Somare Jr arrested and charged

By GABRIEL FITO

 

MICHAEL Somare Jr has been arrested and charged in relation to last Saturday’s discharging of a firearm at East Sepik Governor Peter Wararu’s Wewak Hill residence, The National reports.

Provincial police commander Insp Charles Parinjo was not available yesterday to say what Somare Jr had been charged with, and when he was likely to appear in court.

Parinjo issued the arrest orders on Wednesday, saying police were effecting normal police procedures.

It came hours after a meeting at Wewak police station attended by sidelined Prime Minister Sir Michael Somare, Wararu, National Alliance party branch executives and supporters and the people of Yangoru-Saussia electorate who were claiming compensation from the Somare family.

Parinjo said Somare would be treated as any other ordinary citizen who had broken the law. At the same time, he urged disgruntled parties to remain calm and let the law take its course.

Sir Michael also said he would allow the law to take its course and appealed for peace to prevail while they discussed other customary obligations towards enhancing their relationship.

Meanwhile, aggrieved customary and local level government leaders from Yangoru-Saussia expect to meet Sir Michael next week in Wewak to discuss their compensation demand of K35 million.

The first K5 million demand came from Wararu’s relatives while a K30 million demand came from NA supporters and people of Yangoru-Saussia who claimed that the governor had been unfairly treated.

A petition to this effect could not be delivered to Sir Michael on time as he had left Wewak for Port Moresby after the meeting.

 

 

WikiLeaks says Indons blamed for drug trade

THE United States has accused the Indonesian military of drug smuggling and illegal logging rackets along the border with Papua New Guinea, The National reports.

It also blamed Jakarta for the continuing unrest in the troubled Indonesian province of Papua which shared a land border with PNG.

In secret US cables released by WikiLeaks, US diplomats had expressed fears that the Indonesian government’s neglect, rampant corruption and human rights abuses were stoking unrest in the province.

A September 2009 cable from the US embassy in Jakarta said “the region is politically marginalised and many Papuans harbour separatist aspirations”.

In a 2007 cable, that WikiLeaks made available to the Age newspaper, an Indoneisan foreign affairs official said the Indonesian military had far more troops in Papua than it was willing to admit.

Cables sent throughout last year blamed Jakarta for the instability and chronic underdevelopment of Papua, and accused military commanders of drug smuggling and illegal logging along the PNG border.

A 2006 cable detailed a briefing from a PNG government official, who said the armed forces were “involved in both illegal logging and drug smuggling in PNG”.

In another cable from 2006, the US embassy recorded the reaction of Indonesian authorities to a riot in West Papua that left four officials dead.

“While the gruesome murder of three unarmed policemen and an air force officer at the hands of angry mob is unconscionable, the authorities’ handling of the aftermath has merely added a new chapter to the history of miscarriages of justice in Papua,” it said.

“It is clear that the police rounded up a miscellany of perceived trouble-makers and random individuals and that the prosecutors and judges then railroaded them in a farcical show trial.”

Cables throughout last year blamed the Indonesian government’s neglect of West Papua – including the failure to ensure revenue generated by mining is distributed fairly – for continuing unrest.

“Most money transferred to the province remains unspent although some has gone into ill-conceived projects or disappeared into the pockets of corrupt officials,’’ a September 2009 cable said.

The US cables also recorded allegations of corruption involving local officials.

After NGO Human Rights Watch released a report last year, alleging that military officers had abused Papuans in the town of Merauke, the US embassy in Jakarta wrote that the incident was isolated and might have involved soldiers following orders from local official Johanes Gluba Gebze.

“An ethnic Papuan, Gebze, presides over a regional government where allegations of corruption and brutality are rife,” the 2009 cable said, adding advisers to Papua governor Barnabas Suebu as saying Gebze was “out of control” and had made numerous illegal forestry deals with Chinese and Korean companies.

 

 

119 Papuans detained on Aussie island

By JEFFREY ELAPA

 

MORE than 100 Papua New Guineans, on their way to petition the Australian government to recognise them as its citizens early this week, were stopped by Australian customs in the Torres Strait and were due to be taken to Thursday Island yesterday, The National reports.

Australia’s immigration department spokesman Sandi Logan said they would be deported.

He said the group of 119 set out from PNG in boats earlier this week, saying they were heading to Australia to make their case.

Logan told Radio Australia the group, including some children, had entered Australian waters unlawfully and would be sent back to PNG as soon as possible.

“Frankly, this is a waste of a lot of people’s time, customs on the water and Queensland police on the water,” he said.

“Immigration officials have much better things to do than dealing with this sort of prank that the group is pulling.”

PNG national security sources said the people, believed to be from Western, Gulf and Central, travelled on seven boats to petition the Australia government to recognise them as citizens.

Sources said a woman, Lorna Ray from Hanuabada village in NCD, was among the first to be picked up by Australian customs while others were rounded at Sigabaduru and Mabudawan, near Daru Island, ready to cross to Thursday Island.

Leader of the group, Jonathan Baure, was among the boat people and was understood to have presented their petition to authorities on Thursday Island.

The group is claiming and pressing for Australian government recognition as citizens.

The Australian High Commission said it was aware of a group seeking travel clearance to travel to Australia to press their claim for citizenship.

It said individuals who attempted to enter Australia without authority would face a range of enforcement measures such as interception and seizure of the vessel, refusal of entry and removal from Australia.

Petromin to run floating LNG plant

By JUNIOR UKAHA

 

PETROMIN Holdings Ltd has been granted permission by the National Executive Council to operate a floating LNG processing facility  in the Gulf of Papua, The National reports.

The liquefied natural gas floating, processing, storing and offloading facility (LNG FPSO) will be the first of its kind to be built by state-owned Petromin and its partners.

The NEC unanimously agreed to let Petromin use this technology to develop the rich gas deposits in parts of Kerema and Western province, based on a special meeting on Dec 2.

Petromin managing director Joshua Kalinoe said the LNG FPSO is a state-of-the-art all in one receiving, processing, storing and off-loading facility that was condensed in just one small area measuring roughly the size of three soccer fields (380m).

He said compared to the same facility built on land, the FPSO occupies a small space, was cost effective and could be rearranged in new positions. 

The facility has mooring enclaves for tankers to load processed gas and has office complexes for technical workers to reside on and work.

According to Kalinoe, once completed, the FPSO will produce three trillion tonnes of cubic liters of gas per annum and is safe and environmentally friendly as it is constructed using front end engineering design (Feed) techniques in the oil and gas industry.

Kalinoe said although the facility is not being built yet, he is confident Petromin would  get it running in mid 2014 or early 2015 if upstream gas sources were firmly secured.

The facility will be built in South Korea by Daewoo Shipbuilding and Marine Engineering (DSME) at an estimated cost of US$2.3 billion and will be shipped to PNG.

The proposed project is a joint venture between Petromin (34% share), DSME (33% share) and Hoegh LNG of Norway (33%) share.

Kalinoe said what Patromin was embarking on is “a stand alone possibly third LNG project that will unite smaller petroleum retention licence (PRL) holders giving them a total solution” to some of the problems they face.

 

 

 

Bomb scare shuts 'heart of finance'

LNG landowners blamed

 

A BOMB scare at the Vulupindi Haus in Waigani, NCD, caused government workers to flee the building yesterday, causing chaos and confusion at the public finance nerve centre, The National reports.

Service providers, hoping to get paid before the government accounts shut down for the year, left frustrated as workers abandoned their offices in the four-storey building and fled for their lives just after lunch yesterday.

Police, the Fire Service and a security team were called in to attend to the bomb scare, and the all-clear was given after two hours, but many workers had already left.

Others said they would stay away for the whole week, fearful that they faced more threats from people seeking public funds they claimed they were owed by the government.

Finance secretary Gabriel Yer confirmed the bomb scare, saying the matter was in the hands of police to deal with.

Yer was on holidays but was recalled given the situation yesterday, and to provide a brief to acting Prime Minister Sam Abal on the situation with grants outstanding to landowners.

The bomb scare was blamed on landowners from the Southern Highlands, who have been camping outside Vulupindi Haus for weeks seeking grants they claimed were owed to them by the government.

They claimed they were being owed outstanding memorandum of agreement (MoA) funds relating to oil and gas projects in their area, and business development grants.

Last week, the landowners blocked access into the office for workers, causing frustration and panic.

Some of the landowners and their leaders wanted to be paid cash in Port Moresby before Christmas, so they could settle bills and repay money they had borrowed from the “black market”.

The acting prime minister issued a statement last night, warning landowners that funds owed to them were non-cash grants for development projects in their areas, and it was wrong to expect cash before Christmas.

Abal said he had directed that business development grants, owed to landowners in the LNG project areas, would be released to selected entities before Christmas.

 

 

Kapris granted bid to return to Bomana

THE state’s infamous prisoner, William Nanua Kapris, is heading back to Port Moresby, at taxpayers’ expense, because of alleged death threats at the Beon jail in Madang, The National reports.

The order by Justice David Cannings this week meant that the state would fund Kapris’ transfer from Beon to the maximum security unit at Bomana.

Kapris was flown to Madang two months ago to answer to charges that he was the mastermind in the K2 million-odd robbery of Bank South Pacific Madang branch on July 5, 2008. He is also wanted for questioning over two other BSP robberies.

Cannings had allowed Kapris, a convicted rapist and habitual escapee, to leave Beon because his life could be in danger, following an application by counsel David Dotaona.

There had been suggestions that there were plans to kill Kapris at Beon, according to jail bosses. Added to the uncertainty about his safety was an ongoing discontent by Beon warders over payments for providing extra security for Kapris and 13 other co-accused.

The court would rule on this on Feb 1 but, in the meantime, it ordered Correctional Services Commissioner Richard Sikani to facilitate Kapris’ transfer “with the time and method to be determined by the commissioner”.

Cannings also ordered that Kapris be released from separate confinement at Beon to another holding – not the main compound – and be allowed four hours daily exercise with access to reading materials and newspapers.

 

 

Abal: Grants are not cash handouts

ACTING Prime Minister Sam Abal warned yesterday there will be no cash handouts in Port Moresby for landowners expecting grants from the government for projects in their areas, The National reports.

Abal said he was concerned that so much misinformation on the project grants agreed under the petroleum and gas projects had led to a groundswell of complaints, accusations, anxiety, threats, assaults on government officers and damage to government properties.

“Memorandum of agreement (MoA) and development agreement (DA) project grants are non-cash benefits. I must emphasise here that these are not cash handouts.

“These benefits are obligations the national government has contracted to in formal agreements to provide in the form of infrastructure projects and granted by way of section 173 under the Oil and Gas Act,” Abal said in a statement issued last night.

“Such infrastructure projects include public roads, bridges, schools, clinics, hospitals, etc. 

“These capital work are provided to improve the welfare of our people in the petroleum project areas.”

He said cash benefits included royalty and equity, and these were received directly by affected beneficiary landowners and affected provincial and local level governments.

Abal said by the end of last year, the state expended a total of K536.6 million, both directly and through the Tax Credit Scheme, on MoA projects.

“A significant portion of this funding went directly to landowner companies without any tangible infrastructure development. This practice cannot continue if we want to improve our people’s well-being.”

He said the state had a list of payments done to landowner companies and a financial and physical audit would be undertaken on the payments made.

The principals of landowner companies would be required to acquit for the funding provided to them and provide independent certification that the projects had been implemented, he said.

Failing to acquit these defaulting landowner companies will not be able to access further funding.

For the business development grants, Abal said K120 million was allocated to be disbursed to all PNG LNG projects area licences, and of the total, K30.792 million had been paid and the remaining balance of K89.208 million would be paid this week.

The Commerce and Industry Department is responsible for the disbursement of these funds to landowners.