Too soon for sanctions against PNG: Carr

By Eoin Blackwell, AAP Papua New Guinea Correspondent

Foreign Minister Bob Carr says he is disappointed to see Papua New Guinea delay national elections for six months but says it would be premature for Australia to impose sanctions.

PNG's parliament voted 63 to 11 on Thursday to controversially postpone its constitutionally mandated five yearly elections.

Senator Carr, who in March suggested the option of sanctions in the event elections were delayed before recanting, says imposing sanctions now would be premature.

"To see elections suspended by six months is very disappointing," he told reporters outside his home in Sydney.

"We hope the decision will be reviewed and it's premature to talk about sanctions.

"I think we've got to give the processes in Papua New Guinea some time to work their way through."

Mr Carr said he hoped to talk with PNG Prime Minister Peter O'Neill and his ministers about the decision and that holding PNG elections would be an object of Australian aid.

The Australian government has offered assistance to PNG in the form of 30 Australian workers to run elections and maintain the electoral rolls, as well as more than 100 computers.

PNG's Deputy Prime Minister, Belden Namah, criticised Senator Carr's previous backing of sanctions on the floor of parliament on Thursday.

But Senator Carr said Australia respected PNG's independence.

"We respect their sovereignty, but we've got a commitment to seeing the countries in this region stick by a democratic formula, the old formula that says that people determine their rulers and they do it on a regular basis," he said.

Deputy opposition leader and foreign affairs spokeswoman Julie Bishop on Friday told reporters in Port Moresby she hopes Australia will maintain its support role in ensuring PNG has a timely election.

She had just finished a week-long trip to the Pacific nation.

"Let's take it a step at a time," she said when asked if she would support sanctions against PNG if the election delay went beyond six months.

"At this point, there has been a vote in the parliament and then I'm sure there will be other matters unfolding in the weeks ahead."

The government of PNG has publicly toyed with the prospect of delaying the poll since early February, when it was revealed only 60 per cent of the electoral roll was complete.

Mr Namah also said security issues in the sometimes volatile Southern Highlands need to be addressed before the poll goes ahead.

The vote to delay the poll is a backflip for both Mr Namah and Prime Minister Peter O'Neill, who have both stated publicly the election will go ahead on time.

On Monday, Ms Bishop met with PNG's Electoral Commissioner Andrew Trawen, as well as Police Commissioner Tom Kulunga and defence force chief Brigadier-General Francis Agwi.

All three had indicated the nation was ready for an election.

The decision to delay has been strongly opposed by some parliamentarians who say the vote was unconstitutional.

PNG's former attorney-general Sir Arnold Amet has vowed a constitutional court challenge, while Opposition Leader Dame Carol Kidu on Thursday condemned the move.

Elections in the infrastructure-poor PNG are a multi-staged process.

The writs were due to be issued on April 27, with official campaigning due to kick off a week later.

Polling day was scheduled to be on June 23 and results would not be known for almost a month afterwards.

The six-month delay in the electoral process would put polling day on December 23, 2012.

PNG poll delay worries Australia

SYDNEY: Australia has criticised Papua New Guinea's decision to delay national elections as disappointing and concerning, with Prime Minister Julia Gillard urging Port Moresby to reconsider.

 Papua New Guinea's parliament voted overwhelmingly on Thursday to postpone the polls for six months, with Deputy Prime Minister Belden Namah reportedly warning Canberra should not intrude on the election process.

 Gillard said the Australian government, which has previously cautioned against delaying the elections which were due to be held in June, was "disappointed and concerned".

Australia has criticised Papua New Guinea's decision to delay national elections as disappointing and concerning (AFP/File - Torsten Blackwood)

"Questions have been raised in Papua New Guinea about the constitutionality of this decision," she said in a statement issued late Thursday.

 "While we respect Papua New Guinea's sovereignty, as a strong supporter and long-time friend of Papua New Guinea, Australia believes that the elections should be held on time, in accordance with the constitution."

 Gillard said Canberra had received previous assurances from PNG's government that the elections would be held on time and hoped it would now "give this decision further consideration."

 Politics in PNG have been in turmoil since late 2011 when the Supreme Court ruled Prime Minister Peter O'Neill's rise to power -- via a parliamentary vote while then leader Sir Michael Somare was recovering from illness in Singapore -- was illegal.

 Somare, who has dominated politics in his country for decades, believes he is still the leader of the Pacific nation of 6.6 million people, and fresh elections were viewed as a way of resolving the dispute for good.

 PNG's parliament decided on Thursday that elections will be suspended for six months from April 27.

 Namah reportedly said that the polls needed to be delayed to ensure proper security in the volatile Southern Highlands and because electoral rolls were incomplete.

 But Gillard said Canberra had provided "substantial practical support to enable elections to proceed as scheduled", including 30 Australian Civilian Corps personnel to PNG's electoral commission and an air support mission.

 Australia rankled its northern neighbour in March when Foreign Minister Bob Carr said Canberra would "be in the position of having to consider sanctions" if PNG failed to hold elections in mid-2012.

 "We'd have no alternative but to organise the world to condemn and isolate Papua New Guinea," Carr told Sky News at the time.

 In a speech to parliament Thursday, Namah warned Australia not to threaten PNG.

 "Whatever Mr Bob Carr says about sanctions, I want to say this: do not threaten the independence of this country," Namah said, the ABC reported.

Australia 'concerned' by PNG election delay

BBC

Australia has expressed concern at a decision in Papua New Guinea to delay elections by six months, amid an ongoing political crisis.

PNG's parliament voted on Thursday to delay the polls because of security and electoral roll issues.

Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard said in a statement that she was "disappointed and concerned".

Two men claim the prime minister role and the polls had been seen as a way of ending the political turmoil.

Ms Gillard said that ''as a strong supporter... of Papua New Guinea, Australia believes elections should be held on time, in accordance with the constitution''.

But PNG's Deputy Prime Minister Belden Namah warned Australia not to interfere.

''You must respect our wishes. You must not intrude into our election process,'' he said.

Judges suspended

The vote in parliament to delay the polls was passed by 63 votes to 11. Elections must be held every five years in PNG and voting had been due in June.

The country's political landscape has been thrown into turmoil by the tussle between Sir Michael Somare and Peter O'Neill for the role of prime minister.

Sir Michael - then prime minister - left the country in March 2011 to receive medical treatment. In August, MPs declared the position of prime minister vacant and elected Mr O'Neill leader.

But a Supreme Court ruling in December 2011 stated that parliament had acted illegally and ordered that Sir Michael be restored to office.

Mr O'Neill, who is backed by the civil service and effectively running the country, refused to step down.

In January a retired colonel staged a failed mutiny with a group of soldiers, taking the chief of defence forces captive and demanding that Sir Michael be reinstated.

The Supreme Court is now looking to rule on the political battle - but in recent days Mr O'Neill's government passed a law allowing it to effectively suspend two of the judges

Sexual violence forcing girls out of school in PNG

PORT MORESBY, 6 April 2012 (IRIN) - In the Pacific nation of Papua New Guinea (PNG) sexual violence against young girls, and the shame and stigma that follows, is forcing many out of school and others into early marriage.

A recent study by Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), one of the country’s main providers of medical and psychological assistance to survivors of family and sexual violence, showed that from 2008 to 2011, a significant proportion of patients who received treatment as a result of violence were children, some under the age of five.

Photo: Ana Santos/ IRIN

The threat of sexual violence prevents girls in PNG from attending school

In the rural settlement of Tari, 31 percent of those who reported violence were between five and 12 years old. In Lae, the second biggest city after the capital, Port Moresby, 26 percent were between the ages of 13 and 17.

Almost half of those reporting sexual violence In Lae from January 2008 to June 2010 - some 520 people - were under 18 years old. In Tari, 248 were minors, said Patrick Almeida, MSF’s medical coordinator.

“In both places, in over 70 percent of the cases, the perpetrators were known by the survivors,” he added.

“It’s really bad,” said Ume Wainetti, head of the NGO, Family Sexual Violence Action Centre (FSVAC), based in Port Moresby.

Young girls are already disadvantaged when it comes to education, and the threat of rape and sexual abuse aggravates these inequalities. As it is, parents generally hesitate to send their daughters to school because they will just get married and have babies. Boys will carry on the family name and continue to work,” Wainetti said.

The 2010 UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) Education Digest listed PNG as one of 16 countries worldwide with “severe” gender disparities. In PNG, boys are at least 10 percent more likely to start the first year of primary school than girls.

Gross enrolment rates in 2009 were close to 82 percent for boys, but only 74 percent for girls, according to the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF).

The cost of tuition is one of the main reasons for the gap, according to UNICEF. In 2009 the government adopted a plan to gradually phase out school fees by 2015, when it expects to fully fund basic education. 

A dangerous path

 The remote locations of schools have even greater implication for girls, noted UNICEF. “Some kids have to walk for hours to get to school and the journey on the way to school makes them vulnerable to attack, especially for girls,” said Joseph Logha, Department of Education assistant secretary.

“The experience of sexual violence definitely affects a girl’s education in terms of being able to stay in school and school performance,” said Ruth Kauffman, MSF project coordinator at a Family Support Centre in Lae.

These donor-funded hospital-based centres are intended to be safe houses and “one-stop shops” for survivors of violence for medical, psychosocial and legal assistance.

“If a girl is raped, she may be blamed and beaten by family members. If she gets pregnant, she misses one year of school and may not be able to go back. Even if she doesn’t [fall pregnant], she’s already a different person. The trauma makes it difficult for her to concentrate on school work,” Kauffman said.

In some cases, the girl is married off to the perpetrator for a “bride price”- similar to a dowry. “Some communities see marrying her to the offender as a way to make him accountable for his behaviour, without considering the additional emotional trauma that the child will suffer,” said Elaine Bainard, UNICEF’s chief of child protection in PNG.

Wainetti said one way of ending a culture of violence is to change people seeing violence against women as a given. The NGO has recruited more than 1,000 male volunteers of varying ages nationwide to receive “gender sensitivity” training.

“Some witnessed violence and did not like seeing how their mothers were treated,” Wainetti said. “They want to have a role in ending that cycle, and this is a start.”