THE trial date for the deep sea tailings placement (DSTP) legal battle against Ramu NiCo management (MCC) and state stakeholders has been confirmed for Sept 21-Oct 1 at the Madang National Court, The National reports.
At directions hearing yesterday, defendants Ramu NiCo, Mineral Resources Authority, Environment and Conservation Department and the state maintained that the trial date should be kept and the trial preparation should be fast-tracked while the plaintiffs should file and serve any affidavits to prosecute their claims.
Justice David Cannings heard three applications which were returnable yesterday:
* First defendant Eddie Tarsie’s application for an expedited trial and related matters;
* Sama Melambo and Pommern ILG’s application to withdraw from the proceedings; and
* Plaintiffs Tarsie, Farina Siga and Peter Sel’s application to have the matter referred to the alternate dispute resolution (ADR) courts for mediation.
Cannings ruled that the plaintiffs should file and serve additional affidavits and notices by Sept 13 and the defendants by Sept 17.
He also expressed concern that the application for mediation was too late in the litigation process; however, he would hear the notice of motion on Friday.
Cannings also accepted an invitation, in principle, from Ramu NiCo to visit the DSTP site at Basamuk, RaiCoast, but not before the trial.
He said the site visit could take place after the close of the submissions but before he hands down his decision.
The plaintiffs had been granted an interim injunction since March, halting work on the DSTP offshore facility construction claiming that the tailings were environmentally damaging to marine life and their livelihood.
Yesterday, Cannings granted leave for Melambo and Pommern ILG to cease the litigation proceedings.
Outside the court, Ramu NiCo said yesterday it would make good preparations for the trial while always ready to start the settlement discussion with the plaintiffs any time this week.
It had sent a letter to all parties on Sept 5 but had not received an indication from the remaining three plaintiffs.
Ramu NiCo also said that it was seeking legal advice and would be making applications to seek cost and undertakings on damages from third parties who were believed to have financed the litigation.
In a separate but related move last week, four LLG presidents and a magistrate of the area filed affidavits in the Waigani National Court saying that they had not authorised Tarsie, Siga and Sel to be party to the proceedings initiated in March against Ramu NiCo and the state.
The K3.1 billion project was due to go into production at the end of this year.
Friends, especially those in Lae or those who will be in Lae over the independence weekend, we'll be putting up Mum's headstone on Friday September 17 followed by kaikai on Saturday September 18, at our house at Butibam village in Lae, so please feel free to drop by.
Eastern Highlands students
studying at the University of Technology waiting in front of the Yanepa
building for Governor Malcolm Kela-Smith to present their petition yesterday.
Sepiks turn on students from other
provinces
THE University of Technology, despite further intimidation
and threats by provincial groups against each other, is assuring safety and
appealing to students to return to classes next
Monday, The National reports.
The administration said last night
that it had also beefed up security with more police presence at the Taraka
campus.
Police have been given orders to
arrest and charge anyone breaking Unitech rules and regulations and disrupting
peace.
On Monday night, Sepik students searched all lodges and dormitories and
attacked students from other provinces.
University workers said the Sepiks
had retaliated following an attack by Western Highlands students late in the
afternoon.
Police were forced to fire warning
shots into the air to disperse the unruly group, an academic
said.
The Sepik students continued the threats and intimidation
yesterday morning and attacked a Central student in front of the union canteen
at midday.
Students said the Sepiks were
attacking anybody “who is not a Sepik”.
They said the Sepiks were angered
when they learnt of a discussion on Monday night by all other provincial groups.
They viewed the meeting as collusion to team up against
them.
“They thought that everyone is
against them,” the students said.
In Goroka, Unitech students from
Eastern Highlands yesterday petitioned Governor
Malcolm Kela-Smith to assist them to return to complete their
studies.
The students fled the Taraka campus
last weekend along with other highlands students in fear of attack from
Sepik students following a clash that resulted
in a death.
President of the Unitech Eastern
Highlands Students Association Solomon David petitioned Kela-Smith in front of
the Yanepa provincial government building
yesterday.
The students called for maximum
security to be provided for them to return and complete the remaining five weeks
of their academic year.
They also called for financial
assistance for transport and political intervention to address the current
situation on campus.
The students claimed that the
university’s senior management had failed to deal with the problem, resulting in
a death, injuries and chaos.
In Mt Hagen, Western Highlands
students said they were not involved in the clash.
They said the fight was between the
Chimbu and Sepik students, and no Western
Highlander had part took in it.
The National, yesterday, reported
that the Sepik students were angry that a Western
Highlands student, known to them, was instrumental in the fight at
the student mess.
The fight reportedly began after a
Sepik student was assaulted at the university
gates at Taraka.
Meanwhile, Enga students who boarded
a PMV bus from Lae to Wabag were allegedly attacked along the Highlands Highway
last weekend.
First-year student Terry Kandiu said
they were attacked and robbed at Kindeng, but they did not know who the
attackers were and why they were attacked.
Police in Mt Hagen confirmed that
they had received reports of the incident but had not made any
arrests.
NEARLY 500 people have been left homeless in the Huon Gulf district of Morobe after a freak thunderstorm on Monday night flattened their homes, The National reports.
Villagers of Maiama on the coast of the Morobe patrol post lost 32 homes and the remainder of their food gardens in the strong winds and heavy rains.
Women, children and the elderly were pleading for help from relatives in Lae for food supplies and medication.
Fears of flooding and landslides had also been raised for villages along the coast to the border of Northern and in the hinterlands.
It is the second disaster to have affected the village in a week after last Wednesday’s 2m-high flooding of the MasiraRiver that swept away 25 homes and lowland gardens, Morobe patrol post sub-district manager Essing Ulam said last night.
He said last week’s devastation left more than 100 people homeless and Monday night’s had worsened the situation with more than 300 people without either food or shelter.
He said a southeasterly wind lashed the village at 1am on Monday.
Cash crops of vanilla vines and cocoa trees and food gardens were all destroyed.
Ulam said the phenomenon was described by villagers as “some strange wind”.
Ulam and his Department of Agriculture and Livestock officer have compiled a latest report to the Morobe provincial disaster and emergency office for assistence.
They had been visited at the weekend by Huon Gulf district administrator Tony Ase.
Ase said last night that he had requested relief supplies from the disaster office.
In the meantime, the people are scouring their gardens for food.
Pyrethrum offers an alternative income earning opportunity
for farmers in the high altitude highlands of Papua New Guinea.
It is re-emerging as a cash crop due to innovations in
research and development through collaborative efforts among partners.
With the establishment of markets, improved planting
materials, production suitability, technical support and new information,
farmers should fully capture this income-earning potential.
Pyrethrum is a daisy-like plant of the Chrysanthemum group
of the Compositae family. An active constituent, extracted from dried flower
heads, known as ‘pyrethrin’, has economical importance.
Pyrethrum flower
Most of this active ingredient is used as additives in pharmaceuticals
(body and household sprays), insecticides, mosquito coils and many more.
Pyrethrum grows well in some patches of areas within
altitudes ranging from 1800 – 3000 meters above sea level.
Such altitudes have the suitable temperatures and humidity
with optimal rainfall, and other environmental conditions conducive for
pyrethrum production.
In the 1950s, the national Department of Agriculture and
Livestock introduced and evaluated high-yielding seeds from Congo and Kenya to determine its adaptability
under PNG conditions.
Research work commenced in Aiyura (Eastern Highlands) in the
early 1950s but due to poor performance, further work was moved to Tambul (Western Highlands) in 1966 and continued further up the
highlands to Sirunki in the Enga province.
From results obtained during these trials, 30 pyrethrum
clones with high pyrethrin content, superior agronomic yield parameters with
some level of tolerance to floral fungal diseases were selected for further
assessment.
The 30 promising clones were further multiplied at the
Sirunki Sub-Research DPI Station and distributed to farmers around Sirunki and
other pyrethrum-growing areas in the Enga province.
From the 1960s to the late 1980s, the pyrethrum industry
played a major role in sustaining the livelihood of some 65-85,000 people.
Unfortunately, the clones were lost in farmers’ fields.
The loss was beyond a
retraceable point as farmers lost interest in the crop.
This contributed to
delivery of fewer flowers by farmers to an extraction factory and thus resulted
in the fall of the industry in 1995.
The pyrethrum industry was worth K350, 000 to K400, 000 with
annual production of 300 tonnes in the early 1970’s until the closure.
However, since 2003, NARI Tambul has recollected available pyrethrum
clones that were found in farmer fields in the Sirunki area and established a
germplasm collection at the Taluma Research Station.
This was done with the aim to improve pyrethrum clones by
poly-crossing among them. It was also a step forward for reviving the pyrethrum
industry with the identification and selection of improved clones.
In addition, NARI has also worked on addressing crop
husbandry in relation to improvement in flower yields through assessment on
cultural husbandry practices such as plant spacing, slashing off tops, fungal
disease severity and improved drying methods. This includes generation and
production of technical information for dissemination to farmers and
stakeholders.
For the pyrethrum industry to be fully re-commercialised,
the farming communities need to be well equipped with technical knowledge and
skills on pyrethrum crop husbandry which are adopted into their farming
systems.
This has been the
main focus of various collaborators now involved in the re-commercialisation of
the pyrethrum industry in PNG.
The industry has picked up since recently due to a sound
partnership arrangement between the extension team of the Enga Pyrethrum
Company and the NARI Tambul research team in terms of production and
dissemination of technical information through distribution of posters,
information leaflet and improved planting materials.
Farmers and farming
communities have cultivated 18 improved pyrethrum clones which were distributed
as preliminary released planting materials since early 2006 through the
collaboration.
As a result there is significant increase in production of more
than 145 tonnes in 2008, compared to less than 40 tonnes in 2005.
Currently, the Enga Pyrethrum Company Holdings Ltd (EPC) is
purchasing dried flowers from farmers and selling its product, oleoresin, in
crude, to Botanical Resources Australia based in Tasmania,
Australia.
EPC started off with the purchase of 40 tonnes in 2005 and
gradually increased to 145 tonnes in 2008.
According to the pyrethrum extraction factory at the
outskirt of Mt Hagen City, the extraction efficiency of the plant has improved
mainly due to high pyrethrin level of dried flowers, improvement in farmers’
level of understanding of the crop husbandry through awareness and availability
of improved planting materials.
With the improvement in the level of understanding of the
crop by growers and farming communities, the industry would serve as a giant
sole cash earner in the marginalised sketches of high altitude highlands of PNG.
Hereafter, the industry would foster downstream processing
and farmers can be paid much higher price for their produce.
It can be paid on the
pyrethrin content and not dried weight as it is at present.
The industry has great potential in subsequently establishing
multiple export markets overseas for selling of raw materials as well as
processed products.
Pyrethrum crop is a sustainable and viable industry for
rural marginalised farmers in the high altitude highlands of the country.
The industry has a great potential, having had the most-conducive
environmental conditions, production cycle all year round, availability of
improved clones with more than three years of expanded life span of the farm,
and multiple established overseas markets for the produce and processed products.
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
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.
