Remain vigilant: Yakasa

THE public has been reminded to remain vigilant while in their homes and in their movement around the city while police are carry out operations to recapture seven of the remaining most wanted criminal still on the run and the more than 40 escapees who broke for freedom during separate jail breaks from Bomana last year, The National reports.

National Capital District metropolitan commander Chief Supt Fred Yakasa yesterday issued the warning while commending the public for their assistance in the recapture of the five dangerous fugitives, including most wanted bank robber William Nanua Kapris. So far out of the 12 that escaped last month, four of whom were caught in the vicinity of the city in the past week since.

Oliver Ben was the first of the escapees to be caught. He was found in the hills near Sogeri on Jan 22.

When asked if police had any new and reliable leads to the whereabouts of suspects still on the run, Mr Yakasa said he could not comment more on the ongoing NCD police operations to hunt down remaining escapees.

Mr Yakasa referred The National to seek comments and the latest brief from NCD and Central province police commander chief Supt Awan Sete and NCD Police Operations commander Raphael Huafolo.

Attempts to get comments from both Mr Sete and Mr Huafolo were unsuccessful.

 

Australia approves 650 fruit pickers from Papua New Guinea

PNG among 2,500 Pacific Islanders to work on Aussie farms

 

THE Australian government has approved 650 fruit pickers from Papua New Guinea to work in farms in Australia this year, The National reports.

Australia foreign affairs minister Steven Smith, in his letter sent to his PNG couterpart Sam Abal last month, said the Papua New Guineans would be among the 2,500 Pacific Islanders allowed to work in farms in Australia.

Mr Abal told The National yesterday from Hoskins airport, East New Britain province, that a task force had been set up within his ministry to establish provincial coordinators who will work closely with the churches, police and community leaders to identify good, young energetic men and women to work in Australia.

“The recruitment will be conducted in all the 22 provinces in the country, including the new Jiwaka and Hela provinces.

“The provincial coordinators to be set up this year will be working closely with churches, police and community leaders to identify Grade 10 and 12 school leavers with good character and record, no criminal record, disciplined, law abiding and hard working citizens to go and work in Australia,” he said.

Mr Abal said: “We want good people to work and establish a good reputation to convince the Australians to recruit more Papua New Guineans.

“We cannot blindly send all the 650 workforce down because this is the number of people allowed by the Australian government but what is the demand of the farmers.

“This we have to find out first before the fruit pickers are sent to Australia.

“Those selected will go through some form of training before they are sent off to Australia.”

He said his department was responsible for the recruitment and that no else or agents were appointed to carry out the recruitment.

“When demand for fruit pickers is high, we will engage a private company to take charge of the whole operation after two years,” he said.

Mr Abal advised the people not to listen to private consultants, companies or individuals claiming to represent his office and collecting fees and promising them jobs in Australia.

 

Sex ring busted

Wewak police catch 20 women in the act

 

POLICE have busted a syndicate supplying young local and foreign women for prostitution near the Kaup Logging Company site in Angoram, East Sepik province.

A Wewak police team led by Provincial Police Commander Insp Charles Parinjo uncovered the syndicate in a raid on a house at the logging site over the weekend.

Police arrested nine women, all aged below 20, in compromising positions with the logging company workers.

The house is believed to have been used as a vice den.

Among the women held were two senior high school students in the province and a government officer from Port Moresby who was attached with the company to do clearance for logs.

Insp Parinjo said the women admitted during interrogation that they provided sexual favours to the foreigners and were paid between K200 and K800 per month.

The women were escorted to Wewak by police station on Monday where they are being investigated by police detectives.

Insp Parinjo said the female government officer was “deported” from Wewak the next day after her office in Port Moresby was notified of the offence she committed while staying at the site on official duty.

Insp Parinjo had also informed the relevant government agencies of the offence committed by the foreigners at the logging site and “we are pressuring them to deal with them diplomatically”.

Insp Parinjo said the successful raid confirmed suspicions by the public that locals and foreigners were providing sexual favors to foreigners for money.

“If this activity can happen in Kaup, it can also happen in other logging sites in East Sepik and nationwide,” he added.

 

Remain vigilant: Yakasa

THE public has been reminded to remain vigilant while in their homes and in their movement around the city while police are carry out operations to recapture seven of the remaining most wanted criminal still on the run and the more than 40 escapees who broke for freedom during separate jail breaks from Bomana last year, The National reports.

National Capital District metropolitan commander Chief Supt Fred Yakasa yesterday issued the warning while commending the public for their assistance in the recapture of the five dangerous fugitives, including most wanted bank robber William Nanua Kapris. So far out of the 12 that escaped last month, four of whom were caught in the vicinity of the city in the past week since.

Oliver Ben was the first of the escapees to be caught. He was found in the hills near Sogeri on Jan 22.

When asked if police had any new and reliable leads to the whereabouts of suspects still on the run, Mr Yakasa said he could not comment more on the ongoing NCD police operations to hunt down remaining escapees.

Mr Yakasa referred The National to seek comments and the latest brief from NCD and Central province police commander chief Supt Awan Sete and NCD Police Operations commander Raphael Huafolo.

Attempts to get comments from both Mr Sete and Mr Huafolo were unsuccessful.

 

Australia approves 650 fruit pickers from Papua New Guinea

PNG among 2,500 Pacific Islanders to work on Aussie farms

 

THE Australian government has approved 650 fruit pickers from Papua New Guinea to work in farms in Australia this year, The National reports.

Australia foreign affairs minister Steven Smith, in his letter sent to his PNG couterpart Sam Abal last month, said the Papua New Guineans would be among the 2,500 Pacific Islanders allowed to work in farms in Australia.

Mr Abal told The National yesterday from Hoskins airport, East New Britain province, that a task force had been set up within his ministry to establish provincial coordinators who will work closely with the churches, police and community leaders to identify good, young energetic men and women to work in Australia.

“The recruitment will be conducted in all the 22 provinces in the country, including the new Jiwaka and Hela provinces.

“The provincial coordinators to be set up this year will be working closely with churches, police and community leaders to identify Grade 10 and 12 school leavers with good character and record, no criminal record, disciplined, law abiding and hard working citizens to go and work in Australia,” he said.

Mr Abal said: “We want good people to work and establish a good reputation to convince the Australians to recruit more Papua New Guineans.

“We cannot blindly send all the 650 workforce down because this is the number of people allowed by the Australian government but what is the demand of the farmers.

“This we have to find out first before the fruit pickers are sent to Australia.

“Those selected will go through some form of training before they are sent off to Australia.”

He said his department was responsible for the recruitment and that no else or agents were appointed to carry out the recruitment.

“When demand for fruit pickers is high, we will engage a private company to take charge of the whole operation after two years,” he said.

Mr Abal advised the people not to listen to private consultants, companies or individuals claiming to represent his office and collecting fees and promising them jobs in Australia.

 

Partnership in rice extension

Caption: DAL rice extension coordinator Verave Gavali (right) and JICA’s senior advisor - rural development Akamatsu Shiro during the consultation with NARI in Lae last week.-Picture by SENIORL ANZU

 

By SENIORL ANZU of NARI

 

A smallholder rice development initiative, promoted through the “model farmer” concept by the Department of Agriculture and Livestock (DAL) and the Japanese International Corporation Agency (JICA) is set to kick-off in the Manus and Milne Bay provinces come 2011.

 This will be an extension of the village-based rice development programme to rice-growing provinces of PNG following its success in Madang and East Sepik provinces when it was first implemented between 2003-2008.

But this extension phase would involve greater collaborations with other technically-oriented organisations such as the National Agricultural Research Institute (NARI) in order to address technical problems such as pest and disease which were encountered during the initial phase.

This was revealed in Lae last Thursday when a technical team from DAL and JICA visited NARI to seek its technical input.

DAL and JICA are promoting local rice production through the model farmer concept in which skills and knowledge are transferred to farmers in a multiplier effect fashion at village level to address for food security.

The concept is pursued by a newly-established Rice Extension Unit under DAL’s Food Security Branch.

Rice extension coordinator Verave Gavali said while the programme was a success in Madang and East Sepik, there were some technically-oriented problems such as pest and disease, soil, climate and other agro-ecological issues.

Therefore, he said DAL and JICA wanted partnership with NARI and other organisations to work together in expanding the programme so that such problems were also addressed.

JICA rice research techniques instructor Tatsuo Fujita said they would also be interested in NARI for varietal selection and farming systems research.

A senior JICA volunteer, Noboru Iwano, who has been involved in rice development in PNG for the last two years, said he had observed pest and disease as a major problem and NARI’s input was needed.

Mr Iwano added that the consumption of rice was high in PNG and all stakeholders should work in collaboration now to increase production locally.

NARI acting director-general Dr Sergie Bang said the institute would work with DAL and JICA in terms of research and development of rice.

Dr Bang said NARI had a rice and grain project which could team up in the programme in the areas of pest and disease, seed varietal selection, farming systems research and other ecological issues.

Other collaborators targeted in the programme include the Lae-based ROC Taiwanese Technical Mission to PNG and Organisation for Industrial, Spiritual and Cultural Advancement (OISCA), a Japanese eco-technical training centre based in Kokopo.

 Both organisations are also involved in local rice production. 

Under the programme, rice development is undertaken through model farmer approach as an extension to smallholder households.

Hundreds of farmers in Madang and East Sepik were trained as model rice farmers who in turn trained other farmers in their districts and villagers between 2003 and 2008.

These model farmers were also exposed to overseas training in various aspects of rice production.

Some of these models have also indicated to share their knowledge, skills and experiences to other rice farmers in the country.

The Carbon Cowboy rides again

From PAUL OATES

(A very illuminating report on this person was recently aired on Aljazeera TV)

The Post Courier reports that the well known 'Carbon Cowboy', Kirk Roberts of Nupan (PNG) Trading Corporation has galloped into the Papuan Gulf, fresh from his 'roundup' in the PNG Highlands. Previously, Mr Robert's reported 'modus operandi' involved obtaining the local people's Power of Attorney on the understanding that Mr Robert's Corporation will then sell the local people's forest as carbon credits or carbon sinks on the open market.
Apparently these 'credits' can be traded on the open market to electricity producers elsewhere in the world who use this credit to justify their
continued business as usual and yet claim they are reducing their emissions due to 'emissions trade offs'. A worrying factor to some is the lack of any
details being provided by Nupan as to how any income generated from selling these credits will be distributed or what Mr Roberts and his backers will
get for their efforts.
PNG has yet to legislate any regulations to govern carbon trading and the Office tasked with this activity has since been disbanded due to printing
millions of Kina worth of now claimed, false Carbon Credits with the PM  Somare's signature on them. The PM claimed these 'credits' were forgeries
and after copies were leaked to the press, the issuer then said they were only drafts. Somare has now moved to reorganise government control over this activity by creating a new office within a government department yet nothing appears to be happening.
On another blog site operated by Emmanuel Narakobi, some young, educated PNGians are asking Mr Robert's supporters some important questions like 'who are all these scientists' and 'where is the money coming from'?
All those who have seen how easy it can be to initially hoodwink the local village people with claims of wealth for very little effort will form their
own views about this new activity. No one would suggest PNG people are unable to sort out the sheep from the goats however this may be initially
difficult in the villages, where there may not be a lot of opportunity to gain a full picture of what the true situation about world Carbon Trading
may be.
Previous reports in the local news appeared to suggest that a prominent NA politician had been given K200,000 to 'assist' with this activity. The PNG
government is now for some reason, apparently either unable or unwilling to help their people with this determination. Now why would this be one is
tempted to ask?
So presumably, the Carbon Cowboy will ride off into the sunset with a thick wad of 'Power of Attorney's in his hip pocket and very little security for
those who signed them left behind. What is worrying is that the Post Courier reports that 'Australians' are organising this activity.