Gun violence being accepted as ‘a normal part of life’

CATHERINE WILSON | Inter Press Service [extracts]

IN PAPUA NEW GUINEA, where more than 60% of major crimes involve guns, a burgeoning illegal arms trade is associated with lack of employment growth and low human security, with vulnerable communities suffering the consequences.

This is the case in the autonomous region of Bougainville, where disarmament remains elusive more than 10 years after a civil war.

“Guns are now being used in domestic violence and armed robberies, and to settle land issues,” said Helen Hakena, director of the Leitana Nehan Women’s Development Agency in Bougainville.

“Recently there have also been armed hold-ups and shoot-outs between gun owners and police. Many people in Bougainville now accept guns as a normal part of life.”

Development and economic recovery in Bougainville have been slow over the past decade, and many issues from the civil war have not been resolved.

“We also see that guns are being traded between Bougainville and other parts of PNG and across borders. People from the Highlands often come here to buy guns,” Hakena said.

In the Bougainville civil war, 20,000 people were killed and more than 60,000 displaced, while a “lost generation” of children were denied education and infrastructure was decimated.

Gun violence is a serious issue in PNG. Port Moresby, with a population of 450,000, has a murder rate of 54 per 100,000 people, compared to an average global rate of less than 7 per 100,000 people.

And in the Southern Highlands, where an estimated 90% of firearms are illegally owned, 23% of households have been victimised by guns.

In 2005, PNG’s Guns Control Committee produced a report which made numerous recommendations for gun reforms. But these have never been acted upon.

There is a known link between the trade in guns and drugs. The illicit commercial cultivation of marijuana has been identified in PNG, where it is regularly traded for firearms.

Comments

[Mrs Barbara Short]

Leonard, I think you are wrong.

The man who will survive is the man who continues on with his traditional life, farming, fishing and hunting, using age-long remedies to stop infection, keeping at peace with his family and wantoks, working out differences of opinion by talking all problems through until a compromise is reached, trying to earn some money by growing cash crops or running small businesses such as a trade store, earning money for his children's education.

PNG's resources will not all be depleted by globalisation. Where there are now mines, they will one day be closed down and hopefully the vegetation will return. But there will still be plenty of other land left for agricultural purposes.

You spoil your arguments by exaggerating the problems. Start to be realistic. Stop writing in a sensational way. Start writing in a way which shows you have thought a lot about your topic.

In the US over the past few months there have been some tragic mass shootings, one at a cinema, one in a shopping centre, etc The US have not chosen to stop the individual citizen from owning guns and they are suffering dramatically from this decision. I feel they will continue to suffer until they do something about their gun control laws.

I think it would help the people of Bougainville a lot if gun control laws were brought in on Bougainville. It is obvious that some very insecure, upset individuals are still holding on to guns in Bougainville. You never know when they could become completely unreasonable and start shooting indiscriminately.

As a former Keravat NHS teacher I mourn for the loss of young PNG men, my former students, who were killed, on both sides of the civil war in PNG.

Please, I don't want to see it ever happen again!

[N Matbob]

From personal experience, I have been held at gunpoint and I was shot at when I was a young boy. Now it is only a matter of time when I will not be so lucky...

Guns don't kill people, rather people kill people. Not only should there be a drive to stop guns falling into the wrong hands but there should be attempts to change peoples' attitudes as well. This is just a thought...

[Leonard Roka]

The guns are not a problem. The problem is PNG's jump from the stone-age into the computer-age living many of its citizens with absolutely nothing to see meaning and purpose in life.

So in the near future, when every natural resources are depleted by globalisation, the PNG man has no agricultural base to sustain him as a person thus, it is the man with the gun will survive.

And, it's already are reality in every corner of PNG.

In Bougainville, the story is the same.

Tingting tasol.

[Edzii Kuvem]

Those who practice robbery as an end for their survival are believed to be the lazy ones. Hope that justice be strong in years to come that will hunt down those illegal gun owners.

[Mrs Barbara Short]

Let us hope that the new government will do something similar to what John Howard did after the Port Arthur massacre and recall all guns which are held illegally.

Those poor people of Bougainville need to hand over their guns too. The police and the army should be the only people allowed to have guns.