Mineral wealth failed to better PNG standards

Source: The National, Thursday, March 14, 2013

By MALUM NALU

“SO rich and yet so poor” is a paradox that rings true for Papua New Guinea, as after years of extraction of our natural resources, our standard of living seems not to have taken a turn for the better, but for the worse.
 A case in point is Daru, the forgotten “capital” of Western, which has one of the lowest living standards in the world despite the billions of kina from the giant Ok Tedi mine.

Rundown post office and streets in Daru, Western province, despite the billions from Ok Tedi mine.-Nationalpics by MALUM NALU

Everywhere in the country, we see rundown roads, schools, and hospitals, among other facilities, which make us wonder where all the wealth from our resources has gone to.
It was because of this that the head of Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) Secretariat, a global standard for improved transparency of government revenue from natural resources, yesterday met Prime Minister Peter O’Neill to discuss implementation of EITI in PNG.
Jonas Moberg, the head of EITI, also met representatives from the oil, gas, and mining industries, as well as local civil society organisations, which he said had expressed strong support for the EITI.
He told reporters at the US Embassy in Port Moresby yesterday, after meeting with O’Neill, that PNG was a resource-rich country with some of the region’s largest oil, gas and mining projects, and transparency about how much the government received from these resources was a one key step to ensure that all citizens of PNG benefited.

Moberg talking to reporters at the US Embassy in Port Moresby.

“The idea is very simple and that is to fight corruption, improve accountability, through transparency,” Moberg said.
“EITI is a standard implemented by countries, it’s implemented by 37 countries so far, and a number of other countries are preparing to do so, including the United States there’s a pilot in Australia, and obviously, there is a preparatory process by your government
“When the EITI is implemented, what essentially happens is that an independent report is done, bringing together what the companies pay in taxes, royalties, and fees, and what the government receives.
“So you get someone independent that has trust to go and ask all the companies, Ok Tedi, PNG LNG and so on, ‘how much have you paid in royalties and licence fees?’.
“And then you ask revenue commission, the IRC, and treasury, ‘how much have you received?’ and you compare to find out how much has gone missing.
“So the whole idea is you bring transparency in there.
“That makes it more difficult for money to go missing.”
Moberg said the EITI would be implemented by government, and supported by industry and non-government organisations, like Transparency International.
“It becomes very easy for transparency to become pointless,” he said.
“It has to be meaningful transparency, transparency that leads to improved accountability, that leads to trust being built with people.
“Therefore, there has to be a commission in every country, a multi-stakeholder group, so that government convenes an EITI PNG group, invites the companies, invites civil society, and says that, based on these global roles, we’re going to do it our way.
“And it is that group that needs to have the ownership of the EITI.
“There is an integral working group here so the process has started.”
Moberg said O’Neill had shown strong support for EITI at their meeting yesterday.
“His (O’Neill’s) commitment to this agenda could not have been stronger,” he said.
“We are very encouraged by what we see here.
“There is, of course, no doubt that your country has a long way to go in making sure that this sector brings benefits to the whole population.
“But the commitment that the prime minister has demonstrated now is quite impressive.
“I think that’s something very positive.
“It’s concerted action in the fight against corruption and to improve accountability.
“It’s these kinds of practical steps that the prime minister is so keen on, and we very much welcome.”

Condoms needed in PNG prisons

IRIN

BANGKOK, 14 March 2013 (PlusNews) - A Papua New Guinea (PNG) study released today calls for condoms to be made more widely available in prisons.

“All prisoners must have condoms,” Angela Kelly, one of the authors of the study by the PNG Institute of Medical Research, told IRIN, noting that they could help prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS.

Although condoms are one of the government’s key HIV prevention tools, there is no official policy in place regarding prisons, with many viewing their distribution as supporting male-to-male sex which is illegal in PNG.

The study found that unsafe, forced and consensual male-to-male sex was taking place in four of the country’s 19 overcrowded prisons visited; some sexual relations were long-term, some sex was for goods or as a punishment, and some involved more than one partner.

Only one of the four prisons provided condoms to inmates; most prison staff believed condoms encouraged sex, the study found. While there is no figure for HIV prevalence in PNG prisons, it is widely believed to exceed the national average of 0.8 percent.

PNG grapples with ageing health workforce

IRIN

Photo: David Swanson/IRIN

Many nurses are nearing retirement age

PORT MORESBY, 14 March 2013 (IRIN) - Papua New Guinea (PNG) is a Pacific country rich in natural resources, yet its health staffing levels are comparable to the world’s poorest countries due to a rapidly retiring force and lack of qualified replacements.

“If we do not do anything about our ageing workforce quickly, the health system may collapse,” former health minister Jamie Maxton Graham told parliament in 2012.

Despite repeated warnings of the shortage, first at a 2002 national health conference, again in 2008 during a government health resources forum, and most recently by a 2011 World Bank report, the country still faces what the government calls a “drastic” health worker shortage. The World Bank report predicted a large decline in the “backbone of rural service delivery” (nurses and midwives) - by up to half.

All this is unfolding in a mostly rural half-island of seven million residents where the closest health clinic might be hours by boat, foot, or at best, local transport, from the village, said Miriam Lovai, former head of the national midwife association.

Rural health care is especially threatened, noted 2011 field research led by Care Australia and the Australian National University. Twice as many infants and three times as many children under five die in rural areas than urban ones, according to the country’s latest census in 2000.

Two years since the Bank’s “call to action” report, PNG’s health workforce (mostly nurses and midwives) is dwindling through retirement or attrition while the country continues fighting high malnutrition rates in remote highland communities, as well as high infant and child mortality (57 and 75 per 1,000 live births, respectively).

Training

Health experts say the shortage of qualified nurses is due to falling government support to nursing schools, starting in 1999, which has forced the closure of all but three of the eight public nursing schools.

The team leader of the World Bank report, Aparnaa Somanathan, told international media in 2011: “I think training capacity in PNG has weakened considerably over the last 10-15 years. There is less and less resources being put into training, so PNG’s ability to train more and more doctors and nurses has declined.”

Fourteen community health worker (CHW) schools produce graduates who work mainly in facilities in rural areas - where 90 percent of the population lives - mostly in clinics known locally as “aid posts”.

Churches or faith-based groups operate the posts, which are staffed with a nurse or CHW. In areas largely bereft of government services, these posts provide frontline primary care and become the de facto village doctors.

The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends at least 23 health workers per 10,000 residents to provide basic care, including vaccinations; PNG has five nurses and doctors per 10,000 residents.

“Many of our qualified nurses have taken up employment in the resource [oil, gas and mining sector] for better pay and conditions,” said Manga Bengi, a public relations officer with Mount Hagen Provincial Hospital, the country’s third largest hospital in Western Highlands Province.

Mineral deposits account for nearly 70 percent of the country’s export earnings.

Meanwhile, with poorly-funded health training opportunities, almost no midwives have registered with the state since 2000. However, since the Australian government gave US$120 million last year for midwifery training, Port Moresby reopened four midwifery schools in 2012; a new group of midwives is due to graduate this month.

Even so, these graduates will be far outnumbered by the number of health workers expected to retire soon. Out of 570 doctors, 3,429 nurses and 4,400 community health workers, 20 percent have passed the legal retirement age of 55, while nearly 40 percent are 45-55, according to the government in 2012.

Nurses will retire the soonest, with more than one-third of specialist nurses (including midwives) expected to retire in the short term, according to a 2011 health profile by the Australia-based University of New South Wales and health think tank Burnet Institute.

Photo: David Swanson/IRIN

There are five nurses per 10,000 residents

What next?

Prime Minister Peter O’Neill told local media in December 2012 foreign workers are needed as a stop-gap measure.

Port Moresby General Hospital in the capital, which is the country’s largest referral hospital, recently recruited two nurses from the Philippines, but critics say this temporary solution diverts attention from the need to boost local health worker training and retention through improved benefits and pay.

About 10 years ago, former Prime Minister Sir Michael Somare moved to bring in nearly 100 nurses and doctors from Cuba on temporary work contracts, but the cost and heated opposition from the local medical community of being “replaced” by foreign workers stymied the effort.

The present government’s latest bid to import health workers has met similar resistance, but plans proceed uninterrupted.

Also, the government recently approved a health workforce plan in 2013.

“We know exactly how many nurses we need and a training plan is now put in place to meet our manpower requirements,” chief secretary to the government, Manasupe Zurenuoc, told IRIN.

Nationwide there are 28 hospitals, 551 health centres and nearly 2,000 aid posts, which together process up to 10 million outpatients and 200,000 in-patients annually, according to the National Health Department.

Zurenuoc added that the National Executive Council earlier this month directed the Department of Personnel Management - responsible for the recruitment and salaries of all civil servants - to finalize salary reforms for CHWs, which will then be submitted for government approval. One proposed change is for the government to do away with a longstanding parallel pay scale system in which CHWs in church-run facilities earn on average 33 percent less than those employed in the public sector.

Of the 4,400 community health workers nationwide, church health services employ a “substantial” number of them, according to the country’s Churches Medical Council, which oversees faith-based health services.

Young Daru woman's death sparks fears of a killer TB strain

By Peter Michael of The Courier-Mail

AUSTRALIA'S first victim of a killer strain of drug-resistant tuberculosis has died amid warnings of a looming health epidemic on Queensland's doorstep.

Medical experts are seriously concerned about the handling of the TB epidemic in Papua New Guinea after Catherina Abraham died last Thursday of an incurable form of the illness, known as XDR-TB (extensively drug resistant TB) in Cairns Base Hospital.

TRAGIC: Catherina Abraham, from Papua New Guinea, who died after contracting a deadly variant of tuberculosis. Source: The Cairns Post

The 20-year-old had been in an isolation ward since May last year after an outbreak of the highly-contagious mutated form of TB on Daru Island, off Cape York.
Some doctors fear she will become the first of a wave medical refugees heading to Queensland for treatment.
The State's Chief Health officer Jeanette Young has urged people not to panic about the threat of an outbreak on the mainland.

.But respiratory physician Steve Vincent, who treated Ms Abraham, warned that there was a further threat of Totally Drug Resistant or TDR-TB "just around the corner".

"Her death is not unexpected given the fallout of this killer, incurable disease," Dr Vincent said. "Despite all the first-world medical treatment, it shows how difficult it is to control.

A Papua New Guinean man crosses the waters of the Torres Strait.

"It exemplifies the fact with such a high mortality rate, PNG is going to have an extremely difficult time in handling this epidemic."
He said doctors may soon face the ethical dilemma where it might be "more humane not to treat them and let them die" as the disease was untreatable.
Australian and Papua New Guinean authorities are trying to contain XDR-TB to the shanty towns of Daru Island as more than 14,500 TB cases are diagnosed in PNG's Western Province every year.
Federal MP Warren Entsch, whose electorate includes the Torres Strait, yesterday said the $31 million AusAid TB program in the Western Province was "riddled with corruption" and "completely inadequate".
He said Ms Abraham's death was a grim reminder of the "looming public health disaster on our doorstep".
XDR-TB is estimated to cost between $500,000 and $1 million a patient to treat in Australian hospitals, with a low cure rate and high death rate.
Dr Young said she supported efforts to contain the epidemic to the PNG side of the border and not reopen clinics on the Torres Strait islands of Boigu or Saibai.
She said re-opening health clinics on Boigu or Saibai islands would only increase the risk of cross-border infection in the Torres Strait.

Pundari: Ok Tedi mine a curse

Source: The National, Tuesday,  March 12, 2013

By SONIA KENU

MINISTER for Environment and Conservation John Pundari yesterday broke his silence on the Ok Tedi mining pollution issue, describing it as a “curse” on the Fly River people of Western.
He says he plans a visit to all impacted areas along the Ok Tedi and Fly River areas and intends to take along a contingent of international and national media to see for themselves the scale of damage
“The mine has been operating in the country for some 27 years, and while it has made a significant contribution to the development of our country, it has also brought a curse upon the people of Western in terms of the enormous environmental damage caused to the Fly River system,” Pundari said.
“The Ok Tedi mine has been using the riverine disposal of waste rock and mine tailings and has caused considerable environmental degradation.
“This has had a major impact on the lives and livelihood of the Fly River people.
“The benefits to the people in the impacted area, in my view, are far less than the impact the operation of the mining has done to the health of the environment.
“The damaged environment will remain long after the mine has shut down and continue to affect the lives and health of our people for many generations.”
Pundari said Ok Tedi mine had been operating under the Mining (Ok Tedi Agreement) Act of 1978, followed by various supplementary agreements, which were amended over the years until the recent one in 2001 -- the Mining (Ok Tedi Mine Continuation) Agreement Act 2001.
“These agreements give indemnity against prosecution to BHP, the original developer of the mine,” he said.
“Excluding the mine from regulations under the Environment Act has prevented my department from taking an active role in its management.”
Pundari said BHP walked away from the mine and left PNG to deal with the damage caused to the environment, which would remain long after the mine was closed and would become a burden to the government.
“Our people of the Fly River and Western have suffered in silence for a very long time in their own God-given land from activities of the mine and the wastes generated in it,” he said.
“I, as the minister responsible for the environmental matters, and our government, would not be able to fix the wrong done by these large multi-national corporations to our environment and our people.
“It hurts me greatly to hear the cry of our people in the Fly River area about the irrepressible damage done to the environment and their lives.
“It even hurts me to go and talk about the kind of benefit the Ok Tedi mine has brought in, when their suffering outweighs the benefit the mine brings in.”

PNG elections fair, democratic, says PM

By Eoin Blackwell, AAP Papua New Guinea Correspondent

PAPUA New Guinea Prime Minister Peter O'Neill has defended the conduct of the 2012 elections, after a corruption watchdog labelled elements of the poll as "unacceptable".

Transparency International PNG (TIPNG) said in a recent report Australia's last-minute surge of support for PNG's 2012 election stopped what would otherwise have been "an even larger failure".
Mr O'Neill said there had been problems with every election in PNG since independence from Australia in 1975.
"The geography of PNG makes service delivery and communications an enormous challenge day in day out. Staging national elections across the country is no different," he said in a statement.
"I thought overall the conduct of the last election was significantly better than then 2007 election, and the 2002 one before that."
The 2002 election - in which 100 people were killed in election-related violence - is considered by some PNG observers as the benchmark for how bad elections can get.
The 2007 election introduced limited preferential voting, a move seen as limiting the violence surrounding the election period.
Mr O'Neill said an important check and balance to the electoral system was the court of disputed returns, where more than 100 petitions had been filed against winners in 89 electorates.
In its report on the 2012 election, TIPNG said 21 per cent of polling place observers rated the process unfair or very unfair, while 45 per cent said it was mostly fair.
Just 37 per cent of TIPNG's 282 election observers said the process was very fair.
The report also found a large number of people appeared to be disenfranchised as a result of roll inaccuracy and possibly wrongful removal from the roll.
"This brings into question if the will of the people was truly expressed," TIPNG said.
The report said Australia's support of on-time elections in the form of logistical aid was a sign the system had failed.
But Mr O'Neill said it was another sign of the democratic process at work in PNG.
"I believe that with Australian support, and the presence of international observers, as well as a free press, and a robust political party process, the election produced a fair and democratic result."
The 2012 poll returned Mr O'Neill to the prime ministership at the head of a 94 MP-strong coalition in PNG's 111-member parliament.
During the elections AAP witnessed children voting in the Highlands town of Tari, while in another incident a police officer told of how a mother and breastfeeding baby were given two ballots so both could vote.

Read more: http://www.news.com.au/breaking-news/world/png-elections-fair-democratic-says-pm/story-e6frfkui-1226594738952#ixzz2NGcTONFC

Angoram MP Ludwig Schulze passes away

Source: The National, Monday,  March 11, 2013 

 

PRIME Minister Peter O’Neill and opposition leader Belden Namah have expressed sadness at the passing of Angoram MP Ludwig Schulze.
Schulze passed away last Friday at the Pacific International Hospital in Port Moresby after battling an illness.
Schulze first entered parliament in 1991 representing the people of Angoram.
He lost to Arthur Somare in 1997 and reclaimed the seat in the national elections last year.
He was the only member of Pangu Pati to enter parliament after the elections and sat in the opposition bench.
“It is sad that the ninth parliament has lost a member like this,” the prime minister said in a statement yesterday.
“Schulze entered parliament determined to serve, to carry on from where he left off in 1997.
“His passing is a big
loss for the country, the people of Angoram and his family.
“On behalf of our government, the people of Ialibu-Pangia and my family, I convey my sincere condolence to the Schulze family at this time of grief.”
Namah said Schultz’s death marked the loss of a renowned figure from Angoram, East Sepik, and an active member of the opposition.
“I would like to extend my deepest condolence
to his wife and children
and family, supporters, people of Angoram and the many friends he has left behind.
“Your presence, friendship, companionship and leadership will dearly be missed by myself, and many others who have known you over the years.
“Rest in peace my brother,” Namah said in a statement yesterday.

United Nations demands end to 'witch' deaths in PNG

Date February 10, 2013

The Age

Nick Cumming-bruce Geneva

SPURRED by the killing of a young woman accused of witchcraft in Papua New Guinea, the United Nations on Friday called on the country to address increasing vigilante violence against people accused of sorcery and to revoke a controversial sorcery law.
The UN human rights office in Geneva said it was disturbed by the killing of the woman, Kepari Leniata, 20, who was stripped, tortured, doused in petrol and set on fire on Wednesday as hundreds of spectators watched.
The killing in Mount Hagen, the Western Highlands provincial capital, reportedly was carried out by relatives of a six-year-old boy who, they claimed, had been killed by her sorcery. The crowd blocked police officers and firefighters who tried to intervene.
''This case adds to the growing pattern of vigilante attacks and killings of persons accused of sorcery in Papua New Guinea,'' Cecile Pouilly, a spokeswoman for the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, told reporters in Geneva.

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Ms Pouilly said that police were continuing their investigation of a case in Jiwaka province in November, when people held three women and two men for 20 days for allegedly using sorcery to kill another person, torturing them with iron rods and knives heated over fires before killing them.
According to Amnesty International, violence against those accused of sorcery is endemic in PNG.
In a statement on Friday, the human rights organisation cited reports that in July, the police arrested 29 members of a witch-hunting gang who were murdering and cannibalising people they suspected of sorcery.
A UN investigator who visited PNG in March also found that women, particularly widows and those with no other family members to protect them, were disproportionately affected by the violence against suspected sorcerers, which included torture, rape, mutilations and murder.
''I was shocked to witness the brutality of the assaults perpetrated against suspected sorcerers,'' the investigator, Rashida Manjoo, said in a statement after her visit, reporting that many of the people she interviewed said that sorcery accusations were commonly used to deprive women of their land and property.
''Any misfortune or death within the community can be used as an excuse to accuse such a person of being a sorcerer,'' Ms Manjoo said.
Attacks often were carried out by young men and boys acting on the instruction of their community and under the influence of alcohol and drugs given to them, Ms Manjoo said she was told. They also often acted with impunity, she said, because witnesses feared talking to the police and followed a social tradition of ''wantok'' or solidarity.
Responding to Wednesday's attack in Mount Hagen, the UN human rights office and Amnesty International urged PNG's government to implement the recommendations of a constitutional commission that called in November for the repeal of the country's sorcery law.
Human rights groups say the 1971 law, which criminalises sorcery and recognises the accusation of sorcery as a defence in murder cases, contributes to the violence. The commission's report and recommendations, however, have not yet been presented to the country's parliament, Ms Pouilly said.
''We don't know why nothing has been done since November,'' she said. NEW YORK TIMES

A Bulolo love affair

This article first appeared in The National Weekender on Friday, March 8, 2013

By MALUM NALU

Last Saturday, while in the mountains of Baiune in Bulolo, Morobe province, for the opening of PNG Forest Products’ K100 million Upper Baiune hydro power project, I met two living legends of Bulolo.
I was walking around taking pictures of the new Katu Vavini Power Station when this Filipino lady approached me, introduced herself, and said she was the mother of my friend Ronald Del Valle.
I got to know Ronald some years ago when, while writing a feature article on Bulolo, I urgently needed some pictures and found his website, http://www.freewebs.com/bulolo_png/, which features hundreds of pictures of this historic Papua New Guinea icon and the joys of growing up there.
We have since been corresponding through email, and through Facebook, where Ronald –now a medical worker in the Phillipines - proudly declares to the world that he is a “Mangi Bulolo (Bulolo Boy)”.
So it was a joy to meet his mother, Salve, and father, Romy, one of the oldest expatriate couples in Bulolo who have been there since before independence in early 1975.

Salve and Romy Del Valle chilling out at the Bulolo Country Club last Saturday night.-Nationalpic by MALUM NALU

Their three children, Rommel (38), Sharon Rie (35), and Ronald (32), were raised in Bulolo, with Sharon Rie and Ronald being born at Angau Memorial Hospital in Lae.
All did their primary schooling at Bulolo International Primary School, and high school and university in Australia.
Over dinner that night at Bulolo Country Club, as the food and drinks flowed, the Del Valles relived the memories of the last 37 years in Bulolo, a place which they call “home” and are much loved and respected by the local community.
Their swansong, perhaps, as they will shortly be leaving PNG for good, as after “retirement” in 2010, PNG Forest Products called them back because of Romy’s vast experience
In early 1975, a young, newly-wed mechanical engineer, with a young wife and newborn son back in the Phillipines, stepped out of a DC3 plane onto the tarmac of Bulolo Airport.
Little that Romy Del Valle know that Bulolo would become his home for the next 37 years, a place that he and his family would come to love, and to call home.
He had been working with a railway company after finishing uni, and hearing stories from Filipinos who had been working in the Vietnam War, wanted to experience the thrill of working overseas.
“I applied to the department of labour in the Phillipines for an overseas job,” Romy tells me.
“At the time, the Phillipines was just starting to export labour.
“After I applied, I was lucky to be interviewed by the managing director of Commonwealth New Guinea Timbers (CMGT), the predecessor to PNG Forest Products.”
Their first attempt at landing in Bulolo failed, as the DC3 could not land, because of bad weather and had to return to Port Moresby, but it was second time lucky the next day.
“About 19 Filipinos met us at the Bulolo Airport, all single guys,” Romy recalls.
“My contract was married, with family status, so after nine months, in early 1976, my wife Salve and our baby son, Rommel, joined me in Bulolo.”
A typical young couple, in those halcyon days of the 1970s in PNG, they adopted very well to their new home.
“At that time, the road going to Lae was very nice,” Romy remembers.
“It was just dirt, but along the way, there were government stations with machines, which used to grade the road all the time.
“We used to go down to Lae to do our shopping, leaving Bulolo at about 4.30 in the morning.
“When we arrived in Lae, we’d go to Pelgens at China Town or Malaita Street, Burns Philp or Steamships to do our shopping.
“We’d buy lunch and have it outside the old post office, or at the seaside near Voco Point.
“Also at that time, in Wau, New Guinea Goldfields (NGG) was still operating, and they had a good store there.
“Most of their goods were imported from America.
“Even Bulolo had good shops, with things like eggs, chickens, coming from Australia.”
Romy started work with PNG Forest Products as design engineer, and in 1984, was promoted to mechanical engineer, a position he has held since, and been involved in important facets of the company’s operations.
“The 1980s were hard, especially 1985 and 1986, because of not much sales,” he says.
“Things picked up in the early 2000s, after Tony Honey became general manager.
“From there, we have started to build the company again, with lots of improvements done during this time, especially in plywood and sawmilling.
“I have done so many things during my time here, including installing the hydro power station at Upper Baiune in 1985, after it was destroyed by fire.”
Apart from work, Romy has held various social positions, including being president of Bulolo Country Club, and Bulolo Tennis Club.
I ask him what has kept him here in Bulolo all these years.
“I think the place,” he replies.
“Bulolo is a nice place, quite, simple, you don’t rush, and the people are nice.
“I have a lot of friends here, especially among the local people.
“We’re going to be sad when we leave Bulolo.
“We’re going to miss Bulolo because all our friends are here.”
Behind every successful man is a woman, and Salve has been with Romy all the way from the Phillipines to Bulolo, since being sweethearts in their childhood days.
“I like the place, everyone is very friendly, and I can talk to them and they’re happy that I can talk in Tok Pisin,” she says.
“As Romy says, we will miss the place.
“We have so many good memories.
“We’ve stayed here for so long, I’ve had two kids born in Lae, I’ve been here since 1976.
“The company has been very good to Romy and his family, something for which I’m very thankful.
“The kids call the place as ‘ples bilong ol’.
“Sometimes, when friends comment on Facebook, they say, ‘em ples bilong mi tu ya’.
“We’re very thankful to Papua New Guinea.”

United Nations statement on violence against women

Statement by the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navi Pillay, on International Women’s Day – 8 March 2013 Violence against women

Last month, in the highlands of Papua New Guinea, a 20-year old mother of two was stripped naked and tortured until she confessed to practising sorcery. Then she was burned alive on the local rubbish dump in front of a crowd of fellow villagers.
Although horrific, this event was not unusual. The Constitutional and Law Reform Commission of Papua New Guinea has estimated that as many as 150 people accused of sorcery — mostly women — are murdered every year in just one of the country’s 20 provinces. Before they are killed, many suffer prolonged, public and often sexual torture. Two things made last month’s murder exceptional: it led to public outrage, and two alleged perpetrators have been arrested.
Last month, three sisters aged 5, 9 and 11 living in a remote Indian village were raped, killed and flung down a well. Initially the authorities failed to react — but after villagers blocked a highway in protest, the police belatedly began an investigation.
Last month, in South Africa, a 17-year-old girl was found horribly mutilated on a building site. She had been gang raped, and died hours later. Her alleged attackers were tracked down and arrested — after an unusual wave of public protests.
In recent weeks, in three countries that have few features in common, pervasive indifference to violence against women has – at least momentarily – given way to outcry. Public demands for action to end the routine atrocities so often experienced by women and girls have inspired government leaders to make important statements of intent, and stung apathetic police forces into launching investigations.
Outrage is contagious. It was the gang rape and murder of a 23-year-old physiotherapy student in New Delhi last December that unleashed what may yet become a sea-change in public attitudes towards crimes of sexual violence in India. This wave of public repugnance has spread, not just within India and to neighbouring countries, but further afield — including to South Africa, where the New Delhi rape was cited by activists who asked why South Africa’s chronic sexual violence generates so little public anger.
Violence against women is one of the most pervasive violations of human rights. And yet the authorities responsible for protection and prosecution too often meet such acts with indifference.
It is not enough simply to pass legislation. Almost every country in the world has some kind of relevant legal framework in place. Governments know they have an obligation under international law to prevent these crimes by working to eliminate underlying attitudes that discriminate against women and girls. Yet, in many countries, politicians, police, the judiciary and ordinary men — and women too — collectively shrug and look away when they hear of rapes and other sexual or gender-based crimes.
Temporary outrage is not enough. Serious investigations into violent acts against women should become the norm, not just something police forces do when the media highlight a particular case.
We need to shake this global torpor and wake up to reality: every minute of every day, on every continent, women and girls are raped and abused, trafficked, tortured and killed. This doesn’t just happen in far-away conflicts. It happens in sophisticated capital cities, as well as in small towns and villages and the house next door.
In January, the report of the Verma Committee in India proposed sweeping reforms, including vigorous punishment for marital rape, domestic rape and rape in same-sex relationships; requiring police officers to register every case of reported rape and ensuring those who fail to do so face serious repercussions; ensuring accountability of police or military personnel for sexual violence; punishing offences such as stalking and voyeurism with prison terms; changing the humiliating protocol for medical examinations experienced by rape victims; cracking down on extra-legal village councils, which often issue edicts against women; and legal and electoral reforms to ensure that people charged with criminal offences may not hold political office.
These recommendations require serious and sustained follow up. They can also serve as a model for other situations.
In the past month, the world has seen how street movements can help seek redress for the three young daughters of a poor Indian villager; a teenager in a suburb of Cape Town; a girl accused of “bewitching” her neighbour on a remote Papua New Guinean mountainside; and a student thrown naked off a moving bus in India’s capital.
We must not allow this attention to fade. We need more pressure on political leaders, to bring about serious and lasting change of the type proposed by the Verma Committee. Each country will need to find its own response to ensure accountability for sexual and gender-based crimes. But continuing to turn our backs on what is happening to millions of women across the world is not the answer.

Asylum seekers to face PNG court next week

8 Mar 2013, 1:25 pm   -   Source: AAP

Eighteen asylum seekers are expected to face a Papua New Guinea court on Monday on charges of assault at Manus Island detention centre.

A group of 18 asylum seekers is expected to face a Papua New Guinea court on Monday on charges of assault and fighting at the Manus Island detention centre, police say.
Manus Island provincial police commander Alex Ndrasal said 17 of the detainees have been charged with fighting during two incidents at the centre on Christmas Eve and January 31.
Another detainee was charged with assault.
The group is expected to face court in Lorengau, the capital of Manus province, on Monday.
"Only 18 asylum seekers have been charged, and not 19 as previously thought," Inspector Ndrasal told AAP on Friday.
"The charges relate to fighting and assault only."
Earlier, Insp Ndrasal said 19 asylum seekers had been arrested and charged over a series of incidents that included an escape attempt and a suicide attempt.
Last month reports emerged that a detainee had threatened suicide after dousing himself in a liquid substance.
The incident is understood to have taken place at the temporary asylum centre's internet facility.
Manus MP Ronnie Knight said lights were smashed and a coconut was hurled during the fighting.
There are more than 270 detainees living in the temporary tent facility on Lombrum Naval base in Manus province.

Interest piques for Papua New Guinea trade mission

Nick Dalton

Friday, March 8, 2013

The Cairns Post

A FAR North trade mission to Papua New Guinea next month is expected to be the biggest yet with the organisers promising actual business deals will take place.
Cairns Chamber of Commerce president Anthony Mirotsos said it was not designed as "a talkfest, back-slapping or cocktails".
"Interest is very significant and we will be providing members with more sophistication than before," he said.
"It will be bigger and better and we want to walk away with transactions, businesses doing deals.
"I am very confident that we will be able to produce some tangible fhbusiness."
Chamber chief executive officer Deb Hancock said the chamber had yet to advertise the mission but about 12 businesses had already "knocked on the door".
"It is not just a toe in the water," she thsaid.
Ms Hancock told members and guests at the monthly lunch meeting yesterday that the business delegation to Lae and Port Moresby from April 11-16 was to be "mutually beneficial" for both regions.
"We've told the chambers in PNG that we're not taking business away from your businesses," she said.
Two trips were planned this year and the April mission would include a promotional group involving the State Members for Cairns, Barron River and Mulgrave, Gavin King, Michael Trout and Curtis Pitt, Advance Cairns, Ports North and the Cairns Regional Council as well as another group which would target specific industries to fhproduce  "the best possible contracts".
"The intention is to focus on strategic industry-based opportunities," she said.
"In Lae, this will be agribusiness industry development, such as horticulture, fishing, fish processing, marine and allied services, along with small to medium enterprises ," Ms Hancock said.
"In Port Moresby, the focus will be on small and medium enterprise development, along with the Pacific Games."
Ms Hancock said a Chinese company had provided some artificial grass for a Games project that had melted in the heat.
"We in Cairns have tropical expertise and can supply products suitable for tropical climates," she said.
Ms Hancock said there had been a high level of collaboration between regional organisations in Cairns to ensure that the trip would be a success.
She said expressions of interest would be called soo

Violence: PNG's women face a crisis

by Jenny Hayward-Jones - 8 March 2013 1:49PM

The Intepreter

 

It's not often in international affairs that a story about sorcery makes the headlines or that I find myself being interviewed about it. The horrendous public execution of Kepari Leniata, a young woman accused of using sorcery to cause the death of a young boy in Mount Hagen, Papua New Guinea, received worldwide condemnation following the publication of photos of the incident.
High quality reporting by Jo Chandler on sorcery-related violence in PNG and on the Mount Hagen incident drew much needed attention to the this ugly underside of PNG society. PNG's traditional and social media outlets condemned the murder of Kepari Leniata and a Facebook community has set up a 'Remembering Kepari Leniata Campaign' to pursue action on sorcery-related violence.

International media coverage of the Mount Hagen murder led the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights and Amnesty International to call for the PNG Government to implement the recommendations of the Constitutional and Law Reform Commission to repeal the Sorcery Act 1971.
The PNG Government has promised to take action on sorcery-related violence. The reaction to this incident, when there have been many others like it, suggests a tipping point may have been reached.
Action on addressing sorcery-related violence (some suggestions for which contained in this Oxfam report) however, has to be accompanied by addressing violence against women in Papua New Guinea, which affects two out of three women. Annmaree O'Keeffe's post outlined some horrific statistics of violence against women worldwide. Medecins Sans Frontieres has described the levels of violence against women in PNG as 'unique outside a war-zone or state of civil unrest'.
This is an issue Papua New Guinea has to resolve from within and there are limits to the influence outsiders can bring to bear. But given the extent of the violence, there is a case to be made that this is a humanitarian crisis that requires at least some international assistance.
Foreign governments and non-government organisations can help to sow the seeds of change and assist Papua New Guineans working tirelessly on helping women escape domestic violence. The focus of International Women's Day this year in highlighting violence against women is important. The Australian Government, to its credit, has taken a regional leadership role on ending violence against women through its Pacific Women Shaping Pacific Development initiative. It has used AusAID programs to encourage and implement practical action. The Australian Foreign Minister last year announced funding for four Family and Sexual Violence Units in PNG.
Calls for action to end violence against women from then US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton when she visited PNG in 2010 and the Duchess of Cornwall during the royal visit to PNG in 2012 were also important in reinforcing a strong global message.
The PNG Government appears more ready than its predecessor to admit the extent of the violence against women but the attention driven by media reporting and lobbying from social media forums is still necessary to ensure action.
These issues are not a distraction from the core business of governing. They are not second order priorities. Violence against women undermines democracy, economic growth, effective government and peace in Papua New Guinea. It contradicts the PNG Constitution's Preamble principles of integral human development and equal participation. It should not be hidden behind the veil of untouchable traditional cultural practices. Violence against women in any form is not traditional, nor is it cultural. It is unlawful and it is wrong.
Photo by Flickr user Jeremy Weate.

Australia could help stop PNG violence: Judge

From: AAP

A LEADING Papua New Guinea judge says Australia could help PNG stop the sorcery-related torture and killing of women.

Justice Catherine Davani told an International Women's Day lunch in Canberra of a spate of torturing and killing of women in PNG suspected of being sorcerers.
Last month, Kepari Leneiata, 20, a young mother who was also known as Angelin, was stripped, tortured with a hot iron poker and burned alive before a crowd of onlookers, including children.
They had accused her of using sorcery to kill a six year-old boy.
The murder triggered international outrage, with PNG Prime Minister Peter O'Neill joining the United Nations, the US and Australia in describing the crime as barbaric.
Justice Davani told the lunch on Friday that Australia could help.
"If AusAID were to assist the PNG government in curbing and alleviating the torturing and killing of women in PNG suspected of being sorcerers, then the suggestion is to assist enhanced investigating powers of the Royal Papua New Guinea Constabulary," she said.

"Of course, the policemen can be trained on how to enact investigations."
"I believe very strongly that Australia will be making a major and very useful contribution toward the protection of women and women's lives if this were done for Papua New Guinea."
Comment was being sought from AusAID.
As many as 100 people were arrested recently in connection with the horrific burning murder of Ms Leneiata in the Western Highlands city of Mt Hagen.
Police had been under pressure to make arrests after photos in both of PNG's daily national newspapers appeared to show hundreds of witnesses watching Ms Leneiata burn.

PNG Forest Products growing ‘very fast’

Source: The National, Wednesday, March 6, 2013

Story and pictures by MALUM NALU

PNG Forest Products (PNGFP) managing director Tony Honey says the company is growing “very fast” and is diversifying into other areas, including mining and a hotel venture.
Speaking after the opening of PNGFP’s K100 million Upper Baiune hydro power project in Bulolo, Morobe last Saturday, Honey said the opening of the project heralded exciting new times for the company.
Subject to favourable results from a current testing programme, PNGFP is planning to recommence alluvial gold mining in a joint venture deal with Pacific Niugini Minerals at Widubosh, near Bulolo.
PNGFP’s Jackson Airport hotel project in Port Moresby, between Gateway and Airways hotels at 7- Mile, will include a fully functioning hotel with 96 rooms, a swimming pool, bar and restaurant, conference room, business centre and internet cafe.
Site preparation has begun.
PNGFP is already well-established in plywood manufacture, sawmilling, planing mill, joinery shop, doors, prefabricated buildings and other products.

Honey talking with one of his supervisors in the PNGFP sawmill.

It is also into retail with the largest outlet in Bulolo, a farm which carries about 1,700 head of cattle, which supplies beef to the retail store and the Bulolo Country Club with a golf course and accommodation.
“It’s a monumental thing for this company to embark on such a large project,” Honey told guests at the Bulolo Country Club.
“I don’t know whether a lot of people appreciate this, but the company’s trading very well.
“Like every other company in PNG, you have to improve your efficiency to make the company a whole lot better.
“There are a lot of risks out there for us, but we’re very, very confident.
“Things are changing, we’re evolving, and we’re growing fast, perhaps too fast in many aspects.
“When you grow so fast, there are lags in all areas.
“We have to bring those lags up to growth.
“It takes patience and fortitude, but we will do that.”
Honey said the success of the company was due to its very skilled and committed workforce.
“We have a very good band of people here,” he said.
“We have a very, very resilient company with a lot of resilient people.
“The biggest thing about this company is that it predominantly employs Papua New Guineans.”
Honey said of this, about 97% are Papua New Guineans and 3% are expatriates.
“That’s a big company in PNG standards,” he said.
“That’s why we’ll keep on growing and developing into a diverse company.
“We’re not just about timber, just about plywood, farming, retailing and go on with the flow.

Pine logs ready to be processed into plywood at the PNGFP plymill.

“What we’ll do as a company is to make money.
“It could be chicken farming, it could be hydroponics, it could be more power stations, it could be a different type of building structure.
“We just have to grow with it as fast as we can without losing ourselves.”

Power plant named after late landowner

Source: The National, Tuesday, March 5, 2013 

 

Story and picture by MALUM NALU

THE opening of PNG Forest Products’ (PNGFP) K100 million Upper Baiune hydro power project in Bulolo, Morobe, was tinged with emotion last Saturday.
It was a bittersweet occasion for the family of principal landowner Katu Vavini, who supported the company right from the project’s beginning in 2006 until his untimely death last Dec 21 aged 83.
His efforts, however, are not in vain as the project is now being looked upon as a blueprint for projects involving landowners in the country, speakers said during the power plant’s launch.
His widow Kasing and family members – all dressed in black – wept as the new power station was named Katu Vavini Power Station.

Kasing, widow of Katu Vavini, weeps as she touches the plaque of the power station named after her late husband.

Forests Minister Patrick Pruaitch and PNGFP managing director Tony Honey opened the new plant before a cheering crowd.
Honey acknowledged the contribution of the late Vavini, saying that the project would not have been possible had it not been for his support.
It was a classic example of landowners and private enterprise working hand-in-hand.
The late Vavini’s daughter Marilyn said her father supported the project right from the beginning and it was sad that he did not live to see its fruition.
“When dad was alive, he helped a lot,” she said.
“He worked closely with the company and was with the project right from the beginning.”
Katumani landowner secretary Yana Karimini said the late Vavini’s legacy would live on for many generations to come.
“The late Katu was the driving force behind this mighty hydro power project,” he said.
“He has proved to the people of Katumani who he is, but has not lived to see his vision completed.
“On behalf of the late Katu’s people, and the Katumani people, I thank PNG Forest Products for its great respect in naming the new power station after the late Katu Vavini, who will be remembered generation after generation.”
Karimini said the Katumani people did not want to be spectators on their own land and appealed to PNGFP to consider their participation in future projects.
“I would like to assure landowners that all project benefits will be deposited into the landowner benefits trust account and will be utilised solely for the purpose of providing long-lasting benefits,” he said.

K100 million hydro plant launched in Bulolo

Source: The National, Monday,  March 4, 2013 

 

Story and picture by MALUM NALU

ELECTRICITY generation in Papua New Guinea has entered a new dimension with the opening of PNG Forest Products’ (PNGFP) K100 million Upper Baiune hydro electricity power station in Bulolo, Morobe, on Saturday.

Visitors touring the new hydro power plant on Saturday.

It was opened by Forests Minister Patrick Pruaitch and was named Katu Vavini Power Station after the principal landowner, who passed away last December.
A major undertaking for PNGFP, the power plant is the first of such projects in PNG built by a private organisation as a commercial venture to supply electricity to PNG Power.
It was funded by Westpac.
The new power plant has an installed capacity of 9.4MW.
The project is  built on customary land, which has been sub-leased by the Katumani integrated land group (ILG) landowners to PNGFP and therefore, the Katumani landowners are also important partners in the project.
This venture also conforms to the PNG government’s public private partnership (PPP) policy concerning infrastructure development.
PNGFP managing director Tony Honey said this was the oldest surviving power station in PNG since the Morobe gold rush days in the 1930s.
This is the first time that a private organisation will supply electricity to PNG Power, he said.
Commissioned on Dec 23, 2012, it is now supplying electricity to PNG Power’s Ramu grid.
“The Upper Baiune Hydro power project was first conceived in late 2006 when PNGFP became interested in supplying additional power to PNG Power,” Honey said.
“It was obvious that a good potential for further hydro power development existed immediately above the existing Upper Baiune intake as there is a 270m fall in the river over a straight line distance of only two kilometres.
“PNGFP engaged the services of Snowy Mountains Engineering Corporation (SMEC) to conduct a  feasibility study to confirm the potential for further hydro power development and we then subsequently negotiated a power purchase agreement with PNG Power.
“With a commitment from PNG Power that they would purchase the power that would become available if the project was viable, we were able to proceed with a full feasibility study which was conducted by SMEC.
“During the feasibility study it became apparent the project would be viable, so we immediately proceeded with an environmental impact assessment and applied to Department of Environment and Conservation for the necessary environmental permits for the construction and operation of the new power station.
“On completion of the feasibility study, we moved into the design phase with SMEC preparing the tender documentation for construction.
“We then advertised for tenders in both PNG and overseas and the tenders were evaluated by Infratech Management Consultants (IMC)."
Contracts for the civil work were awarded to China Railway Construction Group, contract for the electro-mechanical installation was awarded to Asia Pacific Power-Tech (APP) and IMC was appointed as the project manager and resident engineer.