Keith Jackson & Friends: PNG ATTITUDE

Death penalty law is in parliament this week

RADIO NEW ZEALAND INTERNATIONAL

PAPUA NEW GUINEA’S MINISTER FOR JUSTICE and attorney-general, Kerenga Kua, says amendments to the law on the death penalty will be tabled in Parliament this week.

He says work on the draft document is being completed.

Mr Kua says the law and order situation in the country is serious and the government wants to seek ways to address the problem through better policies.

PNG protests highlight violence against women

RADIO NEW ZEALAND INTERNATIONAL

A SERIES OF SIT-INS AND PROTESTS were held across Papua New Guinea through Tuesday night to highlight the issue of increasing violence against women.

The Haus Krai (mourning or grieving ceremony) was a response to a series of recent murders of women, including some accused of sorcery.

RNZI correspondent, Todagia Kelola, said the sit-ins at and around Sir John Guise stadium in Port Moresby featured cultural performances and prayer through the night.

They continued until late morning when a petition is handed to prime minister Peter O’Neill, who was said to have spoken eloquently.

Alleged PNG crime boss on visa wanted over $30m theft

NICK McKENZIE & RICHARD BAKER | The Age

AN ALLEGED CRIME BOSS wanted in Papua New Guinea over the theft of $30 million has used a 457 visa issued by the Australian government to avoid arrest and prosecution.

Eremas Wartoto, accused of being one of PNG's most corrupt figures by anti-graft authorities, has been living in Cairns since mid-2011.

He obtained a 457 visa, the foreign skilled worker visa at the centre of a Gillard government crackdown, after learning PNG authorities planned to charge him in August 2011.

Since then, Mr Wartoto has claimed to be too ill to face trial in Port Moresby over serious criminal charges laid against him in absentia two years ago.

Police minister admits LNG tensions could boil over

RADIO NEW ZEALAND INTERNATIONAL

PAPUA NEW GUINEA POLICE MINISTER Nixon Duban admits that growing tension surrounding the LNG project in Hela Province could lead to law and order problems.

Many people believe PNG’s first liquefied natural gas project has provided little of the promised infrastructure and development promised by project operator, Esso Highlands.

A former police commissioner Gary Baki, says outside the project site there are only three police for nearly 30,000 people in the Komo region and says they won’t be able to cope if the situation boils over.

Tougher criminal laws in PNG are long overdue

FRANCIS NII

PRIME MINISTER PETER O’NEILL this week declared war on crime in Papua New Guinea amidst the escalating law and order situation, including the recent murder of an Australian businessman in Mt Hagen.

Crimes of all sorts - including rape, murder, police brutality and white collar fraud - are burgeoning in every institution and community and have become deterrents to development and threats to life in PNG.

The issue of crime has been raised by investors, civil society organisations and business houses many times. But there nothing concrete has been done about it apart from the establishment of Task Force Sweep which has made inroads into corruption and the systematic thievery of state finances.

Will the death penalty stop violent crime in PNG?

ALBERT TOBBY

VIOLENT CRIMES FLOURISH unabated in our societies today. This is not recent practice but a continuation of violence of similar nature over a prolonged period.

People don't just wake-up one morning and decide to rape or murder someone. They've developed a perspective over a period of time that shaped their world view and regulates their behaviour.

People's attitudes are shaped by their socio-cultural environment, their education and their genetic heredity.

However there are other mechanisms that ensure that these three elements function in shaping individual behaviour, such as economic and social services.

To execute or not to execute, now there’s a question

PETER KRANZ

IT HAS BEEN A ROBUST debate in Papua New Guinea these recent days about prime minister O'Neill's proposals to get tough on crime and enforce the death penalty (which I'm not sure he is serious about).

I don't doubt there is massive community feeling about getting tough on rapists, child abusers, wanton killers and bank robbers.

I am heartened by the response of the Catholic Church and Martyn Namorong’s view that "the government plans to crack down on violence by perpetrating it themselves”.

And the sorcery legislation definitely needs revising, as it seems to give something of a legal justification for lynch behaviour targeting so-called 'sorcerers'.

But I ask Papua New Guineans to think twice before considering enforcing the death penalty.

Tribal squabbles: How law & order breakdown began

BOB CLELAND

IN 1955 I WAS A PATROL OFFICER working in the Eastern Highlands District of the then Territory of Papua and New Guinea.

My field staff colleagues and I – kiaps – were members of the Department of District Services and Native Affairs in the Administration.

The lowest level of court in PNG was the Court for Native Affairs. It was a court of summary jurisdiction presided over by magistrates who were usually kiaps.

Appointments of junior officers as magistrates were recommended by a District Commissioner only after a minimum period of field duties, attendance as observers of actual cases and a demonstrated knowledge of the controlling ordinance and regulations.

I was appointed after a year of service to the position ‘Magistrate in the Court for Native Affairs’.

Policing in PNG is failing the interests of citizens

PNG police have been subject to recent criticism for not dealing forcefully with heinous crimes against citizens. PAUL OATES looks at relevant historical, cultural and political factors….

THE CONCEPT OF A POLICE FORCE (or ‘service’ as many are now known), is foreign to Papua New Guinea. But it’s fair to add that, until around 200 years ago, the idea was unknown in most parts of the world.

In Britain and Australia, law and order was the responsibility of local armed militia units theoretically answerable to local magistrates and government.

In practice, this allowed local militia ‘colonels’, who may well also have been the local landowner and magistrate, a good deal of leeway in how law and order was maintained.

Sir Robert Peel, a British prime minister is generally credited with the inception of the concept of a modern police force.

Forced labour trafficking & sex exploitation rife in PNG

THIN LEI WIN | TrustLaw

WOMEN AND GIRLS in Papua New Guinea are being trafficked for sexual exploitation, forced labour and domestic servitude within the country and across international borders, according to a new report.

In the absence of laws criminalising trafficking in persons “victims of trafficking are at risk of prosecution and further psychological and physical abuse and trauma”, it said.

The report, by the International Organisation for Migration and the PNG Department of Justice and Attorney General, is the first to provide baseline statistics on people who have been smuggled and trafficked in the country.

The setbacks bedevilling Bougainville's peace process

LEONARD FONG ROKA | Supported by the Jeff Febi Writing Fellowship

THE BOUGAINVILLE CRISIS from its very beginning in 1988 was reinforced by the economically and socially displaced youngsters of central Bougainville and parts of south Bougainville, especially the Bana District.

These youths were mostly unemployed and often the criminal elements of the then economically booming North Solomons Province.

They were the ones often running around the urban centres of Panguna, Arawa or Kieta looking for opportunities to earn, commit crime or otherwise make ends meet.

Dodgy security firms may be part of crime problem

MARTYN NAMORONG | Supported by the Chalapi Pomat Writing Fellowship

IN A MARKET ECONOMY, one has to compete effectively and sometimes desperately to sustain business, so it wasn’t surprising for me to hear of the rampage by Guard Dog Security personnel at the Lae Yacht Club

In 2011 I met a former manager of a security firm who gave me a lot of insights into the underbelly of the industry.

One of the scary things is that companies make their competitors lose business by undermining the security they provide.

The ex-manager said that some of the break-and-enters and killing of guards was linked to competing companies trying to take away business from a contracted firm.

Sexual violence in Lae: impunity and resistance

STEPHEN HOWES & KAMALINI LOKUGE | Development Policy Blog

LAE, ON PAPUA NEW GUINEA’s northern coast, is the country’s second city and industrial hub. It is also the capital of PNG’s largest province, Morobe.

Its main government hospital, the Angau Hospital, is home to PNG’s most successful Family Support Centre (FSC), which provides medical support and psychosocial care to survivors of family and sexual violence.

Supported by Medecins san Frontieres (MSF) since 2008, in the last five years the FSC has provided care to over 11,500 patients.

Many of those cases involve women being beaten or knifed. But many are also cases of sexual violence. In 2010, the Centre attended to 530 survivors of sexual violence. Of these, 338 were adults (above 16) and the other 192 were children. Of the 338 adult cases, 322 were cases of rape. Of the 192 child cases, 149 were of rape.

These are, by any standards, depressingly high levels of reported sexual violence and rape. But our interest is in how many of these cases make it through the legal system and result in convictions.

How the government contracted with a dead entity

SAM KOIM | Task Force Sweep

AN INVESTIGATION INTO the non-completion of renovation works at the Port Moresby General Hospital accidents and emergency department has revealed the contract of K9.78 million was awarded to a company that was and remains deregistered.

A company is a legal entity that exists because the law breathes life into it and confers certain rights and obligations upon it.

Registration grants a company the legal capacity to enter into legally binding transactions and engage meaningfully in commerce.

The legal effects of deregistering a corporate entity are that it is deprived of its legal existence. It ceases to exist and to have the capacity to enter into any legally binding business transactions.

Two months after signing the contract, the directors and shareholders registered another company with an almost identical name but kept the bank accounts under the deregistered entity’s name, and interchangeably used the two company names, creating further confusion to government officials who were dealing with them.

PNG-made: The development of Melanesian law

DAVID GONOL

THE IDEA OF THE UNDERLYING LAW is a constitutional idea. The Papua New Guinea Constitution and the Underlying Law Act provide for the development of underlying law or indigenous jurisprudence, which I call Melanesian Jurisprudence.

Underlying law or Melanesian Jurisprudence refers to that body of law which the PNG Constitution charges the National and Supreme Courts to develop using customary law and common law of England.

In other words we can say that it is a PNG-made law.

The situation today is that most of the legal principles governing PNG have been borrowed from England and Australia. As a matter of fact about 98% of our legal principles have their origin in England.

So the current legal system is almost a photocopy of English common law. That is good to some extent but most of our problems are Melanesian in nature, so English common law does not adequately address them.

Thus we desperately need a Melanesian law to deal with problems which are unique to us – an underlying law or Melanesian Jurisprudence.

Online media important to PNG says corruption fighter

RADIO AUSTRALIA

THE WINNER OF A MEDIA anti-corruption award says online media has the potential to inform and mobilise the people of Papua New Guinea.

Blogger Martyn Namorong won the overall prize at the 2012 Excellence in Anti-Corruption Reporting Media Awards in PNG.

Mr Namorong says that because social media in PNG is quite new, there's still a lack of understanding about how it could be influential.

"Those of us who are willing to speak out, particularly online... have the spotlight on them such that people react more quickly," he said.

He is in Australia on a two-week study tour to meet with investigative journalists and community groups involved in fighting corruption.

Rio Tinto faces war crimes allegations over Bougainville

KRISTIAN LASSLETT | Green Left Website

BRITISH-AUSTRALIAN MINING GIANT Rio Tinto is seriously contemplating reopening its Bougainville copper and gold mine, Reuters reported on 7 February.

The company's Bougainville operation was forcefully closed down in November 1988 by traditional landowners who objected to the mine’s environmental and social effects.

A bloody civil war ensued, which took up to 20,000 lives on an island of 175,000 people. The war crimes committed by government security forces in the conflict were horrific.

Bougainvillean nurse, Sister Ruby Mirinka, recalled, “One of the victims was a 24-year-old pregnant woman. Shot dead by the PNG soldiers, her abdomen was then cut open to remove the foetus. The dead foetus was then placed on the chest of the dead mother for all to see — as a warning.”

Rio Tinto stands accused of being complicit in these atrocities.

Simbu politicians refuse to act to extinguish tribal war

FRANCIS NII | Supported by the South Pacific Strategic Solutions Writing Fellowship

THE EDUCATION AND FUTURE of the children in the Salt and Nomane area of the Karimui Nomane electorate of the Simbu Province are being overlooked and deprived.

Last week the provincial education authorities suspended classes for each school in the area due to continuing election-related tribal fighting.

The warfare is between the supporters of Mogerema Sigo Wei MP and runner-up in the 2012 general elections, businessman Michael Korry.

This ongoing conflict has caused much hardship and anguish for the people of Salt and Nomane. The fight started in August last year and now into its seventh month.

Three people had been killed. Others have sustained serious gunshot injuries inflicted by high powered weapons. Property worth thousands of kina has been destroyed.

The Kundiawa police have made several attempts to bring the warring groups together but have failed because the two warlords Korry and Wei have not consented.

The fighting has brought government services to a standstill. Worse, the provincial education authorities suspended classes for schools in the fighting zone and for more than 10 primary,15 elementary and one secondary school in the entire Salt and Nomane Local Level Government area for an indefinite period because teachers have refused to take up their postings in fear of their lives.

Parents are very concerned about the education and future of their children and are calling on the two leaders to end the fight immediately.

This is a deprivation of the children’s right to gain an education, especially at a time when the parents have just been relieved of the burden of tuition fee. It is totally wrong.

The parents, police, provincial authorities and general public of Salt and Nomane are calling on the two leaders to return to Simbu and end the war as soon as practical so schools can start classes and other government services can be restored.

The lives of the innocent majority and the education and future of the children cannot continue to be jeopardised by the political greed and craving of two individuals and their barbaric supporters.

As leaders they must consider the welfare of the innocent majority which includes pregnant mothers and sick people to have access to medical services.

It is hoped that the fight ends. The sooner the better for the people of Salt and Nomane and the entire district.

Photographer documents atrocities against PNG women

SVETLANA BACHEVANOVA | Women News Network

PAPUA NEW GUINEA suffers under a cloak of violence against women that still runs unabated, especially for those who live at the bottom of society with little legal recourse or protection.

A new and alarming trend in some assaults has been carefully documented by award winning photojournalist Vlad Sokhin, who exposes an ancient form of violence against women in the region.

“Women told me their stories; many of which just shocked me,” said Sokhin, the founder and publisher of Fotoevidence, an acclaimed online archive that also hosts The Fotoevidence Book Award.

Through the award, Fotoevidence recognises each year, “a documentary photographer whose project demonstrates courage and commitment in addressing a violation of human rights, a significant injustice or an assault on human dignity.”

Growing up as a Russian/Portuguese photographer, Sokhin currently lives in Sydney. In March 2012 he was recognised as the winner of the 2012 FotoEvidence Book Award.

In his in-depth documentation of social injustice against women, Sokhin has not shied away from an honest and at times hard look at violent acts against women in PNG.

These women have been on the receiving end of a system where 80% of all violence against women is unpunished.

“If you dig deep beneath the pain of Sokhin’s images you can find compassion and a rising sense of outrage in the desperate needs for protection of all women,” says WNN – Women News Network founder and editor-at-large Lys Anzia.

Sokhin’s project Crying Meri was selected for a screening at Visa Pour L’Image 2012 in Perpignan, France. His photos have also been displayed by a United Nations educational campaign in Papua New Guinea, addressing the issue of violence against women.

Photo:

Hellen Alphons, 38, walks with a rudimentary crutch outside her home. She lost her leg in 2005 in a fight with her drunken husband, Alai Kawa, when he chopped her right leg with a bushknife in front of their young children.

Kawa was arrested but, after treatment, Hellen left her home fearing her husband's release. When she returned home in 2010 she learned that her husband had died in prison.

Nowadays she lives together with Alai’s sister. Today they both run a small shop in Kundiawa in Simbu Province. Image: Vlad Sokhin

Melanesian jurisprudence needed to clarify PNG’s laws

DAVID GONOL

THERE IS A DESPERATE and overdue need to develop a Melanesian jurisprudence.

Our wise founding fathers saw the need for this, and made provision under sections 20, 21 and Schedule 2 of the Constitution to develop our own jurisprudence which they referred to as ‘underlying law’.

Melanesian jurisprudence would be a body of law using worthy Melanesian customs, the common law of England in force prior to independence and legal rules formulated using certain provisions of the Constitution.

It appears to me that the constitutional fathers felt the urge to make such provision in the Constitution because 99% of the legal principles governing our country have been borrowed from our colonial masters.

Most of these borrowed legal principles are ineffective in PNG as the majority of our problems are foreign to English law. Therefore there is a desperate need to develop a Melanesian jurisprudence to successfully address problems unique to PNG.

Our Constitution uses the term ‘indigenous jurisprudence’ to refer to the underlying law, but that term is very broad so I have decided to use ‘Melanesian jurisprudence’ as specifically referring to Melanesian law.

Underlying law is a Papua New Guinean version of English common law and is a body of law developed where no legal rules are available to deal with cases before the courts.

For instance, if there arises a legal issue for which there exists no Act of Parliament nor principles of common law, the PNG National and Supreme Courts would be empowered by the Underlying Law Act to develop legal rules using custom first and then the common law of England to deal with the case.

Any legal rule that the court develops then would form part of our underlying law, or Melanesian jurisprudence.

Therefore, underlying law would be ‘PNG made law’, developed by our own National and Supreme Courts and readily applicable to the prevailing circumstances.

PNG’s legal system at present is a photocopy of English legal system. This is good to some extent but most of these legal principles are not readily applicable across the country.

This does not that mean that our people live in a legal vacuum because they have at their disposal customary law to deal with issues.

Sometimes borrowed laws conflict with customary law and at other times they run parallel. In most cases, neither borrowed law nor customary law submit to one another.

This is obvious in PNG today and costs our government hundreds of millions of kina each year.

One example is landownership conflict issues which we read about every day in the media. They are bound to happen because there are two different regimes of laws governing land ownership.

On the one hand you have English property law and laws derived therefrom, and on the other hand you have customary law.

Borrowed law says the state owns all the mineral and petroleum resources found anywhere in PNG. But this idea is totally repulsive and unacceptable to our Melanesian culture.

It is a common custom in Melanesia that no man - even a king - has the right to do his business on somebody else’s land unless he is permitted to do so.

But the state, in the name of extraction of mineral and petroleum resources, allows exploitation of the land, as the Melanesian landowners watch and cry.

On police brutality & police theft in Papua New Guinea

GANJIKI D WAYNE | Supported by the Bea Amaya Writing Fellowship

MULTIPLE REPORTS surface every week of some rogue police activity in our country.

Drivers gets ‘accidentally’ shot in the foot. Arbitrary confiscation (and then consumption) of informal vendors’ property. Theft of wallets and personal property. ‘Fines’ for concocted traffic offences (such as driving too slowly in a car park).

Private armed escort for politicians, foreign businessmen and corrupt bureaucrats. And of course the regular brutal beatings (and sometimes slaying) of innocent citizens and surrendered crime suspects.

It seems endless what abuses our “law-enforcers-slash-disciplined-force” can cook up. More than half of all of the Solicitor General’s defence of claims against the State are police brutality claims.

These are men and women who seem to have lost all moral restraint. There's a vacuum in their mindset and conscience. They lack the ability to put themselves in the shoes of their prey.

They have no concern for their own and their victims’ dignity. Nor for the respectability and the integrity of the office and uniform they occupy. Nor loyalty to their Commissioner (who only last week spoke strongly against such rogue behaviour), the Constabulary, or the Nation.

They have no fear of God. No regard for their code of ethics. How they sleep at night I don’t know. I suspect they drink themselves to sleep; to shut out the voices of conviction that keep ringing in their heads.

They got into the uniform for all the wrong reasons (it’s just bread and butter). These are toddlers in adult bodies.

Worse, the State (we the people) clothed these toddlers with the vicarious authority to pull-up any vehicle or person simply by waving their colours and displaying their arms. And we the people agreed to subject ourselves to their authority. We got more than we bargained for.

Toddlers. Babies. Whose world revolve around "me", they cry for milk you must give. They hunger, you feed. They thirst, you give water. They hurt, you comfort. They freeze, you warm. They soil their diapers, you must clean them up. They cry, you soothe. They take, you give.

That is the nature of infants. Despite adult bodies we lack the emotional intelligence to subject ourselves to codes that should provide restraint. We are a nation of toddlers. And a lot of them wear blue and carry not-toy guns. (A hundred or so sit in parliament accusing each other of wetting their diapers.)

The problem isn’t the training (or lack of) that they get, or a lack of understanding of the law and human rights. That’s a scratch above the surface. The real lack is the loss of moral consciousness.

And so the real challenge is to refill those gaps. The crimes committed are completely identifiable as crimes (theft, assault, unlawful use of firearm, murder), and as blatant evil deeds.

Any sane person should be able to tell that the unlawful use of his authority to steal wallets and personal effects is an immoral deed; an attack on basic human decency; even an undermining of his own human dignity as the perpetrator. But it takes a person of moral strength to resist committing those crimes.

These are men and women who have lost that moral strength. And many involved in talking about social correction wouldn’t want the work that’s needed to restore such a loss. We'd rather not go that deep.

PM on drug suspects’ mystery assignation in Moresby

Radio New Zealand International

PAPUA NEW GUINEA’s prime minister Peter O’Neill says the private jet which transited through Port Moresby carrying two controversial Vanuatu diplomatic passport holders was checked thoroughly by officials.

The passengers were Charles Henry Saken and Pascal Anh Saken, the owner of the super yacht Phocea (pictured) which has been detained in Vanuatu since July when it was seized on suspicion of passport fraud and drug trading.

After arriving last Thursday, the jet’s passengers reportedly met with Vanuatu’s foreign minister Alfred Carlot who, according to Vanuatu’s government, was in Port Moresby on a private mission.

PNG officials briefly detained the passports of the passengers and Mr Carlot.

O’Neill said PNG had reason to believe some of the passengers on the plane had questionable backgrounds, requiring a background check.

He says the jet departed on Sunday night after an investigation by officials.

“They concluded that they have not breached any particular laws of our country other than not getting proper clearance for the plane to land,” O’Neill said.

“The host country [Vanuatu] that has given the diplomatic passports to these persons requested they be allowed to transfer through our country and of course we have no choice but to comply with that.”

Shortland islanders concerned over border activity

Radio New Zealand International

THERE HAS BEEN A CALL by Solomon Islanders living along the sea border with Papua New Guinea to review security.

Leaders in the Shortland Islands want consultations with the Regional Assistance Mission (RAMSI), the Solomon Islands police and international police after reported transgressions.

Reports say a group, which is believed to have crossed from Bougainville, entered a logging camp in one of the islands and left with logging equipment.

The Shortland people were badly affected during the Bougainville crisis of the 1990s when members of the rebel Bougainville Revolutionary Army and soldiers of the PNG Defence Force fought battles on their islands.

An elder told the Radio New Zealand correspondent that the Shortland people still recollect the frightening experiences of those days.

Compensation at all costs - the new highwaymen

KELA KAPKORA SIL BOLKIN

THE FOLLOWING LETTER WAS WRITTEN by Jeffery Kopeap of Pulim Village near Mendi in the Southern Highlands Province. 

His pet cat had been run over and killed by a truck belonging to Traisa Transport Limited, which has transported cargo to the highlands provinces for many years now.

Pulim Village
P.O. Box 749
Mendi SHP

30 December 2011

Subject: COMPLAINING OF KILLING PUSI CAT BY TRAISA COMPANY

I, Jeffery Kopeap, owner of the Pusi Cat strongly disagree that my Pusi cat was obviously killed in the eyes of people early in the morning, 7:42 am 30^th December 2011.

The cat was killed by long truck which is Trasia. The cat is male and it is too young, the life for human being and animals is not are different, that’s my property and it looked after my garden and house from protecting rat.

I carry out this matter across to the manager to compensate my Pusi cat, I am demanded this Pusi cat for K1200 because my Pusi cat should live about 15 years.

I want the action immediately within 3-4 days later.

I am waiting for your result as soon as possible. If nothing is done, there will be another story. The driver should minimize his speed and at the same time he see Pusi cat with his eyes and killed the cat.

Thanks for your understanding and consideration.

Signed
Jeffery Kopeap

Such demands and threats are a frequently received by trucking companies doing business between Lae and the highlands provinces.

The cutting open of containers and looting along the Okuk Highway is also a regular experience for trucking companies operating in this part of the country.

Will people up there begin demanding compensation from trucks running over rats, grasshoppers and even fire flies in a few months’ time?

There are also stories of mentally disabled people and drug addicts being lured onto the road at the sight of these big trucks so they are killed and the relatives or clans can make a fortune from compensation.

Men with small run-down vehicles will sometimes dice with death and deliberately drive close to these big trucks so that they dent or scratch parts of their vehicle and then demand compensation from the company.

Sections of the Okuk Highway are covered with craters, potholes and even landslides, which cause damage to the trucks and increases wears and tear on body and engine parts and inflates the cost of running the trucking businesses.

Landowners along the highway deliberately stop the maintenance of these deteriorating road conditions until they get paid compensation. 

The Mindima–Wandi section of the Okuk Highway is a typical example of this cycle of neglect and demand. 

Despite these problems, the major trucking companies consistently supply machinery, equipment parts, food and clothing to the mines and super markets up in the interior of the highlands provinces.

We salute them for the services rendered in these appalling conditions.

We hope there will not be any more letters like the one above demanding compensation for pussycats, grasshoppers or fireflies run over by trucks this year.

A senior police officer's view of policing in PNG

JOHN MURRAY APM has spent many years scrutinising South Pacific police forces. Here he casts a detective’s eye over Papua New Guinea....

DEATHS FROM SORCERY, tribal battles and cannibalism continue in PNG but tend to be neglected by the chronically incompetent Royal Papua New Guinea Constabulary on the basis that the people are acting according to their traditions.

The role and writ of law in PNG is often open to personal interpretation similar to investigating the euphemistically-called “honour killings” in other countries.

The examples set by politicians have been abysmal, with none other than founding and frequently resurrected prime minister Sir Michael Somare an all too imperfect specimen.

Like others, he had been forced out of office on serious suspicions of criminality and corruption, narrowly avoided prosecution and imprisonment, and was subjected to commissions of enquiry finding him culpable but avoiding other than wrist-slapping admonitions, always denying any guilt and blaming others including a tolerantly benevolent Australian government. 

In April 2011 after being found guilty of 13 counts of filing incomplete financial returns to the Ombudsman’s Office, and with one Tribunal member and the prosecution calling for his dismissal, he was merely suspended from office for 14 days before carrying on his lucrative career until derailed by chronic medical conditions.

PNG legislation of a self-protection variety allows politicians and administrators to retire with grandiose handouts even after having been deemed guilty of Leadership Code infringements but before they are prosecuted, thereby avoiding any court appearance or conviction and thus eligible for subsequent re-appointment.

Policing is among the many departments to have suffered since independence, with the few capable commissioners being limited in their attempts to enhance efficiency when ministers thwart their aims and drunken magistrates dismiss apparently watertight cases due to incompetence, political influence or tribal allegiances.

The service span of a police commissioner is commonly aligned to that of the government of the day. Also not only do the military see the police as almost an opposing tribe but there even exist splits in the Constabulary between the general duties police and the undisciplined “Rambo” cowboys of the para-military units.

Tribal wantokism, being a pervasive clan kinship, is far more rife in PNG than elsewhere in the Pacific and is not only tolerated but even encouraged leading to prisoners finding their cell doors unlocked, prosecution briefs misplaced and police failing to attend court.

This misplaced loyalty as well as self-preservation has also led to police refusing to stake out premises where they have been forewarned that a holdup will occur, particularly if hearing that the offenders will be armed.

Politicians will address crowds of their constituents preparing for a notionally illegal tribal war but will whip off their shirts and ties to join in any outbreak of hostilities, with sanctions against these “debt-settling” processes being seen as little more than paper restrictions enacted by a parliamentary enclave in Port Moresby following the incomprehensible laws of former colonial masters.

That PNG has advanced as little as it has – and it hasn’t progressed anywhere near as far as 35 years of independence should have allowed – is still due by and large to expatriate expertise and the proverbial “few good men” of indigenous stock, hindered, hampered and hamstrung by too many of their fellow countrymen putting profit before patrimony and often manipulated by foreign sponsors.

In the mid 1990s the British police officer heading the fraud and anti-corruption squad claimed that 70% of his tasks entailed deception within government instrumentalities and that he needed four times more than the 20 staff allocated if even the most major crimes were to be investigated.

And major crimes there were.  Hundreds of millions of dollars were being lost to public coffers from chicanery in the lucrative timber industry where, even now, authorities lack the expertise and will to ascertain if the foreign-owned logging companies remove two, three or even 10 times the amount of timber they have been licensed to fell.

Receipts for billions of dollars earned from mineral and petroleum exploration have been unaccountably “lost”; and in 2001, K250 million allocated to the Port Moresby General Hospital was misappropriated.

As of March last year there were 71 cases under investigation relating to the diversion of millions of dollars from Australian aid funding, and they were just cases of which they were aware.

When former police commissioner Ila Geno, in his comparatively outstanding role as Ombudsman, relentlessly drew attention to scandals that would have brought down governments in most democratically elected countries, instead of gaining parliamentary support he was constantly criticised for interference in policy matters and subject of numerous attempts to dismiss him.

Extracts from a presentation to University of Sydney’s Master of Laws students on 5 October 2012

John’s book on policing in the South Pacific, ‘The Minnows of Triton’, won an ACT Writing and Publishing Award and it is revised annually, the latest edition coming out in September. In Sydney it is available at the Co-op Book Shop at Sydney University or you can order it directly from John for $22 including postage. Email him here

Abusive priest Fr Denis McAlinden: the PNG link

CATHERINE MASTERS & GREG ANSLEY | New Zealand Herald [extracts]

THE CATHOLIC CHURCH in Tokomaru Bay, Gisborne, is like many in small-town New Zealand - a picture of safety and innocence.

It's hard to imagine that the pretty little wooden chapel with the blue roof has been caught up in a top-level inquiry into the sexual abuse of children, which was launched in Australia but is likely to extend to New Zealand.

Among the practices to be investigated is that instead of prosecuting paedophile priests, the Catholic church transferred them from diocese to diocese.

One of the worst offenders was Father Denis McAlinden - thought to have abused hundreds of little girls - who turned up in Tokomaru Bay in the 1980s.

The current Bishop of Hamilton, Denis Browne, has confirmed McAlinden was in the remote part of the diocese for six months in 1984, telling radio there was only one known victim who had come forward after 25 years "to unburden her soul".

McAlinden, who also had stints in Papua New Guinea and Western Australia, was eventually defrocked but never prosecuted.

He was hidden by the church in his later years and is now dead…

Long-term institutional abuse has already been confirmed across Australia - a decade ago a Queensland inquiry into institutions run by the Anglican, Methodist and Catholic churches prompted an official State apology for the physical and sexual abuse suffered by their victims.

The Salvation Army is also facing a series of lawsuits, and accusations of cover-ups have been levelled against a number of private schools and the Scouts. Redress and compensation schemes have been set up for victims of abuse in state-run institutions in Tasmania, South Australia, Queensland and Western Australia.

The federal Royal Commission also comes as inquiries into child abuse continue in Queensland and Victoria. New South Wales, under fierce pressure after one its most senior investigators alleged obstruction and the destruction of evidence by the Catholic Church, announced its own inquiry this week….

The Victorian inquiry has already heard graphic accounts of abuse, much of it assembled by Broken Rites and involving the Order of St John of God, which operated in Australia, New Zealand and Papua New Guinea.

The inquiry heard claims that more than 70% of the order's brothers were suspected child abusers and that in Victoria it harboured up to 15 paedophiles between 1952 and 1986….

McAlinden was 26 when he arrived in Australia in 1949. Within four years the church had received the first of many complaints of his sexual abuse of mainly young girls.

As complaints mounted he was sent to PNG for four years and later shuffled between Newcastle-Maitland, Hamilton and Geraldton and Bunbury in Western Australia.

His abuse was well known to the church hierarchy, which organised the transfers.

Transparency applauds Speaker for revealing abuse

Radio New Zealand International

TRANSPARENCY INTERNATIONAL in Papua New Guinea has applauded the Speaker Theo Zurenuoc for revealing that senior officers of parliament have been mismanaging large amounts of public money.

Mr Zurenuoc (pictured) says an audit is underway into parliament’s operations and an initial report has already uncovered serious fraud over the past 10 years.

He also called for the integrity of parliament to be restored.

The acting chair of Transparency in PNG, Gail Edoni, says this sets the tone for a good term of office.

“My understanding is he’s really going to push for things like proper debate in the House which has been sorely lacking probably over the last six to eight years,” she said.

“And now with our new speaker this is really going to make a big change and I think a change for the better.”

Gail Edoni says the perpetrators of the abuse of the funds must be disciplined and prosecuted accordingly.

Report dodgy PNG investments says Transparency

EOIN BLACKWELL | AAP

TRANSPARENCY INTERNATIONAL (PNG) HAS JOINED a call for Papua New Guinea's neighbour nations to dob in dodgy financial transactions by PNG officials.

The call by TIPNG chairman Lawrence Stephens echoes a plea by the head of PNG's government anti-corruption body, Task Force Sweep (TFS), Sam Koim, in Sydney last week.

Mr Stephens said Mr Koim's statement that financial institutions in nations such as Australia have been complicit in accepting money stolen from PNG's public coffers is not a new allegation.

"It is common knowledge that many Papua New Guinean officials have acquired property and bank accounts in Australia well beyond their official earning capacity," Mr Stephens said.

"For a long time now TIPNG has been calling on its neighbours to help uncover suspicious investments, particularly in real estate.

"Once again, we ask that our friends take action."

Mr Koim, who once described Australia as PNG's "Cayman Islands", last week told a Sydney financial forum as much as half of PNG's $3.5 billion development budget over three years had been lost to graft or dodgy overseas investments, and accused Australian financial institutions of complicity.

Six unnamed PNG politicians are currently subject to an intelligence-gathering phase of an investigation in conjunction with Australian agencies into $11.5 million in property deals in Cairns and northern Australia.

"They have bought property and other assets, put money in bank accounts and gambled heavily in your casinos and have never been troubled by having their ill-gotten gains taken off them," Mr Koim told the Australian Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre.

"Unless the money can be prevented from leaving our country, or prevented from entering Australia, the bad guys win and the rest of Papua New Guinea suffers."

Mr Koim asked that financial institutions in Australia and other nations demand tax returns and salary pay-slips from prominent officials making large overseas transactions that clearly outstripped their pay grade.

The Australian government has yet to comment on Mr Koim's allegations

No end in sight to Papua New Guinea’s anti-gay laws

KATHY NOVAK | SBS

PETER O’NEILL’S NEW GOVERNMENT, in power for just over a month, is promising a host of reforms in Papua New Guinea.

But one thing looks unlikely to change. Homosexual acts have been illegal since British colonial times. Men caught in same-sex acts face up to 14 years in prison.

Former MP Dame Carol Kidu says the laws are contributing to the country’s HIV/AIDS epidemic.

Although the laws are not strictly enforced, gay citizens face discrimination in their daily lives, and often struggle to find jobs.

But the push for decriminalisation has little support in PNG’s traditional Christian society.

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.

Up close & personal with the raskol gangs of Moresby

BRUNO BAYLEY | Four Stories

PAPUA NEW GUINEA’S STREET GANGS, or raskols, make the gangster claims of US rappers look ridiculous.

A raskols idea of gang banging doesn’t involve bouncing on hydraulics in vintage Lincolns or wearing designer threads.

These guys tote their own homemade weapons—from knives to guns.

We had a quick chat about the raskols with photographer Stephen Dupont, who spent time in Port Moresby documenting them.

First, what's your connection to Papua New Guinea?

Dupont: Growing up in Australia, I'd often meet people who either lived in PNG or visited. The place always fascinated me—the stories, the wild, and the "heart of darkness" image it had.

In the late 90s, I would regularly hang out with close friends in the Jayapura Room, a kind of war correspondents’ club, with photographers, filmmakers, journalists, professors, and an array of interesting people who all had a connection with PNG.

What sort of thing would happen in the Jayapura Room?

Our host was a fine man called Mark Worth, sadly not with us any more, who would hold dinners and all-night drinking parties where we would tell stories, debrief, and have the company of people we'd all connect with. Everyone in the group was either coming from or going to a breaking news story in some war zone.

When was it that you first went over?

My closest friend, Ben Bohane, had already spent time in PNG and we decided to go there together in 2004 to work on a project around raskols in Port Moresby. Not knowing what we'd find, we ended up spending a lot of time in a notorious settlement called Kaugere, where we found our Kips Kaboni gang.

For those who don't know, could you sum up the situation in Papua New Guinea since independence from Australia in the 70s?

PNG got independence from Australia in 1975 and has had various governments and leaders, most notably the recently deposed Michael Somare. Even though it's had a few military coups, constant tribal warfare, and a recently-ended bloody civil war in Bougainville, it's always managed to remain relatively stable. That possibly has something to do with having over 800 tribes scattered around many islands and remote territories.

Port Moresby was ranked by The Economist as the most "unlivable" city in the world. How does that come across on a day-to-day basis?

Port Moresby is always ranked in the bottom five of the world's most unlivable cities, just this year coming second to last behind Dhaka in Bangladesh. I'm not sure how they come up with those statistics, but it feels overrated to me.

Yes, Moresby is a harsh and dangerous place, where security is the biggest business and unemployment is extremely high, but I can tell you that I've been in many more unlivable and dangerous places. I mean, Moresby is not Lagos, Mogadishu, or even Kabul.

Like any big city, if you know the lay of the land, take precautions, and hang out with the right people, you can generally find yourself having good experiences there, like making friends with raskols so you can roam safely and freely in some of the city's worst neighbourhoods.

Indonesia, PNG to meet over returning fugitive

RANGGA PRAKOSO | Jakarta Globe

OFFICIALS FROM INDONESIA AND PAPUA NEW GUINEA hope to schedule a meeting in which the return of corruption fugitive Djoko Tjandra will be the topic of conversation.

Foreign Affairs Minister Marty Natalegawa confirmed the Indonesian government’s interest in such a meeting while discussing a letter sent by the neighboring country.

“We will [respond] immediately,” Marty said.

Deputy Attorney General Darmono said the PNG government was reviewing its decision to grant Djoko citizenship and that he hoped to discuss Djoko’s return soon.

Former Justice Minister Yusril Ihza Mahendra denied reports that he helped the graft fugitive obtain PNG citizenship.

The veteran lawyer said he was shocked at recent allegations identifying him as the person who helped Djoko win approval for naturalization in June.

“It’s been said that I gave false testimony about Djoko’s legal status in order to help him get citizenship there,” he said. “These reports are all fabricated and not based on any facts whatsoever.”

Yusril also ridiculed the notion that his recommendation would have been enough to convince officials in Port Moresby to grant Djoko citizenship.

“How could anything I say trump the Indonesian government’s law enforcement, security and diplomatic authorities? Would the PNG government believe me over Jakarta?” he said.

Djoko fled Indonesia in June 2009, one day before he was convicted by the Supreme Court of embezzling $58 million in bailout funds meant for his troubled bank.

Djoko has empire in PNG, including own aircraft

FRANSISCO ROSARIANS | Tempo Interactive / Jakarta

THE BANK BALI CASE SUSPECT, Djoko Tjandra, is believed to have huge assets and large businesses in Papua New Guinea, which may explain that the Mulia Group’s boss did not merely flee Indonesia to seek mere refuge in PNG.

Indonesian Deputy Attorney-General Darmono claims he still does not know for certain the assets and businesses that Djoko has there:, but they are “quite significant, he has his own private plane".

Darmono is reluctant to disclose more. "We can’t just make estimates," he said, "the important thing he can now be brought to Indonesia to face the law."

Earlier the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said the PNG government allegedly granted Djoko citizenship because of his big role in that country.

In connection with the petition to bring Djoko to Indonesia, the Attorney General’s Office is awaiting the return of PNG's Ambassador to Indonesia, Peter Ilau, from Port Moresby.

"The Ambassador won’t be back until next week, let’s see what happens," said Darmono.

Djoko Tjandra was to have gone to prison for two years but he fled Indonesia on a chartered plane from Jakarta to Port Moresby on 10 June 2009.

Indon president weighs in on Djoko extradition saga

THE JAKARTA POST

AWARE OF THE FACT that Indonesia has no extradition treaty with Papua New Guinea, the Indonesian government says it will capitalize on its good diplomatic relations with PNG to lobby for the return of fraud convict Djoko Tjandra.

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said the government meant business when it said it wanted to bring Djoko [shown right at his trial] home and he applauded the efforts of law enforcement agencies to achieve that goal.

“Find him, arrest him and bring him back to the country,” President Yudhoyono exclaimed on Wednesday.

He said all fugitives in graft cases should be repatriated and forced to return all the money they had stolen from the state.

Deputy Attorney-General Darmono said the government expected to hear soon from the PNG government concerning Djoko’s status.

Darmono said the PNG government was now relying on the Indonesian Ambassador to obtain information about the convict.

Djoko was convicted of misusing Bank Indonesia Liquidity Support funds. He fled to PNG one day before the Supreme Court sentenced him to prison for fraud in 2009.

The court sentenced both Djoko and former Bank Indonesia governor Syahril Sabirin to two years’ imprisonment and ordered Djoko to pay $57.7 million in restitution.

Djoko reportedly secured PNG citizenship last month.

Fugitive Djoko creating a business empire in PNG

INDRA WIJAYA, ARYANI KRISTANTI, BOBBY CHANDRA | Tempo Interactive

INDONESIAN JUSTICE MINISTER Amir Syamsuddin has requested the Papua New Guinea government to immediately return fugitive Djoko Tjandra to Indonesia.

So far there has been no response. "The decision to approve the request or the extradition is entirely the right of the petitioned country," Amir said.

But the Indonesian government is pessimistic the request for Joko’s extradition will be approved anytime soon.

Deputy Attorney-General Darmono says he is certain that Djoko has successfully developed a property business and plantation in PNG. He said he is concerned this may cause PNG to be half-hearted in its assistance to Indonesia.

Mr Darmono said Djoko has invested $2 million in a business under the umbrella of Naima Agro Industries Limited, located at Bereina, about 160 kilometers from Port Moresby.

Joko became a fugitive in the plus $1 billion Bank Bali case. He was detained from September 1999 to August 2000, but the South Jakarta District Court ruled he was free from prosecution because the case was not criminal but civil.

In October 2008, the Supreme Court approved a judicial review. But, before he was thrown into prison, Djoko fled Indonesia to Port Moresby in June 2009.

If still in Indonesia, Joko would have been imprisoned for two years and would have had to pay a fine of about $1.5 million.

PNG likely to protect fugitive Djoko says professor

RANGGA PRAKOSO & ISMIRA LUTFIA | Jakarta Globe

ALTHOUGH CORRUPTION FUGITIVE Djoko Tjandra is on Interpol’s most-wanted list, Papua New Guinea is not likely to hand him over to Indonesia, a law professor said.

Hikmahanto Juwana, an expert in international law at the University of Indonesia, said the PNG government showed little political will in adhering to Indonesia’s request to bring the fugitive business tycoon back to the country, particularly after granting him citizenship.

“In Papua New Guinea, police [action] relies heavily on its bureaucracy,” the professor told the Jakarta Globe.

He suspected Djoko had invested heavily in PNG and that citizenship was granted to him as a reward.

“If the PNG government needs Djoko’s money and business connections, then the police will have to sideline [the warrant],” he said.

Justice Minister Amir Syamsuddin said on Sunday that the government was still lobbying PNG to give up Djoko.

Amir said getting Djoko home would be a lengthy process because the countries do not have an extradition agreement.

Indonesia-PNG draft agreement to bring back Djoko

RIZKY AMELIA | Jakarta Globe

THE INDONESIAN GOVERNMENT is drafting an agreement with Papua New Guinea to bring back graft convict Djoko Soegiarto Tjandra [pictured].

“We can’t intervene with other countries’ legal systems. But with the intention to maintain a good relationship, we hope to see the [agreement] materialize,” said Justice and Human Rights Minister Amir Syamsuddin.

Amir said the two governments have been corresponding through letters.

Indonesia requested that Djoko’s PNG citizenship be revoked, saying he falsified immigration documents when escaping to PNG.

Deputy Attorney General Darmono said on Monday that Peter Ilau, PNG’s ambassador in Jakarta, told him during their meeting on Sunday that his government would evaluate Djoko’s status.

“To become a citizen of a country, people should be free from legal problems. We believe that Djoko has falsified his data to hide his status as a graft convict. He should be deported because of that,” Darmono said.

PNG authorities granted citizenship to Djoko last month. They reportedly announced that he was cleared of the graft charges.

“We have given all of the evidence we have to prove he is a graft convict in Indonesia. I think there should be no more reason for Papua New Guinea to keep his citizenship,” Darmono said.

Indonesia asks PNG to revoke Djoko's citizenship

RANGGA PRAKOSO | Jakarta Globe

INDONESIA HAS REQUESTED that corruption fugitive Djoko Tjandra’s Papua New Guinean citizenship be revoked, saying that the businessman falsified immigration documents when escaping to PNG.

Deputy Attorney General Darmono has said that Peter Ilau, PNG’s ambassador in Jakarta, told him during their meeting last Sunday that his government would evaluate Djoko’s status.

“To become a citizen of a country, people should be free from legal problems. We believe that Djoko has falsified his data to hide his status as a graft convict. He should be deported because of that,” Darmono said.

Papua New Guinean authorities decided to grant citizenship to Djoko last month. They reportedly announced that he was cleared of the graft charges.

“We have given all of the evidence we have to prove he is a graft convict in Indonesia. I think there should be no more reason for Papua New Guinea to keep his citizenship,” Darmono said.

Djoko was among several foreigners who received a certificate of citizenship last month by the Immigration and Citizenship Advisory Committee of PNG.

PNG’s Minister of Foreign Affairs and Immigration Ano Pala said he agreed with Djoko’s request, based on the recommendation of the committee.

“He was not a fugitive, not a criminal. He never faced a civil law suit — he was not convicted of a criminal offense, according to information we got from our High Commissioner,” Pala said in an interview with Radio Australia.

“The information was forwarded to the advisory committee and on the basis of their recommendations, [a person can be] handed citizenship.”

Djoko faces a two-year prison sentence and a fine of Rp15 million for his role in the scandal, which involved his now-defunct Bank Bali paying a $70 million “commission” to Era Giat Prima, one of Djoko’s companies, which was linked to the then-ruling Golkar Party, for help in the recovery of loans owed by the Indonesian Bank Restructuring Agency.

While witnesses have suggested Golkar Party treasurer Setya Novanto received kickbacks in the case, no formal allegations have been levelled against him since the scandal emerged.

Djoko is also reportedly wanted by Interpol after he fled Indonesia in 2009, hours before the Supreme Court convicted him of embezzling Rp586 billion ($62 million).

Indonesians will hunt for fugitive Joko in PNG

THE JAKARTA POST

INDONESIAN DEPUTY ATTORNEY GENERAL Darmono has said a team will be sent to Port Moresby to clarify reports that tycoon and fraud fugitive Joko Soegiarto Tjandra [pictured] had been granted citizenship in Papua New Guinea.

“We are aware of the reports, and we need them [PNG] to confirm if the information is true,” Darmono said.

Australian media previously reported that Joko was among several foreigners given certificates of citizenship last week by the Immigration and Citizenship Advisory Committee of PNG.

Other reports, however, said that prime minister Peter O’Neill had ordered Joko’s citizenship revoked.

Darmono said that he had never received official information from PNG on the issue. “We have sent official letters concerning Joko’s alleged whereabouts in the country, but never received any response,” he said.

Joko reportedly flew to Port Moresby on a chartered flight from Halim Perdanakusuma Airport in East Jakarta on 10 June, the day before the Supreme Court issued a decision convicting and sentencing Joko to two years’ imprisonment and ordering the businessman to pay US$58.42 million in restitution to the state.

The businessman is known to have controlling shares in a number of plantation companies in Papua New Guinea.

Court accepts ruling on PNG diplomatic scam

JAKE CHUNG
TAIPEI TIMES

A US COURT’S ACCEPTANCE of a court ruling from Singapore opens the way for the Republic of China government to file a suit for the return of misappropriated ROC government funds in a US court.

In 2006, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs gave Wu Shih-tsai and Ching Chi-ju US$29.8 million as part of an attempt to forge diplomatic ties with Papua New Guinea, with $200,000 of the total designated as spending money for the men.

The funds were wired to a Singaporean bank account jointly opened by Wu and Ching. However, it was discovered just as then-president Chen Shui-bian’s second term was coming to an end that the deal with Papua New Guinea had not gone through and that Wu and Ching had kept the funds for themselves.

The ministry filed a civil suit in Singapore and the Singapore High Court ruled that Taiwan was entitled to the sum of $29.8 million plus interest earned on the account between the date of deposit and the date of the verdict.

Wu was arrested in Taiwan on charges of forgery and making false claims related to the PNG venture and started serving a 30-month sentence in May 2009.

Ching fled to the US with most of the money and has since reportedly transferred the funds to his children.

The ministry filed the suit with the Superior Court of California, County of Los Angeles, last year, asking it to acknowledge the ruling of the Singaporean court. It also asked the US court to void Ching’s application for the transfer of ownership of a piece of land in the US.

The Superior Court of California ruled last month that it would accept the ruling of the Singaporean court, opening the way for the ministry to file a suit against Ching in a US court for the return of the embezzled funds.

According to court papers from the The Superior Court of California, at the time of the Singaporean verdict, Ching was liable to return $18 million to the ROC government, but the total amount with interest now exceeds $20 million.

The government is also able to track money through legal channels in order to ensure all the funds related to the case are recovered.

Biggest Olympics team named for London 2012

RADIO AUSTRALIA

PAPUA NEW GUINEA will be sending its largest Olympic team ever to the London Games next month.

Eight athletes will compete in five sports including athletics, swimming, taekwondo, judo and weightlifting.

Most of those selected are currently training overseas in preparation for the games.

The team's head of mission, Syd Yates, told Radio Australia that winning a medal would be a huge achievement for the team.

"We're looking at continued improvement and personal bests," he said.

"Look if we can get a medal it would be fantastic but I think we'll just have to wait and see."

The poor women ... my heart goes out for them

BY REGINALD RENAGI

OH, WHY MUST THIS HAPPEN in our capital city of Port Moresby?

Husband Beheads Wife! Everything came to a standstill on Friday at about 7.30am at the Koki betelnut market.

The public watched in horror while a husband cut his wife's neck from the back in cold blooded murder.

This inhuman and barbaric treatment of women and wives continues to grip our country in this day and age.

This mother is just another victim on the ever-growing list of women being killed by their husbands and partners in Papua New Guinea.

How ironic it was that the popular Koki market was the scene of a horrific cold blooded murder – committed in full public view.

Vendors and shoppers alike got the shock of their lives when they saw a women being cut from on the neck by a man with a bush knife that left her head partially hanging as she fell to the ground.

The people were terrified and stood helpless as the victim fell to the ground with her head partially attached to her body while her attacker threatened them with the bush knife and escaped.

Eyewitnesses say both the husband and wife are from the Southern Highlands and were arguing when the man pulled out a long tramontina blade bush-machete and swung at the women's neck nearly severing her entire head from her body.

The women died immediately as she fell to the ground and the public was taken by surprise which allowed the suspect to flee.

The cops are investigating the incident and hope to make an arrest of the man soon (we hope so too).

Some people from certain regions of PNG are still very much primitive-minded and do not feel afraid to do this in broad daylight in our capital city or in any part of the country for that matter.

People in the city must be protected at all times as such horrific incidents do not give residents and foreign nationals living in PNG today a secure feeling.

What's the solution to this? What should the government do about this sort of barbaric crime against women or towards other people in this day and age?

On sedition, treason and other matters

BY HARRY TOPHAM

RECENT DISCUSSIONS RELATING TO the Papua New Guinea’s deputy minister’s antics and previous criminal form got me thinking about how certain laws in PNG are somewhat out of date in terms of today’s more liberal way of thinking.

PNG’s current criminal code was originally adopted and adapted from the Queensland criminal code and, whilst certain offences still remain relevant to meeting the social controls required by society, it would seem that other breaches of the law still on the books are out of date.

The charge of sedition is a prime example of such irrelevance as it relates primarily to restricting the individuals right of free speech and originating in history’s previous allegiance to the Regal Crown and its agents as being the supreme governing body demanding allegiance without dissent.

The western concept of law originated, in most cases, in England. It has its check method the right of appeal whereby aggrieved parties can take their grievances to higher courts and those wiser mentors of society can, through interpretation, adjudicate that the original finding was either wrong in law or illegal in content.

Such process of law can result in legislators amending or appealing those laws so successfully appealed.

It would appear that certain current laws enshrined under PNG’s penal code, like dinosaurs, remain cemented in the colonial past.

The reliance by courts on accepting the confessions produced by Police as prima facie evidence is based upon the principle that the police are people of good character who will act in good faith and are above reproach.

Unfortunately this has not been the case in many instances whereby innocent people have found themselves convicted of crimes they did not commit based upon “confessions” allegedly made.

Many years go a famous barrister in Sydney was appearing before the court and during the proceedings a loud cry rang out from the adjoining corridor.

The wise judge looked up concerned to which the barrister commented.

“Don’t worry about it your honour it is merely the police extracting a statement from a witness”.

On matters relating to treason and sedition, the following article taken from the Goulburn Herald-Empire of 27 March 1868 provides an insight into the thinking of the government of that day and reinforcing that old slogan ‘loose lips sinks ships’.

As one of the people involved in this case was a forebear of mine, the matter had direct relevance to me and, intrigued, I tried to discover the eventual outcome the case – unfortunately without result.

It would appear that legal action never ensued probably as the defendant’s legal defence would have been based upon the legal excuse “mistake of fact” when he commented: “ It was not me, its was only the booze talking your honour”.

It also must be remembered that, at that time in Australia’s history, a new sense of nationalism was emerging as the new chum Australians started to exert their independence and revolt against the draconian and vile actions of their earlier penal history; a factor taken into consideration by the judges in this matter who thus reacted in a more favourable manner to the more liberal thinking being espoused at that time.

Australian bar deeply concerned about chief justice

BY KEITH JACKSON

THE AUSTRALIAN BAR ASSOCIATION has said it is deeply concerned about the manner and circumstances of the arrest on charges of sedition of Sir Salamo Injia, the Papua New Guinea chief justice.

In a statement, the Association said the arrest of the nation’s most senior judicial officer at a time when the court was dealing with the validity of the prime minister’s appointment “raises fundamental issues concerning judicial independence.”

“This is all the more so because the arrest is on the charge of sedition which has a politically charged history,” it said.

“The actions are also troubling given that they have occurred following the previous arrest of the chief justice within the judge’s chambers complex on 6 March this year.”

The Bar Association said that, while no judge was above the law, “it is fundamental to the maintenance of the rule of law that when allegations are made against judicial officers that those allegations are dealt with in a manner that upholds the independence of the judiciary.

“he handling of any such allegations must be, and must be seen to be, in the hands of independent prosecutors as part of a fair and transparent process free from government interference.”

The Bar Association called upon the PNG government ensure that proper steps are taken to recognise the independence of the judiciary in all its dealing with the chief justice.

Landowners revive decades old Konedobu claim

BY OALA MOI

A DECADES OLD CLAIM that the Konedobu foreshore and Harbour City were unlawfully acquired by pre- and post-Independence governments and other stakeholders has been revived by contemporary members of a landowning clan after a four year break.

The people behind this revival are a band of male second-cousins who refreshed their solidarity this week after honouring the previous efforts of their Tau Sere Land Group Incorporated executives.

The group of second cousins is led by Vai Ruma and comprises Davai Tau (who is represented by his nominee Puka Tau), Nou Vai, Adam Vakona, and Vagi Boe. It is apparent that the land fight has run into the third generation. Vai Ruma follows his father, Ruma Vai, and his grandfather and namesake Vai Tau. This is the same situation with Davai, Nou, Adam, and Vagi.

The group represents Kua Tau, Seri Tau, Vai Tau, and Muraka Tau; the children of landowner Tau Sere of Mavara Laurina clan of Hanuabada village in the nation’s capital. Tau Sere Land Group Incorporated corporatizes Tau Sere’s descendents and has been pressing their customary ownership claims in recent years.

While members of Vai Ruma’s group are also land group members, they think they are not circumventing the land group’s efforts. In fact, here are land group members consolidating their cause and that of the Tau Sere Land Group Incorporated.

Vai Ruma’s group is claiming customary ownership of land area commencing from the high water mark and going as far as Champion Parade road on the land, then running through the Scouts Headquarters at Konedobu to as far as the Saint Michael’s Catholic parish; and ending at the Laurabada United Church precincts just before Hanuabada village.

Altogether there are a total of 8 State portions covered by the group’s claims. And like those generations that came before them, Vai and his cousins are demanding the return of ownership of the Konedobu and Kaevaga foreshore to the descendents of Tau Sere.

Vai’s group is also threatening legal action to nullify the sale and transfer of allotment 25; i.e. reclaimed land that is known as Harbour City. The group claims that Harbour City is land that was claimed by the wrong customary landowning clans which incorporated as Gidare Landholdings Ltd, and who in turn sold it to road construction company, Curtain Brothers.

They think the contract of sale was signed by a vendor that did not have the permission of the Tau Sere descendants who were and who should be the lawful customary landowners.

And they are not misleading themselves by this line of thinking! A fellow villager from Hanuabada has already admitted in a Facebook post this month that: “I am from the hahine [matrilineal] side and what we were told was our claim to ownership of harbour city was through the material used in the reclamation exercise.”

This admission is significant in a sense that the contract of sale entered into by Gidare Landholdings Ltd and Curtain Brothers may have been grounded on a legal falsity; a falsity that is not supported by law.

The falsity is that the legal person that sold the land was not and has never been the owner of the property the subject of the sale. Firstly, an ownership claim made by Gidare Landholdings Ltd may have been based on this argument that there are two distinct properties involved; one is the excavated material dumped at the Harbour City, and the other is the seafloor.

Both vendor and buyer operated on this false and untested assumption that the seafloor is ownerless; and that therefore there had to be an alternative way to claiming ownership of the reclaimed land.

This is where the owners of the excavated material come in. The only difference was that the source of the excavated material lies outside Harbour City, and therefore their ownership claim lies outside Harbour City.

To think that customary rights of land ownership can ride on a tipper truck together with the excavated material and be attached to reclaimed land is absurd that it should not be accepted as fodder for public policy in Papua New Guinea.

Rather, the argument should be that where statutory law has failed to find an owner of reclaimed land, as in the present case, then the custom of the Motuan people of Mavara Laurina clan of Hanuabada should have been given prominence in identifying the customary owner of the seafloor that lies underneath the Harbour City.

That is what the lawyers advising the vendor and the buyer should have advised either parties. In the absence of statutory law, they should have cited custom as a source of law in Papua New Guinea.

Paga women screamed as bulldozers destroyed homes

BY KEITH JACKSON

DAME CAROL KIDU has issued a statement on the enforced removal of 2,000 settlers from a development site on Paga Hill in Port Moresby after she was injured by police when she tried to intervene.

Dame Carol says she does not oppose the development of Paga Hill, and has previously told the settlers that one day they would have to leave, but “bulldozing a community does not solve any problems”.

“It only complicates things and creates a huge human rights issue.

“The Governor [Powes Parkop] and I are faced with hundreds of displaced families (refugees in their own country) who are now sheltering in tents with candles for lights because their power has been disconnected.”

Dame Carol said she had watched “women being dragged from their homes screaming while bulldozers were ordered to move in.

“There [were] babies, elderly, sick people as well as the fit and some very angry young men who were kicked viciously by police and for many families everything was destroyed.”

Eventually Dame Carol said she got the police to stop the demolition because lawyers were on their way with a stay order on humanitarian grounds.

She also said that most of the police “started to rethink what they were doing, especially when they realised that their own police legacy land was involved.

“Many said ‘Thanks Mum. I hope you would fight as hard for our families if they were in danger’.

Download Statement by Dame Carol Kidu on the Paga Hill scandal

And here's some dramatic video of the incident involving Dame Carol, one real gutsy lady....

 

Kidu heavied as she protests destruction of homes

BY REUBEN GIUSU
NAMORONG REPORT

DAME CAROL KIDU, the only female MP in Papua New Guinea’s male-dominated rogue parliament, has been accosted by two policemen after she protested at the destruction of the homes of 2,000 people of Paga Hill in Port Moresby.

PNG’s opposition leader and former community development minister was told to “stop interfering” and then was threatened. That was when I took this photograph and told the two officers to back off.

A company claiming a commercial land title of the Paga Hill area had begun to demolish the houses of over 2,000 residents.

The Kikori people were the original Paga settlers who where given permission to reside on the land by the Motu Koita after World War II.

The land also includes war heritage sites, including bunkers and left over bombs, which are a very real part of our history and should be part of a national park.

It is utterly outrageous how this land has been fraudulently obtained. No one in their right mind would allow such historical landmarks to be traded as commercial land.

If we tolerate this kind of forceful action by developers, then we continue to feed this country to the dogs.

The past decade has seen some terribly corrupt events, but I'm afraid this takes my pick as one of the lowest.

The stakes are so high that human beings lose their rights, which are trampled on. Over 2,000 people affected, many of whom have spent their entire lives living in the area.

A sad day for human rights in this country!

An approach to the challenges of land tenure

HISTORY EN GRATIS

Land Law and Economic Development in Papua New Guinea by David Lea and Timothy Curtin, Cambridge, ISBN 1-4438-2651-0, USD59.99

THIS BOOK IS DEVOTED TO an analysis of alternative land tenure systems in Papua New Guinea and offers a blend of philosophical, legal, sociological and economic approaches to this issue.

The text is divided roughly into two sections. The first six chapters provide a religious, philosophical, historical, sociological and legal context in which to understand Melanesian culture and Melanesian customary land tenure, and its contemporary recognition within the country s legal system.

The early chapters review the historical approaches to customary land tenure from the pre-independence period up to and including the most recent amendments that deal with the incorporation of customary land owning groups.

In these chapters we recommend that the present system be replaced with one that gives greater emphasis to formalized forms of private individual ownership and provides answers to various cultural, social and philosophical objections to such proposals.

The latter section of the book demonstrates the economic advantages to be gained through the conversion of customary forms of individual land tenure to private ownership based on documented titling.

The economic issues considered include the serious shortage of land for other than purely subsistence food production; the inadequacy of both food and cash crop production for export when based on customary land ownership; and the failure of the new Forestry Act to promote increased levels of sustainable production by Papua New Guineans themselves.

The book concludes with examination of the scope for land registration in Papua New Guinea with reference to developments in Kenya that transformed customary ownership across much of the country into individual private ownership.

Tim Curtin has been an academic and economic adviser in Tanzania, Kenya, London, Egypt, Nigeria, and Papua New Guinea (1970–1999). He is now retired and living in Canberra. Dr David Lea teaches philosophy at the American University of Sharjah. He previously taught at the University of Papua New Guinea

Women and children look to community justice

BY CATHERINE WILSON
INTER PRESS SERVICE

A NEW COMMUNITY JUSTICE program being rolled out in Papua New Guinea’s vast village court system is bringing international human rights-based laws to rural communities and boosting the protection and empowerment of women and children.

In the long term, it could help to reduce the high numbers of female and juvenile victims of abuse.

Village courts wield immense influence within the mainly rural population in Papua New Guinea. Many live in areas too remote to access the formal judicial system in the capital, Port Moresby, and main urban centres.

Equipped with 1,414 courts and 14,000 officials, the village court system, managed by provincial governments, administers justice in 90 percent of all villages and hears up to 600,000 cases per year.

Restorative justice is mainly used in the village context where mediation between parties aims to preserve social harmony. Traditionally, village court magistrates who do not have legal training employ local customary practices to deliver restorative justice.

But serious government concerns about widespread violence against women and children have prompted action to overhaul the training and capacity of village court officials and community leaders.

According to Margaret Inamuka, who presides as magistrate of the Kabiufa Village Court in the Eastern Highlands, "Most cases involve adultery, violence against women and eviction of women and children from their homes."

She hears three to five cases of violence against women per month. Children’s cases frequently involve stealing, physical abuse and neglect.

Women and children’s rights are especially critical in instances of violence, neglect, the customary tradition of marrying girls as young as 14 years old, sexual exploitation, discrimination against adopted and homeless children and those with HIV/AIDS, allegations of sorcery and the repayment of bride price in divorce cases.

Papua New Guinea ratified the Convention on the Rights of the Child in 1993, the Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women in 1995 and introduced the Lukautim Pikinini (Child Protection) Act in 2009. The nation’s constitution also contains the provision that customary practices may not be applied if they result in injustice.

But the remoteness of many communities and poor rural infrastructure has hindered effective implementation of these national and international agreements.

The Women and Children’s Access to Community Justice (Child Protection) Program, initiated by the Village Court Secretariat, began a pilot phase in 2007 with funding and technical expertise provided by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF).

Its vision is to strengthen community protection of the most vulnerable members of society.

The pilot program was conducted in the Eastern Highlands, Simbu, Milne Bay, East Sepik and Western Highlands provinces. Training tailored to community and women leaders, village court officials and youth representatives addressed human rights, the right to non-discrimination, the unacceptability of violence against women, juvenile justice, the importance of building a protective environment for children and facts about HIV/AIDS.

Jeffrey Nape eludes arrest warrant - so far

BY EOIN BLACKWELL
AAP PAPUA NEW GUINEA CORRESPONDENT

PAPUA NEW GUINEA'S GOVERNMENT corruption watchdog has drawn up an arrest warrant for the Speaker of Parliament, Jeffrey Nape, amid allegations over missing development funds.

Taskforce Sweep chairman, Sam Koim, says Mr Nape has yet to be served with the arrest warrant as investigations continue into his alleged misappropriation of K5 million in funds.

Mr Koim told AAP the arrest warrant was prepared in January after investigators had trouble getting access to documentation that they say is relevant to the case.

But, he says, the team has yet to decide whether to use it.

"Let me put it this way, the arrest warrant was obtained on the advice that we will search him as well as arrest him on the spot if the documents are found with him. We have not approached him yet. The case is still ongoing."

Mr Nape has earned a place in history as PNG's most powerful Speaker. Having served as Speaker for the government of Sir Michael Somare, on 2 August he allowed a crucial vote of no confidence in the Somare government.

The vote allowed Peter O'Neill to form a new government with a majority of MPs.

The Supreme Court later ruled the process used to elevate the O'Neill government was unconstitutional, which in turn sparked a series of crises which culminated in a failed mutiny in January by Somare supporters.

Mr Nape could not be contacted for comment by AAP, however he is reported as saying the missing funds were never released to him and that he is ready to face the taskforce at any time.