Counting down to crowning day

Seven young contestants for the Hiri Hanenamo crown, led by 22-year-old Wari Gou from Barakau (from left) yesterday lined up at the Botanical Gardens in Port Moresby to strut their stuff for photographers, The National reports. With Gou are 18-year-old Mary Kone from Tubusereia; Hebou Morea, 22, Porebada; Sese Boge, 20, Gaire; Bele Nou, 18, Manumanu; Venessa Vagi, 17, and 23-year-old Carolyn Sabadi both from Boera village. The contestants will line up to be judged during the Hiri Moale Festival on Sept 16, coinciding with the country’s Independence Day celebrations. – Nationalpic by AURI EVA

Students quit Unitech campus

By ELLEN TIAMU

 

MOST students at the University of Technology in Lae have left the campus and apparently abandoned the six final weeks of the academic year, The National reports.

While the Unitech administration was counting on normal classes to resume today, only a handful of students from other provinces, along with those from Enga and international students, mainly from the Solomon Islands and Vanuatu, were left at the Taraka campus along with the East and West Sepik male students.

Many students from other highlands provinces had left the campus with six bus and truckloads of Chimbu students, out of fear of retribution, hurriedly leaving for Kundiawa last Saturday, courtesy of their provincial administration and the Morobe provincial government.

Many other students, not wanting to be caught in the crossfire between Simbus and Sepiks, were living off campus awaiting resumption but dreading that the Unitech council may not extend the school year.

Sepik students at the campus were adamant the academic year should not resume unless the Chimbu student perpetrators, allegedly involved in the killing of a first-year applied physics student last Thursday night, were arrested and prosecuted and the university administration gave them assurances to safeguard their lives. 

The Sepiks met with Unitech registrar Allan Sako and acting vice-chancellor Prof Mohammed Sater yesterday morning in relation to a petition they presented to the university administration last Saturday evening which, among other things, called for the investigation, arrest and prosecution of Chimbu students alleged involved in the clashes and the death.

The petition also demanded the removal of Kuima Security, which guards the campus premises, saying they failed to maintain peace during the fights.

The university administration was also blamed for not doing enough when the fights first started last Tuesday, resulting in the hospitalisation of a student.

Sepik students were angered that the university had failed to report last Tuesday’s initial fight to Lae police which, they said, could have deterred further clashes last Thursday evening. 

In response, the administration said police investigations were underway with Sepik and Chimbu students, security personnel and university officers being interviewed.

Sako said the Unitech council would meet to consider security measures at the campus.

He said Chimbu students, allegedly involved in the fight, would be identified and dealt with under existing university rules and regulations with termination a possible option.

The same course of action, the university said, would apply to students from East and West Sepik who were found to have breached these same regulations.

There was a slight altercation at the student mess yesterday afternoon when Western Highlands students, prevented from eating at the mess, stoned an Engan student who was allowed to use the facilities.

The Sepik students were angry that a Western Highlands student, known to them, was instrumental in the fight at the mess last Thursday resulting in the death of a Sepik student.

Prime Minister Sir Michael Somare, who is also East Sepik MP, had insisted that a report on the campus killing and fight be sent to him by yesterday afternoon.

Meanwhile, Morobe Governor Luther Wenge said he was saddened by the events and offered to assist Sepik students “in any way possible”.

Security measures on campus were being beefed up with heavy mobile police presence.

 

Agiru, Tiensten prefer SDP over Vision 2050

THE National Government’s 20-year strategic development plan (SDP) is set to take off as the medium term development strategy nears its 10-year cycle.

Key players in the government preferred the SDP to the Vision 2050, arguing it was properly costed and had realistic targets, The National reports.

The SDP was conceptualised by Planning Minister Paul Tiensten, who foreshadowed the 20-year plan when he delivered a stinging attack on the 40-year plan (later named Vision 2050) during the mining and petroleum conference in Sydney in December 2008.

The SDP is costed around K250 billion over 20 years,

starting next year.

The medium term development plan will take up the first five years of SDP, and a growth concept Southern Highlands Governor Anderson Agiru would kick-start next year is called PRAEC (petroleum resource area economic corridor).

“I want to champion PRAEC for the next five years,” Agiru said yesterday.

Under PRAEC, various projects would be developed and funded along the corridor area.

These projects are expected to spur growth in these areas, which will mostly be affected by the petroleum projects now under way.

“Under PRAEC, Southern Highlands and Hela will be the envy of the rest of PNG. Gulf, Western, Enga and Central will also benefit from this concept,” Tiensten said when commenting on the move by Agiru.

Agiru said he believed Vision 2050 was only a dream.

He said the ideals of 2050 were already captured in the constitution.

“Prime Minister Sir Michael Somare envisaged this and captured it in our constitution. It has been there for 35 years.

“We do not need Vision 2050. It is not costed. We do not know where it will start and finish,” Agiru said.

While Agiru kick-starts PRAEC, other parts of PNG will also have their own growth concepts under this plan.

For the funding commitment of the SDP to be fully realised, the government may relax restrictions, placed by the medium term fiscal strategy and other laws or policies, so government can access funds to inject into the 20-year plan.

Government sources said the government might borrow against future earnings, given the national debt to GDP ratio had fallen below 50%, to fund this strategy since most of the programmes were development-oriented and would trigger economic growth and create wealth in the 20 years.

 

Report gives warning signs of flaws

THE Misima crash that killed three Australians and a New Zealander last Tuesday has also exposed serious concerns about Australian Civil Aviation Safety Authority’s (CASA) handling of Trans Air’s operations and anger about the allegedly poor performance of some of the parties involved in Australian investigations into the Kokoda disaster last year, The National reports.

Popular Australian website Crikey, reported that while the Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) had agreed to a Papua New Guinea invitation to assist in its investigation at the site where the operator’s Citation II jet crashed off the runway on Misima Island, its involvement is being kept at levels Port Moresby considers appropriate to an aviation accident rather than a political circus.

Information given to Crikey said a massive and costly inquiry by Australian authorities – including the department of environment, water, heritage and the arts as well as the ATSB, CASA and department of foreign affairs and trade – into the crash of a PNG Airlines Twin Otter while descending toward the Kokoda airstrip last Aug 11 produced a report “so badly flawed that it was withdrawn without a detailed release after the PNG authorities objected to what they regarded as factual errors and mistakes within it”.

Crikey said: “That crash killed 13 people, including nine Australians about to embark on the Kokoda Track walk.

“An official and detailed PNG report into the tragedy is in preparation for public release on a date to be announced.

“The anger in Port Moresby over CASA’s alleged ‘persecution’ of Trans Air and one of its co-owners, Les Wright, who died in last Tuesday’s crash is not about Wright’s numerous offences against Australian safety regulations while chief pilot and part owner of the earlier Transair, which went out of business after the crash of its Metroliner turbo-prop while approaching Lockhart River in far northern Queensland on May 7, 2005, killing all 15 people on board.

“Rather it is about a perceived vendetta against the PNG Trans Air operation, in which Wright had no role in its management of safety, and which officials in Port Moresby saw as an attempt by CASA to deflect blame for its complicity in the Lockhart River crash.

“To summarise from privileged documents, the ATSB in its inquiry in the 2005 crash blamed inadequate and ineffective CASA oversight of Wright and Transair as a contributing factor, in that if CASA had done its job the accident would never have happened.

“These claims, subsequently pursued by the relatives of the Lockhart River dead through senate committee hearings into CASA and aired in a coronial inquest, are well supported.

“The CASA ‘vendetta’ against Wright and Trans Air failed after the administrative appeals tribunal in January reversed the regulator’s refusal to issue a certificate of approval for its medical evacuation and related flight activities between PNG and Australia.

“Those flights used the same jet that was destroyed on Tuesday after it was observed to aquaplane off the Misima Island airstrip in heavy rain and crash into trees.

“Wright is now dead, and following the comments about him and Trans Air made by CASA, which sought to leverage positive spin on its failures to deal with Transair in 2005, so is its reputation in PNG.”

Rare pictures of the Wau/Bulolo gold rush

Some rare, never-before-published pictures of the Wau/Bulolo gold rush http://bulololive.blogspot.com/2010/09/historical-pictures-of-bulolo-during.html

 

Papua New Guinea crash victims return home

ABC

 

The bodies of three Australians and a New Zealander killed in a Papua New Guinea plane crash have arrived in Brisbane, ABC reports.

All four were on board a Trans Air charter plane when it crashed into trees and burst into flames on Misima Island, off the south-eastern tip of PNG, last week.

The Queensland coroner took possession of the remains just before midday (AEST) yesterday and will carry out post-mortem examinations.

The sole survivor of the accident - the plane's 25-year-old co-pilot Kelby Cheyne - has been discharged from a Townsville hospital.

The Australian victims were marine pilot Chris Hart, Trans Air co-owner Les Wright and Darren Moore, who was believed to be working for PNG's Civil Aviation Authority.

The Australian Transport Safety Bureau has sent three experienced investigators to PNG following a request from local authorities

Esso's big outlay on goods, services

LNG project operator spent K460m in Q2

 

PNG LNG project operator Esso Highlands Ltd (EHL), the subsidiary of ExxonMobil, spent more than K460 million (US$170 million) on goods and services during the quarter from April to June this year, The National reports.

It also employed a total of 2,300 nationals, representing 80% of the total workforce during the period in review, while training new workers, of whom 17% of the graduate trainees were women.

These were contained in a report covering the second quarter period which also showed the company’s environmental activities.

EHL managing director Peter Graham, in his executive summary report, said recruiting and training local citizens was another key component of the project’s national content plan.

Graham said the project would require a peak of approximately 12,000 workers, about one-third of which would be locals.

He said the workers were sourced across the project region including Gobe, Kopi, Kantobo, Hides, Komo, Moro and the LNG plant site areas as well as other areas of the country.

Graham also said the project’s approach to environment protection began with a thorough understanding of the physical surrounding and operating environment with the goal of minimising the project footprint.

He said to continue the effort in this area, “this quarter the project environment field team was expanded to enable site verifications across al the active construction worksites”.

“At the end of this quarter, approximately two-thirds of the overall survey programme and one-third of the onshore pipeline survey were completed.

“The pre-construction survey reports addressing archeological and cultural heritage, ecology, weeds and water quality were submitted to the Department of Environment and Conservation in which acceptance was secured,” Graham added.