Happy New Year Wish

My Happy New Year wish for you

Is for your best year yet,

A year where life is peaceful,

And what you want, you get.

A year in which you cherish

The past year’s memories,

And live your life each new day,

Full of bright expectancies.

I wish for you an exciting year

With happiness galore;

And when it’s done, I wish for you

So many more.

Somare may be back as prime minister

Sideline Prime Minister Sir Michael Somare may be back sooner than you thought, according to the weekly Sunday Chronicle newspaper.

The paper quoted reliable sources with Prime Minister’s and National Executive Council as saying that “Sir Michael was ill-advised by his legal team to step aside at the first place”.

“He has been wrongly advised by his legal team,” the source said.

Sunday Chronicle said: “Sir Michael stepped aside last Dec 17 after public prosecutor Jim Wala Tamate referred him to the Chief Justice Sir Salamo Injia to set up a leadership tribunal to inquire into charges that Sir Michael did not submit financial returns over a number of years.

“However, it has now come to light that legal advice may have been wrong for the Prime Minister to step aside before the Chief Justice’s action to set up the tribunal.”

 

Governor Amet visits Manam

By MALUM NALU

Following the surveillance carried out on Boxing Day with Herman Tibong, the resident volcano observer for Rabaul Volcano Observatory (RVO), Sir Peter flew Governor Sir Arnold Amet, Peter Torot and Tibong for a further inspection of Manam to assess the danger of people remaining on the Island.

Smoke billows from Manam volcano.-Pictures courtesy of Sir PETER BARTER

“The Governor and Peter Torot visited Dugalava, Border, Bien and Tabele to guage the reaction of the people, most of whom were concerned about a catastrophic eruption and their concerns were put at rest that no immediate danger exists, but they were warned not to walk into valleys or tend gardens on the slopes,” Sir Peter said today (Sunday).

Madang Governor Sir Arnold Amet (centre) talking to Manam islanders

He said he had purchased a replacement battery for the seismic equipment and when installed it would allow the RVO to monitor the activity of Mamam more scientifically.
“The battery and charger was given to Herman Tibong,” Sir Peter said.

Sir Peter Barter’s helicopter against the backdrop of the smoking Manam volcano

“The situation remains much the same at Level 3 being declared by the RVO.”

Kickboxer Arang calls it a day

By MALUM NALU

03mnarang: Kartu Arang (right) with his Sydney-based manager Glick Lambea

Australia-based Papua New Guinea professional kick boxer/boxer Kartu ‘Wantok Warrior’ Arang has decided to hang up his gloves after an outstanding career spanning 12 years.
Arang, from Kabwum in Morobe province and a product of the Stanley Nandex stable, had his last fight in Melbourne on Nov 26 last year.
“I decided to hang the gloves after my last fight in Melbourne on Nov 26, 2010, which I won after after six brutal rounds against Irish champion Scott McLoughin,” he said.
“This was an opportunity to bring my career to an end with style.”
Southern highlander Glick Lambea, employed by Westpac in Syndey and who has been Arang’s manager in Australia, is proud of his achievements.
“I’ve been Kartu’s manager for the last three years and I’m proud to have led a very talented and patriotic Papua New Guinean,” he said.
“I’m helping Kartu to manage the transition from his boxing life into a new chapter in his life.
“In the 12 years during Kartu’s fighting career he has won the following titles:
• Australian WKA Title;
• Australian ISKA Title;
• New South Wales State Title;
• PNG Kick Boxing Title; and
• World WKBF Title
“Additionally Kartu participated in 54 non \-title fights including professional boxing and kick boxing of which he won 35 fights, eight draws and 11 losses.’
“These are exceptional achievements and that shows the level of commitment and passion Kartu has for what he does in his life.
“I’m helping Kartu to leverage that passion and commitment to be successful in what ever he sets out to do in his post boxing life.”

Volcano erupts on Manam Island

By SIR PETER BARTER

Smoke emanates from Manam Island volcano on Dec 30, 2010.-Picture courtesy of SIR PETER BARTER

Manam Island in Madang province began a series of eruptions on Christmas Day and activities continued up until Dec 30 when larger eruptions occurred resulting in some panic by people that have returned to Manam Island.
At Dugalava, a spokesman for the people told the provincial disaster office and Sir Peter Barter that more than 1, 000 people needed to be evacuated and similar stories emerged from other villages right around the Island.
Sir Peter released funds to purchase petrol and diesel and the provincial disaster office drove the fuel to Bogia overnight so that evacuations could take place at day break if necessary.
Both the Prime Minister Sir Michael Somare and acting Prime Minister Sam Abal were advised and contact was made with the director of the PNG National Disaster service, Martin Mose, who has since despatched the operations manager to coordinate activities in Madang.
Due to heavy rain, Sir Peter delayed departure from Madang, but flew to Bogia to pick up the Rabaul Observatory officer Herman Tibong together with a representative of the provincial disaster and Bogia administration and flew to Manam for an aerial inspection.
Whilst there was evidence of lava flow in two valleys, most of the villages were intact and the eruption had subsided.
The Rabaul Observatory increased the level to “3” which basically warns people not to climb to higher gardens or walk into or across the valleys in fear of lava flow.
The team accompanying Sir Peter advised the people that there appeared no immediate danger providing precautions were followed and the people were assured that the situation would continue to be closely monitored.

Villagers surround Sir Peter's helicopter on Manam Island

Following the visit to Manam, returning the officials to Bogia, Sir Peter made quick stops at Asuramba, Malala, Mangem to assure the people there was no immediate danger but the National Disaster Office along with Rabaul Observatory would consider further actions if and where necessary.
Sir Peter has recommended that Radio Madang be put back on air immediately so people on Manam could be kept advised.
Clearly they were frightened, many demanding to be relocated to the mainland.
Sir Peter said that unless some arrangements were made for shelter and food evacuating people could result in serious problems, especially given the fact it was a holiday weekend and it would be difficult to get services delivered.
The Manus Border barge was placed on alert in the event it was necessary to evacuate Manam.

Australia-Papua New Guinea relations in 2011

By JOHN PASQUARELLI

John Pasquarelli

2011 will deliver more of the same and nothing will change unless ordinary Australians step up to the plate.

It’s a desperate time for those flooded-out Australians but not a squeak from any politician about the need for revolutionary water infrastructure measures that would reshape our population and agriculture policies before the next drought arrives.
Kevin Rudd has committed Australian taxpayers to billions of dollars of foreign aid hand-outs while many home-grown Australians go under.
The plight of outback Aboriginal Australians is perpetuated by continuing lunatic separatism while a new generation of ‘paler’ Aborigines compete for the generous spoils handed out by the Left.
Australia’s most immediate foreign policy concerns are very close to home – in Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, Fiji and other struggling Pacific Island countries.
There is not one MP who can speak with knowledge and authority about the problems that are becoming more urgent involving our close neighbours and all we ever get is regurgitated waffle from some DFAT bureaucrat.
Australia must reassess its relations with PNG as the distribution of the huge wealth that abounds in that country is jeopardised by an increasing influence from China and a continuing disintegration of law and order and the health of its citizens.
Australia can still play a major role in the training of PNG nationals at all levels and as they say – the sooner the better.

Up north, there's another boatpeople issue

By MICHAEL MCKENNA of The Australian

Papuan border crossers raise the flag on Cape York last week. Picture: Jonathan Baure Source: The Australian

FROM his dingy, overcrowded cell in Port Moresby's Boroko prison, Jonathan Baure is already plotting his next assault on Australia's border.
It has been 10 days since he stood on the shore of Daru Island, along the southeastern tip of Papua New Guinea, to see off 16 dinghies, carrying 119 PNG nationals - including 13 children - headed across the Torres Strait to reclaim their "birth right" of Australian citizenship.
Baure, a former tile salesman, had planned and openly promoted the voyage for weeks.
There was no shortage of willing passengers.
Despite November's cholera outbreak on Daru, which killed 32 people, more than 400 supporters from all over the country flooded the island, paying Baure to join the unwieldy flotilla of banana boats.
Leader of an emerging group of "Australian Papuans", Baure has for a decade waged a losing battle with Canberra to recognise that people from the former Australian territory of Papua were not given the choice to remain Australian when PNG gained independence in 1975.
Two High Court cases have been lost in Australia over the issue, and Baure unsuccessfully launched his own case in PNG, which was thrown out in 2009.
Several months ago, Baure and his group, which claims to have 700 registered members, decided to take the fight to the Australian mainland. "I was born in Papua in 1967, before independence, and like many others, my birth certificate is stamped 'Australian'," Baure tells The Weekend Australian after his arrest on fraud and immigration charges this week. "Nobody has listened to us, so our plan was to go to Australia, get arrested, raise awareness of the issue and have our cases heard in the courts like the asylum-seekers. We knew they couldn't stop us."
He was right.
On December 22, as the boats were about to leave, Australian and PNG customs and immigration officials rushed to Daru, alerted by the influx of people who had emptied the local shops of diesel and other supplies.
One Australian official from the high commission in Port Moresby pleaded with Baure and his supporters, warning they would be flown back to Daru without seeing the inside of a courtroom and the boats - the source of income for scores of families - confiscated.
Undeterred, Baure, who stayed behind to "handle the media", and the authorities then watched as the packed boats disappeared over the horizon. Within hours, the vulnerability of Australia's northern borders was exposed again.
Last year, Torres Strait councils told a Senate inquiry PNG nationals were pouring onto the islands to live, flouting immigration laws, running drugs and overwhelming health services in the region.
Despite a customs helicopter and patrol boat shadowing and then intercepting Baure's flotilla, one of the boats seemingly landed undetected on the tip of Cape York. At one stage, the customs vessel came alongside the lead boat, with the commander inviting Baure's offsider Laura Rea onboard to take a phone call from one of Immigration's most senior officials. "It was somewhere near Zagai Island (about 100km south of Daru), and the man on the telephone said we had no claim, that our case had already been lost in the High Court years ago," Rea tells The Weekend Australian. "He said that unless we turned back, we would lose our boats and be sent back immediately, but everyone wanted to go on."
Darkness started to fall and the boats were tied up to the Customs vessel, with the children brought aboard as the rest of the party slept on the dinghies. The next day, they were led to Horn Island, off the northern tip of Cape York, where they were detained before being flown back to Daru last weekend on a chartered plane.
Australian Immigration spokesman Sandi Logan said the incident could end up costing taxpayers $500,000. Logan says many of the passengers were not born before 1975, and could not qualify under even the criteria of the group's claims to citizenship.
"Customs, Queensland police, doctors and immigration were all involved when many of them were preparing for the floods and they had to deal with this prank, this protest."
The voyage has also come at a great cost to the passengers. Rea says the boat owners are devastated their vessels have been confiscated despite being warned before they left that it would happen.
She claims Immigration officials later assured the group on Horn Island their boats would be returned. "But Australia has confiscated their banana boats, and that is devastating to them and the families they support," she said.
Baure is facing up to three years' in jail, after being arrested in Daru as the passengers were being flown back. PNG police allege the 400 people who travelled to Daru had paid a minimum 200 kina ($77) to Baure for membership of his group and a document that purported to prove each of their claims for Australian citizenship.
Baure has been charged under section 96 of PNG's criminal code, relating to "false assumption of authority", as well as offences under the Migration Act.
He denies duping anybody into believing they were guaranteed citizenship with the documents.
"The documents that the police are calling a fake visa was actually just a pass so that the boat owners knew who was legitimately entitled to be on the boat," he says.
"I wanted to raise money for the group but also make sure that drug runners and other people didn't slip onto the boats."
Baure says his arrest is an attempt to destroy his group and put an end to the simmering issue. "We are already making plans, there will be other boats.
"There are many people still on Daru wanting to make the voyage. They can confiscate our dinghies but we will come back with canoes and if they take them we will make more and return.This is a fight about our civil rights being denied, not all of us want to move to Australia and people shouldn't think there are going to be hordes of Papuans arriving to live off welfare.
"I have the information that will win the case. Why is Australia so fearful of facing a bunch of uneducated Papuans in court?"