing an unlicensed firearm, being in possession of a firearm and being in possession of a stolen vehicle.

The interest of police in the five candidates comes three weeks after the close of nomination in Southern and Western Highlands provinces.

• READ MORE: PNG police brand Mt Hagen airport sabotage as ‘act of terrorism’
• Other reports on PNG elections

Police fear that without proper manpower support, polling and counting in the two provinces will be the bloodiest with the high number of firearms being used and allegedly gathered by supporters of candidates.

The investigation comes after a two-week firearms amnesty ended on May 19.

Police Commissioner David Manning has issued instructions for all police personnel to arrest and charge anyone found to be be “manufacturing homemade guns, illegal ownership and possession of firearms, illegal possession and use of firearms, illegal possession of prohibited firearms and ownership and [in] possession of machine guns”.

However, a police source said the talks on arrests of those in possession of firearms would not occur without proper support of police.

‘What can police do?’
“Candidates are known to support their supporters with firearms but what can police do?” the source said.

“They can only arrest those they catch, the buy-back scheme of firearms and the recent firearms amendment will not stop the influx of firearms into the country, especially the Highlands region.”

Police Minister William Onglo has said: “Candidates need to lead by example, when you as a candidate don’t lead by example you show your supporters that they can do what they want.

“That needs to end, you want to be a leader and you are putting your hand up, this means whatever happens with your supporters you as their candidate must tell them what they are doing is wrong and if need be report them,” he said.

SHP police commander Chief Inspector Daniel Yangen said that with the instruction from Commissioner Manning and the amendments to the Firearms Act, if the candidates were found to be supplying and supporting the use of firearms in this election they will be charged by the SHP Election taskforce team.

“We see supporters moving around the province brandishing weapons but they hide their firearms, but when it comes to confrontations, suddenly firearms are brought out,” PPC Yangen said.

A high level group of observers in the 2017 National General Election made several recommendations on security to be looked at prior to the 2022 Election. However, these changes have not been made.

Miriam Zarriga is a PNG Post-Courier reporter. Republished with permission.

By RNZ Pacific

A Papua New Guinea opposition MP has filed a criminal complaint against the Electoral Commissioner for alleged misdeeds in last year’s general election.

Madang Open’s Bryan Kramer yesterday filed a formal complaint about Commissioner Patilias Gamato with the National Fraud and Anti-Corruption Directorate.

Kramer’s complaint focuses on the election in the provincial seat of Southern Highlands.

He said Gamato’s premature declaration of a result was an act of electoral fraud that must not be allowed to be “swept under the carpet”.

One of the most controversial results in an election hampered with irregularities, it sparked deadly violence among supporters of rival candidates in the province.

Tensions have lingered, and a court ruling in June which upheld Southern Highlands provincial governor William Powi’s election triggered a rampage by protesters who torched an airplane, courthouse and the governor’s residence.

Kramer has filed a similar complaint with the Ombudsman Commission.

This article is republished under the Pacific Media Centre’s content partnership with Radio New Zealand.

“We have no home, our village is devastated, therefore I have to move my people to another location.”

The words of the village leader from a remote earthquake-affected village in Papua New Guinea’s Highlands region had an unmistakable desperation.

LISTEN: More on Dateline Pacific (duration 6m40s)

Richard Don’s Yalanda village in Nipa-Kutubu district of Southern Highlands province was largely ruined in February’s magnitude 7.5 quake in the region.

We met him at the Moro airfield near Lake Kutubu. My colleague Koroi Hawkins and I had cadged a couple of seats on a helicopter used by the team leading PNG’s earthquake relief effort.

The chopper was flying around the quake-affected region, offering us startling views of collapsed mountainsides and deformed valleys. The quake and its significant aftershocks had caused many major landslides and landslips.

The slides and slips had taken out a number of villages, and destroyed countless structures. The disaster is estimated to have killed at least 180 people, although in a remote region like this, nobody can give an exact figure.

Badly isolated
When we picked him up at Moro, Richard Don told us that six people from his village had died in the disaster. The village, he explained, was now badly isolated as the main road and bridge which led to Yalanda’s general area had been cut off.

It wasn’t until we flew in with him to the remaining part of Yalanda village, perched as it is on the top of a small mountain, that the precariousness of this community’s position became clear.

The landslips which undermined the flanks of the village had taken huts, foot bridges and food gardens. Homes were collapsed or teetering on the hillside.

We walked up to the top, the village square, where dozens of villagers assembled, carrying axes and small children. Richard Don introduced us to them and they greeted us warmly. Little pigs and dogs wandered by. The kids who milled around had an almost forlorn look about them.

Don said Yalanda’s villagers, of whom there were 1300 in total, feared another big quake and sought to relocate to another location “where it’s more flatter, more good place, for them to resettle themselves”.

“But there are a lot of things to be done, like a road. We require a road network to be completed. I have already given the request to the prime minister.”

PNG’s Prime Minister Peter O’Neill visited Yalanda shortly after the initial quake and was aware of the village’s situation.

Basic supplies
The company Oil Search, a well established player in the local oil and gas sector, had given assistance with basic supplies and logistical support.

Don also mentioned that Yalanda had received help from the World Food Programme, the Red Cross and governments of Australia and New Zealand.

The team led by PNG’s Emergency Controller, Dr Bill Hamblin, has been helping co-ordinate relief in the region and had distributed many re-starter kits to affected communities to help them move gradually into recovery phase. However, villages like Yalanda were not easy to get to.

The village leader indicated the Yalanda community was aware that its request for infrastructure assistance, and help in relocating, would take time to process.

They had already begun clearing trees and establishing food gardens at a new village base at nearby Endela. A few people had already set up temporary, crude huts to live in at this base.

Other villagers had gone to stay at a care centre several kilometres away in Baguale. But around 800 remain in and around this desolate mountain village.

I spoke to a local pastor who conveyed in Tok Pisin (PNG language, or at least his community’s variation of it) how the Yalanda people had lived on this beautiful mountain for centuries, and that moving away would cause great sadness.

Village ‘bagarup’
But a young woman called Ruth Jeff told us in no uncertain terms how relocation was inevitable, because everything about the village was now broken, or in Tok Pisin “bagarup”.

“Bridge bagarap, road bagarap, house bagarap, haus-sik (medical hut) bagarap, garden bagarap. Children feel sick, feel worried, shocked,” she said, indicating the villagers had much work to do to re-establish their homes.

Richard Don presented us with a ten-page report detailing Yalanda’s situation, their relocation plans, request for help and description of assistance required, including items such as water tanks, tarpaulins and ‘spiritual development’.

The villagers we met were effusive in their gratitude for the help they’d received so far. A United Nations consultant who had flown with us in the helicopter was thrilled to find a wrapper for a World Food Programme muesli bar to take back with him as evidence that their assistance had, in this case, reached its target.

Yet the Yalanda community was struggling with food and medical shortages. They were also in desperate need of water tanks and tarpaulins among other relief items.

“My village, my people, I’m very worried, we need to have that road,” Richard Don noted.

“We’ve run out of food. We made a garden, but that can’t be harvest within a month or two. So at the moment we’re very hungry now, and most of the people are really suffering.”

Pilot anxious
The time to leave rolled around quickly. The pilot was looking anxious for us to leave, as we needed to fly back to Mt Hagen before the weather packed in.

As we got in the chopper, dozens of villagers sat on the hilltop, smiling and waving at us. The visit had served as little more than a quick situation update for the relief team representative. Still, the locals seemed grateful for the opportunity to get word out about their plight.

They kept waving as we ascended. The chopper whipped up dirt and debris, trees thrashed around dramatically, and a pig ran away frantically across the village square.
The earthquake disaster has left many Highlanders facing an uncertain future.

I could still see the villagers waving as we flew off and away, until they faded like dots into the brown and green of the mountain.

Johnny Blades and Koroi Hawkins of RNZ Pacific recently travelled to Papua New Guinea for a series of special reports. This article is republished under the Pacific Media Centre’s publishing partnership with Radio New Zealand.

Papua New Guinea’s mayhem in the Southern Highlands capital of Mendi earlier this month caused destruction of 42,000 vaccine innoculations meant for children aged under 5.

The innoculations were ruined when the Air Niugini Dash 8 aircraft was set alight at Mendi airport.

A disgusted Emergency Controller of the Emergency Disaster Restoration Team, Dr Bill Hamblin, said the rampage also saw supplies stored in two warehouse in Mendi looted.

“Not only were supplies stolen up there and resold on the streets, but the plane that was destroyed was carrying vaccines for under 5-year-old children – 42,000 vaccines destroyed,” he said.

“Now we have no replacement for those in the country where UNICEF is trying to replace those at the moment.

“The people who do those sorts of acts don’t belong in our society, they belong behind bars,” Dr Hamblin said.

“I’ m looking forward to the arrest of those people and that they get to see the full force of the law.”

He thanked all development partners and countries in the region which supported the Emergency Disaster Restoration Team.

“We wholeheartedly thank them for the support they’ve put in, without them, the scale of disaster would have been much worse, people could have died needlessly,” Dr Hamblin added.

Sally Pokiton is a reporter for Loop PNG.

This week turned out to be one of those only too frequent turbulent periods in Papua New Guinea when you never know what’s going to happen and, for long periods, who might be in charge.

And the week ended with the deployment of half of the PNG Defence Force’s ground troops to the region as the government has clearly decided to crush for once and for all a well armed, if disorganised, blend of angry landowner, disaffected tribal and criminal elements.

First angry supporters of losing candidates in last year’s contentious national elections set alight an Air Niugini aircraft and burned down court buildings and the governor’s residence in the Southern Highlands capital of Mendi.

READ MORE: ‘Those of you who condemned the actions of the people of Southern Highlands in Mendi should have been more scared about the judiciary being compromised’

The entire nation watched attentively as for some days Prime Minister Peter O’Neill seemed to be reluctant to visit his troubled home area and use his authority to placate people whose aggression had reached boilover point.

Fortunately, in this incident there were no deaths recorded and just a few injuries.

O’Neill eventually flew to Mendi, touching fingers with some of his people through the mesh of a safety fence before flying out to Beijing where the action was more benign but could ultimately turn out to be just as precarious for a stable South Pacific.

Then more violence erupted in neighbouring Hela province where landowners protesting about the non-payment of gas royalties by the PNG government set fire to equipment and blockading and airstrip and roads leading to the major resource project operated by ExxonMobil.

Pipeline project damaged
ExxonMobil said heavy equipment had been damaged at its Angore gas pipeline construction project and the impact of the equipment damage on the project’s schedule of work was being assessed.

As the noted commentator Martyn Namorong put it: “While PNG’s prime minister is wined and dined in Beijing, landowners destroy ExxonMobil’s PNG LNG assets in Hela Province. Shows how out of touch the ruling class are.”

By now the PNG government had declared a state of emergency and begun to deploy the first of 440 Papua New Guinea Defence Force troops to the distressed region.

This is a huge number of troops for a PNG operation and is reminiscent of the then government’s response to the Bougainville crisis of the 1990s when PNG soldiers were overcome by guerrilla and irregular forces of the Bougainville Revolutionary Army and forced into a humiliating and costly retreat.

Their commander, Brigadier-General Gilbert Toropo, was confident his soldiers would restore the rule of law.

“We will only use minimum force to contain the situation,” he said.

Meanwhile Deputy Prime Minister Charles Abel tried to reassure landowners saying the government was working to release royalties from the LNG project but court disputes were holding up the release of funds.

Too many excuses
But landowners have heard too many excuses in the past and this one was unlikely to provide much comfort.

By yesterday, Mendi police commander Chief Inspector Gideon Kauke was able to say the town was operating normally with a 6am-6pm curfew in place.

“Police are working around the clock to collect the names of criminals who were involved in burning down of Link PNG DHC-8 plane and the buildings,” Kauke said.

In Tari, tribal hostilities were also reported to have quietened down. Tari had been the focal point for deadly tribal fighting with about 20 people reported killed since March in and around the town.

But the police commander there, Thomas Levongo, said there was no guarantee fighting would not break out again.

“You know Tari, expect the unexpected. So now at the moment it’s quiet but I don’t know, anything could happen any time.”

Chris Overland comments:
The 440 PNGDF members deployed to Mendi represent a full battalion of troops or about 50 percent of all PNGDF land forces.

This is, on the face of it, an extraordinary response by the government. Presumably, there is little confidence that the RPNGC (police) can handle the situation, possibly because it is out gunned in this case.

Moving such a large number of troops into the area is fraught with risk. While their rules of engagement aim to minimise the risk of conflict, it will only take one idiot on either side to open fire to ignite a conflagration.

Let us hope that the leadership on each side is wise enough and strong enough to prevent this.

Keith Jackson is the editor and publisher of the independent Noosa-based PNG Attitude website.

• More PNG stories

Video footage of Southern Highlands landowners protesting over the suspension of the provincial government by Prime Minister Peter O’Neill’s government. Video: Tonny Maben/Cafe Pacific

A former Papua New Guinea military commander has warned that he is “concerned, if not frightened” that the PNG Defence Force may be deploying police and soldiers in the troubled Southern Highlands province facing a deadly weapon.

Ex-Brigadier-General Jerry Singirok , a former commander of the PNGDF who arrested mercenaries deployed by the Sir Julius Chan government for the Bougainville war in the so-called Sandline crisis in 1997, has made his views known in independent media.

In an item published by PNG Attitude and EMTV journalist Scott Waide’s blog, Singirok described Prime Minister Peter O’Neill’s government response to last week’s Mendi riots as a “premature state of emergency” and a “cheap, reckless and knee-jerk option”.

His comments have come at a time when the nation has been shocked by the display of high powered assault weapons by protesters since last week’s Mendi rioting.

It is clear that the government’s guns amnesty last year did little to encourage people to surrender their weapons, reports Loop PNG.

Defence Minister Solan Mirisim said that talks of weapons surrender or disposal would be part of discussions as leaders continued to discuss solutions to the Southern Highlands unrest.

Deadly weapon
Jerry Singirok wrote about his fears of how police and soldiers may be pitted against the MAG 58 Model 60-20 machine gun which he described as one of the most robust, deadly and effective weapons of its type ever manufactured.

He added:

“It is an air cooled, piston and gas operated weapon manufactured in the US and Belgium that uses a 7.62mm NATO belt-fed round and can effectively engage targets from 200-800 meters and – in open country – up a kilometre.

“In 1996, after trials, the PNG Defence Force under my command purchased them.

“Then, a few years ago, some went missing. I have recently seen photographs of them on social media.

“They have been installed on cabin-top trucks in the Southern Highlands province.

Ready for the fight
“I am very concerned, if not frightened, that the PNG government is deploying police and soldiers to the Southern Highlands who are likely to come face to face with the MAG 58.

“A premature state of emergency in the face of this combat power appears to be a cheap, reckless and a knee-jerk option by the government.

“In 1989, the then PNG government reacted to a security situation on Bougainville similar to Mendi today which brought PNG to its knees for ten years.

“A solid province was depleted of it minerals for that period and denied a generation of the blessings they would have brought.

“This seems to be yet another irresponsible decision along a similar path.

“How can the government sustain the PNGDF at a prolonged high level and intense military operation if it has not invested in air mobility and cannot buy the most basic uniforms, boots, field gear, ammunition, rations, fuel and so on.

“The country is stuck and doomed.”

• More Mendi riot stories

Angry Southern Highlands protesters threatening to cut off the Hides LNG pipeline. Image: Cafe Pacific

Pacific Media Centre Newsdesk

Community leaders from the troubled Southern Highlands province have welcomed the Papua New government’s decision to declare a State of Emergency and plans to suspend the provincial government.

Speaking in Port Moresby, they urged political leaders to visit the province and talk to people, reports EMTV News.

They also apologised for the violence that has drawn concerns and criticisms by all levels of society.

In other developments yesterday:

• Prime Minister Peter O’Neill clarified that Cabinet did not have the power to suspend any provincial government, reports Loop PNG. He said this would be a parliamentary decision.
• Provincial police commander Chief Superintendent Joseph Tondop has urged all political leaders from Southern Highlands province to return home and unite with their people to apologise to Air Niugini, the judiciary and the country.
• Acting Public Solicitor Lesley Mamu said the rioting was a “wakeup call” for those in the law sector to assess the effectiveness of the procedures, approaches, and systems they were using.
• Writing in PNG Blogs, Opposition Leader Don Polye said he condemned the destruction of state property but the solution to the situation in Mendi or elsewhere was not through “emotions and blaming each other”.

Angry march
Following reports of the suspension of the Southern Highlands government, angry supporters aggressively showed their disapproval by marching through Nipa with weapons and placards, demanding that the prime minister lift it, reports Loop PNG.

But it seems there has been a misunderstanding as Prime Minister O’Neill said the National Executive Committee (NEC) did not have that power.

He said newspaper reports were “pre-emptive”, meaning they were anticipating the move to suspend the Southern Highlands provincial government.

Chief Superintendent Joseph Tondop said it was time to apologise to the country as leaders of the province joined hands with their people in remorse. This would also provide a venue for reconciliation, reports the PNG Post-Courier.

Tondop said the public apology was due for the burning of Air Niugini Dash 8 aircraft, the courthouse and the governor’s residence last Thursday.

Meanwhile, security operations for the Southern Highlands State of Emergency started yesterday.

Soldiers and police personnel started patrols along road links into Mendi and the National Highway as well as providing security for government assets.

Mendi town quiet
Mendi town was unusually quiet as most shops and the Bank South Pacific remained closed.

Chief Supt Tondop visited the hospital and assured staff that they were safe, urging them to continue to provide services.

Acting Public Solicitor Lesley Mamu said: “It calls for us to sit together and gather our minds to start looking at improving the systems so that we find a way out this scenario and bring back rule of law to its position; currently rule of law is trampled upon and tarnished and it’s a concern.”

Mamu said the upcoming Law and Justice Summit in Lae, Morobe Province, next month would provide an opportune platform to address this concern, reports the PNG Post-Courier.

“It will bring together all the law offices and all the participants in the justice administration of this country to try to find a way forward in fighting crime and crime prevention,” he said.

Rioting ‘tainted PNG image’
The rule of law which was a concept embraced in “civilised and orderly societies” such as PNG also requires respecting agencies that were established by the laws of this country, Mamu said.

The rioting had tainted the nation’s image, he added.

Opposition Leader Don Polye said the solution was to “analyse and dig out the root cause of such unprecedented insanity in Mendi”.

“The need to root out the main cause of such a chaotic situation must be the National cry,” he wrote in PNG Blogs.

“Applying the security forces against the civilians is not a panacea. Deploying security to appease volatility is good but only a temporary and band aid solution.”

• More Mendi riot stories

More than 100 Papua New Guinea soldiers from Taurama Barracks First Royal Pacific Islands Regiment arrived in the Southern Highlands capital of Mendi at the weekend for the state of emergency operation which takes force from today.

Political leaders from the Southern Highlands – including Prime Minister Peter O’Neill, who is from the province – apologised to the nation for the “distress” caused by rioting and destruction of state property last week, reports the PNG Post-Courier.

Video clips circulating in PNG social media at the weekend show armed Southern Highlanders, some with assault rifles, challenging the government and threatening the massive PNG liquefied gas pipeline project in the province.

Some protest placards say “No SHPG then * no PNGLN *no Govt servc”, referring to the suspension of the Southern Highlands provincial government and the appointment by Port Moresby of an acting provincial administrator.

A 24-hour deadline was given by the protesters but it was unclear what their demands were or when the deadline would expire.

Prime Minister Peter O’Neill and leaders of the Southern Highlands province, including election petitioners for the governor’s seat, apologised over the distress, upheaval and destruction of state property in last week’s rioting.

Petitioner Joe Kobol met with Prime Minister O’Neill and Southern Highlands leaders with Enga Governor Peter Ipatas and other stakeholders of the province to apologise to the nation and iron out all issues surrounding the recent events.

‘Normalcy’ being restored
O’Neill told the Post-Courier in an interview that “normalcy” was now being restored, saying that all leaders had agreed that an independent provincial administrator would be appointed to maintain balance and independence of the operation of the province.

“All the leaders of Southern Highlands have met, including Joe Kobol and Pastor Bernard, who also contested the governor’s seat, and we have discussed issues that have caused the burning of state properties because of a court decision last week,” he said.

“Normalcy is being restored in the province and today we want to apologise to Papua New Guinea for the recent events that had taken place, mainly out of frustration,” he said.

“The leaders and I want to express and apologise for the distress caused. Our country has always enjoyed the peaceful resolution of the leaders.

“I also want to thank Enga Governor Sir Peter Ipatas, one of our senior statesmen, who is also here with us and I also want to thank Joe Kobol and Pastor Bernard, who are here to apologise and discuss the way forward,” O’Neill said.

The prime minister added that all the leaders had agreed for Thomas Eluh to be SOE Controller and that an emergency committee of Parliament would be convened immediately to assess the situation on the administration and the rule of law and order.

Mobile squad reinforcements
The Post-Courier’s Johnny Poiya reports that a number of Highlands-based police mobile squad groups and soldiers are also in Mendi town strengthening the number of security forces for the operation.

SOE controller Thomas Eluh is expected to arrive from Port Moresby today to the town where he left couple of months ago when he was removed as acting provincial administrator.

Provincial police commander Chief Superintendent Joseph Tondop, joint task force commander Lieutenant-Colonel Emmanuel Todick and senior security officers for the emergency operations met yesterday and discussed their operational plans.

• More Mendi riot stories

Southern Highlands protesters angry about the “suspension” of their provincial government. Video: Cafe Pacific

Two Papua New Guinean police vehicles travelling from Hagen to Hela in the Highlands after servicing were fired on today in a Highlands attack, with one vehicle being seized and two policemen taken captive, report local media.

The Tari-based MS9 vehicles were shot at this morning at Tindom Hill, Semin village, reports the EMTV News Facebook page.

Loop PNG also reports the attack, saying it was carried out by “disgruntled Nipa locals”.

READ MORE: Mendi in chaos after renewed political violence erupts

But the news website also quoted regional police chief Gideon Kauke as saying the policemen were “rescued by another unit” while their weapons and vehicles had been removed.

Kauke said the police were “regrouping” and deciding on the next course of action.

EMTV News said the first vehicle, driven by the MS9 commander, escaped with a flat tyre. The second vehicle was driven by two other police officers and three assault rifles had been seized.

Hela police chief Martin Lakari had appealed to Southern Highlands people to release the officers and the state vehicles.

Deputy Police Commissioner Operations Jim Andrews confirmed police were holding talks with locals to negotiate the return of vehicles and weapons.

Loop PNG reported the tribesmen were upset over Prime Minister Peter O’Neill’s government decision on Friday to suspend the Southern Highlands provincial government following rioting in Mendi on Thursday.

Asia Pacific Report republishes EMTV News content with permission.

• More Mendi riot stories

Papua New Guinea authorities have imposed a 6pm to 6am curfew in the Southern Highlands provincial capital of Mendi to prevent further violence.

Prime Minister Peter O’Neill has vowed that political leaders who are alleged to be behind the violence in which an Air Niugini aircraft at Mendi airport and the courthouse were set ablaze and destroyed yesterday will be arrested.

He said the culprits would be arrested and charged within a 21-day period, reports the PNG Post-Courier.

O’Neill announced this today after the National Executive Council decided to declare a state of emergency in Mendi.

Former Southern Highlands Provincial Administrator Thomas Eluh has been appointed SOE Controller.

Additional police and Defence Force personnel will be flown into Mendi to restore law and order.

The riot in Mendi followed a National Court decision yesterday dismissing the election petition by Joseph Kobol who had challenged last year’s election result, declaring the incumbent William Powi as Governor.

Plane, buildings set ablaze
An Air Niugini PNGLink Dash 8 aircraft was set on fire at Mendi airport, the District and National Court Building, as well as Governor William Powi’s residence were set alight in the election related violence to hit the Province.

Air Niugini chief executive officer Durani Tahawar said today that the captain and crew of the torched Link PNG Airline had safely arrived in Mount Hagen from Mendi under escort and were now being checked in at a safe Hotel.

“Our HGU staff is with them and we are grateful that they are safe, they shall return tomorrow to Port Moresby,” he said.

Earlier, Prime Minister O’Neill described the actions of the protesters as “disgraceful”, reports EMTV News.

Link PNG has suspended flights to Mendi, Tari and Wapenamanda until further notice.

Asia Pacific Report republishes EMTV News content with permission.

• Protesters in PNG’s Highlands torch plane, shut Mendi airport

Protesters in the Papua New Guinea Southern Highlands town of Mendi have torched a plane and closed the airport.

Earlier, the local police station commander Gideon Kauke had said police were guarding the aircraft to ensure there was no further damage after its tyres had been flattened.

But he said his team of about 10 police could not contain a mob of “uncountable numbers”, particularly after missiles were thrown, forcing them to retreat.

“We were guarding the plane but compared to them we were outnumbered and they came in all directions, all corners. Missiles were thrown, bush knives were thrown,” Kauke said.

Kauke said some of the protesters, who continued to behave “menacingly” in Mendi as their numbers build up, were carrying guns.

He said the protest was in response to a court ruling in Waigani confirming the election of the Southern Highlands Governor William Powi.

Governor Powi’s success in last year’s PNG general election had been challenged by Joseph Kobol and Bernard Peter Kaku.

Kauke said the protestors alleged there was foul play in the court decision.

This RNZ Pacific news item is published under a content sharing agreement with the Pacific Media Centre.

Papua New Guinea’s prime minister has dismissed as “fake news” a report that claims a partially-Australian funded liquefied natural gas project is failing to deliver a promised economic boom to his people.

Prime Minister Peter O’Neill, in Brisbane for the Australian-PNG business forum, hit out at a damning report by social justice non-government organisation Jubilee Australia which questioned whether projected economic benefits were flowing from the ExxonMobil-led project.

“It’s quite disappointing to note that some of our experts who align themselves with political opponents are continuing to talk down our economy and continuing to release fake news,” O’Neill said in his address to the forum.

READ MORE: Failed predictions and the PNG resource curse

The project supplies eight million tonnes of gas a year to Japan, South Korea and China, with the flow starting in 2014.

Australia’s export credit agency Efic made its largest-ever loan of $500 million to ExxonMobil, OilSearch, Santos and the PNG government in 2009.

Questions are now being asked why the project was backed by the Australian government.

“The people of PNG would have been better off had the project not happened at all,” report co-author Paul Flanagan, a former Australian Treasury official, said.

Report defended
Flanagan also defended the report: “I feel at this stage very, very confident in the numbers we had in that report. The report indicated that welfare in PNG has decreased because of the PNG LNG project.”

But O’Neill characterised the report as “utter nonsense” in his keynote address.

“It’s quite disappointing to note that some experts, who align themselves with political groupings, continue to talk down the (PNG) economy and continue to release fake news,” O’Neill said.

“It’s quite unrealistic to suggest the LNG project is not contributing to the economy of the country.”

ExxonMobil has defended the project saying it had contributed $5.69 billion to local businesses and the government through employment tax and royalties.

“Good governance, accountability and revenue transparency are critical to ensuring that the value unlocked from gas resources in PNG results in economic growth, increased opportunities and a better standard of living for Papua New Guineans,” a spokeswoman said.

A failure to identify landowners who would get hundreds of millions of dollars in royalties has triggered violence in PNG’S Highlands, raising fears of a resources civil war like the 1990s Bougainville crisis.

Australian backing questioned
Australian Australia’s backing of the project before the landowners’ issue was resolved is now being questioned. The report’s co-author, Paul Flanagan, says stakeholders need to be careful.

“It would seem sensible to ensure that local laws are followed before those funds are released,” he said.

Australia’s overseas-finance agency Efic backed the project with a $500 million loan. Australia’s Assistant Trade Minister, Mark Coulston, says there will be an investigation, but he says he cannot comment further at this stage.

“Obviously, there will be an investigation into the mechanism of how that works,” he said.

Coulton focused on the “game changer” upcoming Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation leaders summit in Port Moresby.

“It is an opportunity to showcase the business potential of PNG to the world – a stable, reliable democracy and an attractive commercial environment,” Coulton said.

“It is incumbent on us, during tough times, to keep making the case about the growth and competitiveness that comes from opening markets to trade and investment.”

Free trade stand
He praised PNG’s decision to reconsider joining up to the Pacific Pacer Plus free trade agreement.

Australian companies have $18 billion invested in PNG and more than 4600 Australian businesses are exporting goods into PNG.

A Exxon natural gas project site in Papua New Guinea.

Santos says liquefied natural gas production in PNG will return to full capacity next month.

Stefan Armbruster is Pacific correspondent of SBS News. Additional reporting by AAP, Amanda Copp. This article is republished with permission.

“On almost every measure of economic welfare, the PNG economy would have been better off without the PNG LNG project.”

Pacific Media Centre Newsdesk

Papua New Guinea’s massive PNG LNG project is one of “broken promises” that has largely failed the country, according to a major study released yesterday by social justice non-government organisation Jubilee Australia.

Entitled Double or Nothing: The Broken Economic Promises of PNG LNG, this report, co-authored by Paul Flanagan and Dr Luke Fletcher, compares the projected economic benefits of the PNG LNG project with actual outcomes.

The new study uses PNG government data to examine the predictions of the 2008 project report commissioned by ExxonMobil and promoted by Oil Search.

This examination finds that the positive predictions for the PNG economy were largely incorrect.

Key findings:

• Despite predictions of a doubling in the size of the economy, the outcome was a gain of only 10 percent and all of this focused on the largely foreign-owned resource sector itself;
• Despite predictions of an 84 percent increase in household incomes, the outcome was a fall of 6 percent;
• ●Despite predictions of a 42 percent increase in employment, the outcome was a fall of 27 percent;
• ●Despite predictions of an 85 percent increase in government expenditure to support better education, health, law and order, and infrastructure, the outcome was a fall of 32 percent; and
• ●Despite predictions of a 58 percent increase in imports, the outcome was a fall of 73 percent.

30-year span
PNG LNG is an Exxon-led project which supplies about 8 million tonnes of LNG a year to Japan, South Korea and China.

It is projected to run for 30 years. In 2009, Australia’s Export Credit Agency, Efic lent A$500 million to Exxon, OilSearch, Santos and the government of PNG.

Efic’s decision was based on advice from the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) provided to the then-Minister for Trade, Simon Crean, on advice from DFAT. This is the largest loan ever made by Efic.

Paul Flanagan writes in PNG Economics:

Specifically, growth in the resource sector has matched the confident predictions even with the fall in oil prices in 2014.

However, all other parts of the PNG economy have not done as well as predicted.

This is a major “broken promises” gap. This is the basis for the title of the latest report – the PNG LNG project promised to double GDP, but the outcome of 10 percent is close to nothing (especially when the size of PNG’s GDP is facing a major downgrade in the latest NSO 2015 update).

Revenues to the budget are only one-third of expected levels, and after allowing for project costs, will continue having a net negative impact on the budget (so below nothing) until around 2024.

Economy gone backwards
Of even greater concern, the examination finds that the PNG economy, apart from the resource sector, has actually gone backwards relative to its underlying growth path.

The most likely explanation for this sad outcome is PNG has slipped again into poor policies associated with the resource curse. The temptations of the rosy PNG LNG promises were too strong for politicians despite warnings from PNG Treasury, BPNG and outside academics.

During the O’Neill/Dion government, PNG descended into very damaging economic policies of a bloated budget and PNG’s largest deficits ever, fixing the exchange rate at an over-valued level, making foolish investments in areas such as Oil Search and harming the independence of PNG’s economic institutions.

With the focus being so strongly on getting the PNG LNG project operational, there was a lack of policy emphasis on other parts of the economy.

This is the “resource curse” gap.

Third time
PNG needs to learn the lessons from this experience. This is the third time that PNG has suffered from the resource curse:

• the first was with Bougainville Copper and the experience of the late 1980s;
• the second was the Kutubu/Porgera expectations that crashed so badly in the mid-90s;
• and the PNG LNG period is the third resource crisis.

The benefits of PNG’s resource wealth could in theory be tapped without damaging the rest of the economy.

But it would require very different choices by PNG’s politicians. PNG probably lacks the strong governance and institutions required to deal with the powerful resource sector lobby.

Even in Australia, the power of vested interests around the resource sector is blocking sensible options for sharing resource benefits more equitably and efficiently.

• Full Jubilee Australia report

Pacific Media Centre Newsdesk

Australian medical doctors will be at earthquake-affected areas soon to give medical aid and complement the local medical efforts to people who need medical help, the Post-Courier reports.

Prime Minister Peter O’Neill made the announcement yesterday, saying that paperwork was underway currently to fly them in.

Health Minister Sir Puka Temu said the government had asked Canberra for its doctors who were well organised in emergency situations.

“As soon as a clearance from the Medical Board is finalised, these doctors will be brought into the country,” he added.

Parliament is expected to sit this month to pass emergency legislation that allows for the establishment of a restoration authority for the earthquake affected areas, reports EMTV News.

The restoration authority will also govern the spending of funds allocated for the immediate and long-term rebuilding of the Hela, Southern Highlands and Western provinces.

The government may also consider a short-term budget strategy to deal with revenue shortfalls caused by the quake.

According to a United Nations report published on Reliefweb, 544,000 people have been affected in the PNG earthquake and 270,000 are still in need of immediate humanitarian assistance.

There is an urgent need for medicine, shelter, food and water. People are terrified, sleeping in the open.

Also, 26,000 people have been displaced in Western Province.

• More PNG earthquake stories

Papua New Guinea’s Highlands earthquake disaster has brought to light some of the many things that need to be considered in assisting those affected by disaster and restoring vital infrastructures and communication links between relief agencies and the people.

The response to the 7.5 magnitude earthquake on February 26 took almost a week for the National Disaster Centre to find out statistics of people who were affected, casualties, homes and food gardens destroyed and how to deliver relief supplies to those affected.

While a small team of medical officers in Hela and Southern Highlands provinces have been hard at work trying to reach and assist the affected communities, more deaths and injuries were reported from areas unreachable by road and telecommunications.

READ MORE: PNG quake – an invisible disaster which could change life forever

These are some of the impediments to getting accurate statistic:

• Most communities do not have schools, clinics and ward offices that will keep the records of people in their wards or communities.
• No road links to almost all the areas affected. The rugged terrain also makes it difficult for roads to be constructed and maintained.
• No telecommunication reception, or television and radio signals by which the people can be advised and educated on the disasters and how to avoid destruction.

At Timu village in Komo-Magarima, Hela province, 11 people were were killed by landslips caused by the earthquake.

Four out of the 11 bodies were recovered while the other seven bodies are still buried under the debris.

Timu village is just a few tens of kilometres away from the provincial capital Tari but it is way back in terms of basic services available for the people.

No benefits from gas pipeline
The people knew that there is a gas pipeline running through their neighbouring villages from Hides to the Papuan coastline but they have not seen the benefits from the gas and petroleum extraction in the province.

Teams of researchers and volunteers from relief agencies were tasked to collect data, informations and statistics of people who have been affected, but they can only be flown by helicopter into the affected areas.

There are no medivac helicopters to transport relief supplies and doctors into the affected communities.

The PNG Defence Force, Missionary Aviation Fellowship (MAF) and Adventist Aviation Services were kind enough to do trips into these remote communities.

The cost of hiring a helicopter in PNG is quite expensive. Helicopter companies are charging around K5000 (about NZ2200) an hour. With most communities being isolated in the remote areas, it is costly and ineffective to attend to more than five villages in a day.

The Australian Defence Force Hercules aircraft transporting relief supplies from Port Moresby, Lae and Mt Hagen has been landing at Moro airport, then smaller aircraft bring the supplies back to Tari and offload onto helicopters to distribute.

Disaster response in PNG has been very slow and hasn’t improved from previous experiences.

Volcano displaced islanders
In February 2018, I was in Wewak when a volcanic island began releasing smoke after being dormant for more than two centuries. The Kadovar Island volcano has displaced more than 600 islanders who are now seeking refuge at a temporary care centre supported by aid agencies.

Again the experiences from the Manam volcano in Madang hasn’t helped the authorities to sort out a permanent resettlement area for the displaced islanders. Slow response from the National Disaster Centre has caused greater loss for the people in the last three years.

They’ve lost their culture and they have lost their way of life on Manam island while living at the care centre at Bogia.

The National Disaster team should be the first people on ground after the disaster strikes.

They must be the first to make contact with the affected people, not turning up a week later only to find out that people died while waiting to receive treatment.

I hope the present disaster will provide an insight into issues that need to be addressed by the Papua New Guinea government to ensure the National Disaster Centre is adequately and constantly funded to serve its purpose.

Sylvester Gawi is a National Broadcasting Corporation (NBC) journalist who blogs independently at Graun Blong Mi – My Land.

• More PNG earthquake stories

Thousands of people have been displaced and are still waiting for relief assistance in disaster affected areas in Hela and Southern Highlands provinces a week after the 7.5 magnitude earthquake destroyed their homes and food gardens in Papua New Guinea.

Aftershocks below 5 magnitude have been experienced in the last 7 days with locals on high alert and awaiting relief supplies and assistance in evacuations to safer grounds.

Hela Provincial Hospital in Tari confirmed a total of 38 deaths and 8 unconfirmed deaths yesterday afternoon. A medical team was deployed into Limu and Homapawa villages in the Benere ward area where a a total of 21 deaths were confirmed.

Homapawa village confirmed 10 deaths and Timu 11. Of the 11 in Timu, 4 have been retrieved and given proper burial while another 7 (a family of six and another teenage girl) are still buried under the debris along with their house.

Efforts by locals to retrieve their bodies are slowly progressing at this stage.

Timu villagers who have lost all their houses and food gardens are now taking refuge at their local EBC Church building in the village.

Another 12 confirmed deaths have been reported at the Mt Bosavi area in the Komo-Magarima district of Hela. Nearby Mananda village also reported 5 confirmed deaths and houses and food gardens destroyed by the disaster.

More deaths reported
Health officials are yet to verify uncomfirmed reports of some more deaths in Magarima and Pandoka.

So far Hela province has reported a total of 38 confirmed deaths while Southern Highlands has reported 37 deaths so far. This now brings the death toll to 75 as at yesterday afternoon.

Affected communities are facing severe food, clothing and fresh water shortages as relief efforts are slowly progressing at this stage. Most of these villages in Hela are situated along the pipelines areas of the oil and gas plants in Southern Highlands and Hela provinces.

Humanitarian relief agencies are also doing their best to get into affected communities which most communities are inaccessible by road or the road links cut off by the disaster.

Oil Search Limited has committed K6 million in cash and kind towards the disaster while EXXON Mobil has committed K3 million towards relief assistance.

Oil Search has already began distributing relief supplies to parts of Southern Highlands while relief supplies were also delivered by the Australian Defence Force Hercules aircraft to Moro in Hela.

The National Disaster Centre in a statement released yesterday said it was still waiting for accurate data to reach it so that it could act.

However, people from the affected communities have pleaded for the government to fast track relief assistance and also address resettlement issues as they were still in fear following aftershocks over the past week.

Journalist Sylvester Gari blogs at Graun Blong Mi-My Land where this article was first published.

• More PNG earthquake stories

Local community leaders have taken charge of care centres in the Southern Highlands province of Papua New Guinea as they await food, clothing and other relief supplies to be delivered.

Acting Southern Highlands Provincial Administrator Thomas Eluh said six care centres had been set up around SHP by locals.

The death toll yesterday stood at 37 while there have been 25 unconfirmed deaths reported. Sixteen deaths have been reported in Hela.

Road links into most of the affected villages have been blocked by debris from landslips piling up. Some sections of the roads were badly damaged by the movement from the earthquake.

Police from the Mobile Squad based in Mendi have been grounded in the last 24hours after their fuel supply tanks were also damaged by the earthquake.

Most shops and fuel stations have been reportedly closed following damages from Monday’s earthquake and the aftershocks that are constant in the province.

The Agiru Centre which houses the provincial administration has also reported damages to its offices and equipment and has been condemned by authorities. The provincial administrator and the disaster team are now operating out of the provincial police command in Mendi.

Nursing school destroyed
The Mendi School of Nursing was one of the institutions I have visited that has most of its buildings destroyed by the earthquake.

There is now a greater need for funding to be made available through the National Disaster Office so that logistical support can be provided to distribute relief supplies.

In Hela, a total of 16 deaths have been confirmed by the Hela Provincial Hospital in Tari. More causalties are expected to be reported in the coming days as volunteers are dispatched to gather reports.

Tari-Pori MP and Finance Minister James Marape said about 40 percent of Papua New Guinea’s revenue would be affected if the Hides operations was shut down.

Minister Marape said the government is confident that this would not really affect the budgetary allocation for 2018.

Hela’s political leaders also joined Minister Marape and Governor Philip Undialu to show solidarity and support towards addressing the plight of their people affected.

The provincial disaster response team in Hela is also working together to address the situation.

Funding allocations
The National Government has committed K450 million towards the disaster. The disaster committee has made allocations for the initial K100:

• K40 million will be spent to fix the road infrastructures damaged by the earthquake so that affected areas are accessible for relief supplies to be delivered.
• K10 million to assist schools and education institutions buildings damaged by the disaster and another K10 million for health services.
• K23 million has been set aside for transport, logistical support and other areas to provide relief assistance.

The remaining K350 million will also be spent on the same purposes once assessment reports of the extent of the damages are confirmed and brought to the disaster team’s attention.

In a statement released yesterday, Oil Search has committed K6 million in donations in cash and kind in disaster relief efforts to both Hela and SHP.

The Australian government has begun to fly its supplies to Moro on its Australian Defence Force Hercules plane loaded with relief supplies.

New Zealand’s donations will arrive today.

Sylvester Gawi is a Papua New Guinea journalist who blogs at Graun Blong Mi- My Land where this article was first published. It has been republished by Asia Pacific Report with permission.

• Other PNG earthquake reports

While the multibillion dollar mammoth petroleum company Exxon declared “force majeur” and another counted its financial losses, one family from Magarima in the Southern Highlands was this weekend mourning the devastating loss of their last born son and his young family.

Twenty-one-year-old Jack Wapol Mawe had already run out of the house he and is family had been sleeping in that night.

But then when he went back into the small building to pull out his wife and baby, the landslip buried them in the house.

“We found him frozen in motion… his hands reaching out to his young wife and first born son when they were all buried,” said Fr Pius Hal the Catholic priest at the Mendi Diocese and an uncle to Jack Mawe.

Jack had recently married Regina. They were transiting through Mendi with their son when the earthquake struck and killed all three of them.

Yesterday, doctors at the Mendi Hospital completed the post mortem and today, the family was taken by road to Magarima where they are from.

“I had not seen him for a long while. I think he was feeling a bit shy of talking to me because he had married quite early. He would have been about 20 or 21. His wife would have been about the same age.

“They had come from Hagen. It was the first time I had seen him in many years. That night he was gone.”

Circle of rocks memorial
At the site of the landslip in the centre of Mendi town behind the local CLC church, a small circle of rocks with a short wooden stake in the middle marks the place of death.

“They’re gone,” says a relative. “We’re looking after the place.”

Much of the house is still buried. The hauskrai is deserted. Three young lives were cut short just as they begun their journey together as a family.

In distant Komo, several hours from Mendi town, the roads are cut off. From the air, it looks like it’s been cut to shreds by giant claws that ripped the ground open.

An Indian priest who travelled in from Tari today, said his parishioners told him at least 14 people have died. Some of the areas are too far to reach and too difficult without road access.

Help is coming, the government says. A state of emergency has been declared and K450 million allocated.

The Australian government, MAF and Oil Search are on the ground in the three provinces of hela, Southern Highlands and Western Highlands but it will take weeks before everyone who needs it receives it.

Scott Waide, a Lae-based senior journalist for EMTV News, blogs at My Land, My Country, where this article was first published. He also posted a short update on The Pacific Newsroom today saying the Acting Administrator for Southern Highlands, Thomas Eluh, had confirmed that 37 deaths had been reported with 25 more unaccounted for so far. He appealed for more aid.

• Exxon declares force majeure on PNG exports after quake

By Gorethy Kenneth in Port Moresby

The Papua New Guinea government has declared an immediate state-of-emergency for the earthquake-devastated provinces of Hela, Southern Highlands, Western and Enga provinces.

Cabinet met yesterday and also set aside K450 million for relief and service restoration operations.

Prime Minister O’Neill also announced yesterday that cabinet had approved the establishment of a restoration authority that would manage long-term reconstruction efforts during a four-year period to fully restore normalcy.

O’Neill said that an emergency session of Parliament would be called soon to approve the legislation setting up the restoration authority.

He said K100 million would be released immediately and the remaining K300 million spread over a long term arrangement.

A committee assisted by the Works Department under an emergency disaster restoration team, led by Dr William Hamlin, as the emergency controller would be announced today.

Dr Hamlin and team would manage and co-ordinate all restoration activities working with provincial authorities.

Unprecedented disaster
O’Neill said that this was an unprecedented disaster in the Highlands region with an appropriate response underway by the National Government.

He said while all these decisions were being made, relief efforts were already underway, and further assessments provided to focus operations to areas in need.

“A state-of-emergency has been declared to expedite the restoration of essential public services including healthcare services, schools, road access, airports, power and communications facilities,” O’Neill said.

“An emergency session of Parliament will be convened for the presentation of legislation that will establish the restoration authority, with the date of the session to be announced by the Speaker of Parliament.

“Members of the PNG Defence Force and disaster officers were dispatched to the affected areas immediately following the earthquake, and are working with provincial authorities, particularly with the governors of Hela and Southern Highlands provinces.

“Essential government departments are already delivering relief, and we are further working with partners in the international community to utilise specialist relief capabilities to reach our people and communities affected by the earthquake.”

Gorethy Kenneth is a senior PNG Post-Courier journalist.

• More PNG earthquake stories

A rampaging crowd has attacked Papua New Guinea Prime Minister Peter O’Neill’s official vehicle and business interests in Mendi, Southern Highlands Province.

The Toyota LandCruiser V8 vehicle was stolen, and construction and mining logistics company Wildcat Construction base looted and torched on Saturday afternoon.

Another company, South West Air’s airport hangar, was ransacked although its fleet of fixed wing and rotary wing aircraft had been moved elsewhere earlier.

The LandCruiser was among 10 vehicles, including an excavator, backhoe and grader, stolen by a rampaging crowd that had ran amok through the town.

An expatriate manager was rescued by bystanders when the Prime Minister’s premises were attacked.

The Wildcat Construction and South West Air are the two biggest locally owned companies in the province that employees many locals and foreigners.

The attack followed the declaration of William Powi as Governor of Southern Highlands Province last Thursday.

O’Neill blamed over election
Witnesses in Mendi yesterday said the rampaging crowd blamed O’Neill for the long delay in counting and eventual declaration of Powi as Governor.

All government services and businesses were closed and Mendi town was quiet and deserted yesterday.

The police station gate was locked with chain while the hospital, post office and Bank South Pacific were also closed.

Traffic along the Southern Highlands section of the Highlands Highway was scarce.

Senior public servants and a policeman, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said all facilities and business house like the bank, shops, airlines and schools, besides the provincial administration, had shut operations in fear of violence.

They said Air Niugini and South West Air, which lost computers and aircraft parts, have closed their operations for an indefinite period.

The former Carson Pratt Services workshop at Wara Maigani, now owned by Wildcat Construction, was burned down while the main Papindo Supermarket was looted.

Two policemen shot dead
“Also on Saturday afternoon, two policemen were shot dead while another was seriously wounded and is now admitted at the Mt Hagen General Hospital.

Two teachers were with the policemen when attacked; one of them had his hands chopped off while his colleague is still missing.

It was reported that gates at the Mendi General Hospital and the Mendi School of Nursing  were rammed while the staff were threatened.

Public servants and schools in Mendi, including Mendi Day Secondary Schools, have all been affected.

Sources said police in the province have sought refuge with the candidates, allowing criminals to take over the town, firing guns indiscriminately.

Southern Highlands Governor William Powi condemned the actions of the minority who continue to take the law into their hands.

He said it was the work of the police to maintain law and order but the province had been taken over by warlords.

Condolences sent
Sending his condolences to the families of the two police based in Koroba, Enga Province, killed and the wounded, Powi said he did not understand the motive of the killings.

“I send my condolences to the families of those attacked. We have no issue with Hela and the attack on innocent people is unacceptable. I call on the police hierarchy to arrest people involved in instigating violence and denying freedom of the citizens,” he said.

He said it was only a handful of people from Mendi who were sabotaging peace and harmony in the town.

• More PNG news stories

Polling in Enga has been deferred until tomorrow as more disruptions have hit the Papua New Guinea general election.

The polling was due to go ahead yesterday but grievances being raised by the majority of open and regional candidates in Enga and electoral roll problems have sparked a delay.

Pre-counting in Enga has been disrupted in the provincial capital of Wabag following unfavorable responses to demands presented to the Election Manager Anton Yamau in a petition signed by majority of candidates — all except those loyal to the People’s National Congress (PNC) government led by Prime Minister Peter O’Neill.

The mock counting should have commenced on Friday in Wabag. However, a protest march — led by the Opposition Leader and incumbent Kandep MP Don Pomb Polye — and demands by the opposition candidates forced a delay.

Opposition MPs said manager “must not hold Enga people in ransom” as he was running the people’s election in a bid to elect “good leaders”.

Loop PNG reports that Electoral Commissioner Patilias Gamato said Western Highlands faced the same electoral roll issues and would also vote tomorrow.

Voters in Jiwaka continued poilling yesterday and the Southern Highlands also completed voting.

Simbu voters started polling late — at 2pm — yesterday due to a shortage of seals and packing materials.

• ‘Peaceful’ Enga ready to vote
• More PNG election stories

By the EMTV News elections coverage team

Papua New Guinea Prime Minister Peter O’Neill has finally cast his vote in the general election.

O’Neill voted in his local village, Kauwo, in Pangia Southern Highlands province yesterday, reports EMTV’s Theckla Gunga.

Before polling began, the community had a church service.

Polling for Ialibu-Pangia was deferred for two days following complaints and a petition by candidates over missing ballot papers and appointment of presiding officers among other concerns.

Earlier, after Friday’s polling hold-up in the Southern Highlands, O’Neill called for election delays to be put into perspective.

He claimed the 2017 elections had been a dramatic change from the previous three elections where there was violence and the electoral process had been “hijacked”.

Speaking from Mendi, the incumbent Prime Minister said voting in his province had been delayed, but it is better to wait and ensure the process was run properly.

‘Understand the hardship’
“While the delay is disappointing, we understand the hardship and the difficulties that election officials are going through,” O’Neill said.

“Putting this in perspective, I hear comment from election observers that delays like this are common in developing country elections, particularly with remote and rugged terrain and diverse cultures.”

The Prime Minister said the leaders he had spoken with were pleased with the manner in which the election was taking place and the public’s reception to the election process.

“Unlike previous elections, there is relative calm in this province and other provinces,” O’Neill said.

He said there had been very good campaigning conducted in Southern Highlands province, and around the region.

“This was not the experience of 2002, 2007 and 2012 where certain candidates hijacked the election process.

“People must not forget the failures and hardship or previous elections.

“In 2002, in Southern Highlands and Hela provinces, there were seven failed elections.”

EMTV News stories are republished with permission.

• More PNG election stories

Candidates contesting Papua New Guinea’s Ialibu/Pangia Open Electorate in the Southern Highlands province have accused Prime Minister Peter O’Neill of “rigging” the country’s national elections.

“Today confirmed everyone’s worst fears – these elections were deliberately rigged from the start,” said Stanley Liria, one of the candidates who signed a formal protest letter with election manager David Wakias before polling began in the electorate.

The open electorate is where Prime Minister O’Neill is the incumbent MP.

The rival candidates claimed in their letter the electorate was not ready for polling today.

The candidates are Jerry Kiwai, Nepoleon Rema, Tua Yasa, Stanley Liria, Justus Rapula, Leonard Pangepea and Dr Sam Kari.

At a meeting at Ialibu District Office, they unanimously agreed that certain issues be “properly addressed” before polling started.

Their letter was registered with the manager Wakias.

‘Treating people like dirt’
Candidate Liria said people were fed up with corruption, dictatorship, lying, stealing, and “treating people like dirt”.

He said the people of Ialibu-Pangia were peaceful and hard working, and had the right to choose their new leader through a “fair, transparent and honest” process.

“O’Neill is denying you this constitutional, democratic right,” Liria said.

All candidates, apart from O’Neill, had “through blood, sweat and tears” visited the entire electorate on foot and seen the “disastrous lack of services and conditions” people had to endure, Liria said.

Claiming that polling day had confirmed fears that the elections had been rigged, Liria added on his Facebook page:

“No common roll, politically appointed presiding officers, failure to brief candidates, failure to select impartial political officials, failure to release lists of all polling officials — including 7 wards from Imbonggu within Ialibu-Pangia electorate [and a previously] … undefined ward in the electorate.”

These issues represented grave concerns for the integrity of the Ialibu-Pangia elections, and so the contesting candidates had served notice with manager Wakias.

“We have been robbed, and not only Ialibu-Pangia but all of PNG will suffer like never before.”

• Lae police confirm burning of ballot papers
• More PNG election stories