Landowners want activists expelled

THE Immigration and Citizenship Service has been urged to deport Greenpeace activists from PNG if they broke the country’s laws and regulations, The National reports.
In a signed petition, hundreds of people in Pomio want the department and the National Maritime Safety Authority to investigate whether the activists had clearance to land at Pomio last week.
They believe that the Greenpeace vessel, mv Esperanza, entered the area illegally and had failed to follow proper protocol.
The petitioners believe that the Greenpeace activists’ objective is to disrupt economic activity and to impede PNG’s development.
They see Greenpeace as a foreign organisation which is not genuinely interested in the welfare of the landowners.
They believe that Greenpeace is deliberately trying to stop commercial activity in the area and deprive landowners of employment and incomes for themselves and their families.
They accused Greenpeace of deliberately inflaming inter-clan tensions for their own purposes.
They believe Greenpeace has a history of encouraging potentially-violent confrontation in order to create “footage” that it can send to the global media.

Ex-soldiers run amok outside Waigani Haus

A GROUP of ex-servicemen went on a rampage yesterday, damaging cars and state property at Morauta Haus at Waigani, which houses the office of Prime Minister Peter O’Neill, The National reports.
The frustrated former soldiers were protesting against what they claimed was the delay in the payment of all their entitlements.
Motor vehicles owned by the state and privately by officers working at Morauta Haus were damaged by the angry mob armed with metal bars and other missiles as they stormed the four-storey building.
They did not gain entry however, glass panels of the buildings were smashed while ground facilities like parking lights were destroyed.
They were angered by comments from the prime minister last Thursday saying  that only the ex-servicemen in 185,334 and the colonial ex-servicemen groups would be paid.
O’Neill had said the 1,360 and the 323 groups would miss out or delayed to allow time for the claims to be verified.
However, the latter said their claims were in relations to the housing scheme, hardship or rehabilitation and the act of grace payments claims which were genuine and should be paid.
They said they were affected by the government’s down-sizing policy of the PNG Defence Force from 2001 to 2006.
At around 11am the frustrated ex-servicemen, numbering more than 100 shouted and yelled and threatened to burn Morauta Haus.
Apart from the prime minister, the building is occupied by the Department of the Prime Minister, the National Executive Council, the minister assisting the prime minister on constitutional matters, the Department of Personnel Management, Public Services Commission and the Central Agency Coordination office.
Terrified public servants stopped work and either locked themselves inside the building or fled home for the day.
Unarmed police officers led by NCD Commander Chief Supt Fred Sikiot arrived 40 minutes later and guarded the building.
Military vehicles were also spotted around the area as the commotion started.
It is believed to be the first time members of the police force including the specially trained mobile squad had come unarmed to quell a disturbance in a public area.
They kept their distance from the group who presented their petition to the acting Prime Minister and  Public Service Minister Bart Philemon.
He said he was going to take their concern to O’Neill when he arrived from Australia.
Meanwhile, a reliable government source said the claims were held back to verify the amounts because some of the claimants were either paid earlier or were not entitled to any payments

Museum boss Mek Kuk sidelined

NATIONAL Museum and Art Gallery director Meck Kuk has been suspended pending investigations into alleged non-performance and mismanagement of funds, The National reports.
His suspension was endorsed by Cabinet last week when it made a number of changes in departmental heads and foreign diplomatic missions.
Kuk’s suspension was published in the national gazette no: G304 on Oct 27, along with other changes in the public service.
Kuk has been replaced by former national Museum and Art Gallery acting director Dr Andrew Moutu, an anthropologist from Wewak, East Sepik, who was teaching at Adelaide University, Australia.
He was recalled to take charge of the institution that has been plagued by poor control since 2004.
The gazettal notice by Governor-General Sir Michael Ogio said he appointed Moutu on the advice of NEC and on recommendation from the Minister for Culture and Tourism, Benjamin Philip.
Moutu was appointed to the position “until further notice” effective from Oct 21.
Sir Michael appointed Joe Luma as Works secretary for a second term of four years.
However, Sir Michael suspended Joseph Nobetau as the acting chief migration officer and appointed senior diplomatic officer Mataio Rabura as the acting head of Immigrations effective Oct 21.
Peter Maginde, head of mission to Brussels, is being recalled and replaced by Rima Ravusiro as ambassador to Belgium and the European Union with concurrent accreditation to France.
Former police commissioner Anthony Wagambie has been rewarded with a diplomatic post as ambassador to the Philippines and a former secretary of finance and businessman Rupa Mulina is now the new ambassador to the United States of America, Canada and Mexico.

Pregnant woman’s head chopped off

By JUNIOR UKAHA

A pregnant woman was decapitated last Sunday after she was attacked by a man in her home, The National reports.
Lucy Evi Apini, 25, from Inawii village, Bereina, Central, was alone in her home when the 18-year-old suspect from the same village approached her and asked to light his cigarette.
Police reports said while Apini was trying to give him a light, the suspect pulled out a bush knife and hit her on the back.
Provincial police commander John Maru said the suspect then swung the knife at her neck and chopped her head off.
He said the reason for the killing was not known but police believe Apini’s husband, Charles Aisaga, might “know something”.
Police briefs said the victim was eight months pregnant when she was killed.
Village councillor Joseph Ofoi said the killing had “shocked” the people of Inawii.
He said the relatives of the deceased were angry but wanted the police to thoroughly investigate the matter and arrest the suspect.
“This is a very sad case. I think it is a double murder as the woman was carrying an unborn child inside her when she was killed,” he said.
He said the suspect was allegedly mentally retarded and was known to be a drug addict.
Ofoi said this was the third time a murder had occurred in the
village but police had handled the cases very poorly.
He said the suspects in all the murder cases were known to the villagers but police always had transport problems and did not follow up on the cases. 
The matter was reported to Bereina police last Thursday and they attended to the scene, but by then, the suspect had fled.
Maru condemned the killing and assured the relatives of the deceased police would use all available resource to find the suspect.

Killing sparks Bogia riot

By JAYNE SAFIHAO

A village has been razed to the ground as a result of the gruesome killing of a Grade 3 student from the Asarumba Care Centre in Bogia last Saturday, The National reports.
Eyewitnesses and Bogia Mayor Felix Bangai said the 11-year-old boy and his teenage brother left early in the morning to look for coconuts.
He said they had walked to the border of Kalilat village, the last village after Bogia.
While trying to husk coconuts there, the brothers were ambushed by a group of Kalilat youths who shouted at them to leave. The elder brother sensing danger ran ahead of the younger one.
Unable to catch up, Junior Bari Gumai of Dangale village, Manam, died while running, speared in the back with a fishing gun. The metal fishing spear had a thick metal tip fixed with a hook.
The gang then took the boy’s body to the beach, burnt the face to make it unrecognisable and then gutted the corpse with a bush knife.
But about 200 relatives of the deceased then marched onto Kalilat village, razing everything in front of them.
They burnt houses and slaughtered animals.
Kalilat villagers then set up roadblocks at three sections of the road, with women and children forced to walk while vehicles were stopped from going to or from Bogia.
But Snr Constable Adam Yawing, the man in charge of the North Coast Road highway patrol saved the day by disbanding the angry Kalilat youths while asking for the surrender of the killers.
An auxiliary policeman and community leader Joe Viaken said they were turned upon by the men from Kalilat when they tried to intervene.
“We were being shot at with fishing guns. Almost all of them were armed and didn’t respect the law,” he said.
“They shouted abuse at us and used the cover of women and children at the roadblock to attack us.
“One spear landed in the car nearly killing the acting district administrator. We will be reporting the matter to the provincial police commander,” he said.
Viaken said the situation was still tense yesterday after the burial of the boy.
Asarumba care centre spokesman Nelson Mambote has lashed out at the government and is appealing for the government to look at relocating them to a neutral place.
“This is the third death so far since we have been placed here in 2006.
“The first was of a small boy. The Rarin community of Bogia killed and ate the child, cannibal fashion; the second was of a mother and child while out gardening and this is the third.
“Enough is enough, we can­not go on like this,” he said.

Tiensten's CEO says he was blackmailed

CHRIS Hulape said in a statement yesterday that a couple of weeks before their arrest, National Fraud Squad members in Port Moresby visited his Gerehu home and left a telephone landline number 325 9873, The National reports.
Hulape said when he returned the call, a man answered and Hulape introduced himself and was told his call would be returned.
“About half an hour later, the same person called from a bemobile number, 765 34370, and introduced himself as from the fraud squad.
Hulape said when the phone call came through, he was with his lawyer Paul Yange of Warner Shand Lawyers in Kokopo and two policemen, who were present, heard the phone conversation on speaker.
Hulape claimed that the caller said he would help if Hulape cooperated.
He said there was a series of phone calls and text messages throughout the week from the caller asking for cash to be deposited into Westpac Bank account.
Hulape said he had saved the text messages and would give them to police.Hulape said last Friday, at about 9pm, task force members interviewed his wife for about three hours.
“The investigators were kind and diplomatic but did not have the authority to grant police bail.”
He said the East New Britain acting provincial police commander was approached by the task force members at about 1.30am the next
day but bail was denied her, although she was in her final week of pregnancy.
Hulape was arrested and charged the same day

Paul Tiensten's CEO arrested

ONGOING investigations into alleged misuse of millions of kina of state funds in the National Planning Department have led to the weekend arrest of a married couple in Kokopo, East New Britain, The National reports.
The man was reportedly a former executive officer of former national planning and monitoring minister Paul Tiensten.
Torch Bearer Productions Ltd managing director Chris Hulape and wife Agnes Frank-Hulape, who is a shareholder of the company, had been charged with misappropriation and stealing under false pretence.
The arrest by the Task Force Sweep team was in relation to more than K1 million funding for a resource centre and three markets for Kiriwina-Goodenough district in Milne Bay.
The task force members alleged that the couple applied for and received K1.6 million (cheque No.000036 in February for Kiriwina-Good­enough Community Resource and Learning Centre (K600,000) and
the Kiriwina-Goodenough Strategic Market De­velopment Project (K1 million).
Police investigations had revealed that no such projects had taken place, culminating in their arrest on Saturday.
Hulape, 34, of Vailala Hilo village in Kikori, Gulf province, had been refused bail while wife Frank-Hulape, 34, of Rabuana, Rabaul, was charged, detained and released as she is pregnant.
Both would appear before the Kokopo District Court this morning.
Operation Sweep team chairman Simon Koim said in a statement last night that the couple was innocent under the law until proven guilty.
“They will now go through the normal criminal process in court to prove their innocence on the charges laid against them,” he said.
Hulape was tracked down early this month after he allegedly discharged a firearm in public in Kokopo.
Police are still investigating this incident and another alleged misappropriation of K1.5 million for a Gulf school.
Hulape, in a statement yesterday, said the pro­ject submission for building of a resource centre and three markets were supported by a letter signed by the Member for Kiriwina-Goodenough Jack Cameron.
He said the MP and the district administrator formalised the arrangement through a contract signed between Kiriwina-Goodenough district administration and Torch Bearer Productions Ltd.
He said the resource centre was completed and based on Cameron’s request, the funds were released to his preferred sub-contractor accordingly.
“The MP then made numerous requests for Torch Bearer Productions Ltd to off load the remaining project funds to his family company so that they could implement the market project, Hulape claimed.
“This would then be clearly a breach of the contract by Cameron.”
Hulape said a letter signed by the MP, the district administrator and district treasurer cancelling Torch Bearer Productions Ltd’s contract was sent to him saying this was because of delays in completing the project.
A copy of the letter cancelling the contract was sent to the task force team.
Hulape expressed concern that Koim was conducting premature investigations on some well-meaning projects secured through the national go­vernment such as his Kiriwina-Goodenough one.
“This questions the legitimacy and motive of the team and if it is really serving national interest or the interest of a few.”
“The National Planning cheque for K1.6 million was printed on March 1, 2011, and was collected by us in
April and banked in May.”