Sweep team arrests 2 more

TWO former civil servants face fraud-related charges involving public funds, The National reports.
The Task Force Sweep arrested David Kumalau Pondros, a businessman, and Jeffery Yakopyia, a former assistance secretary in the economic division of National Planning and Monitoring Department.
Pondros was arrested on Dec 23 for allegedly misappropriating K400,000 belonging to the Oro provincial administration.
It was alleged that Pondros received the funds through his company, David Consultants, in the pretext of conducting feasibility studies for the construction of wharves at certain locations in the Ijivitari electorate in Northern province.
Task Force Sweep said in a statement that it was not clear whether Pondros, who was believed to have a primary school teaching and air steward background, had the capacity to deliver such technical. What was apparent was that the funds were instead used for private purposes.
He was charged with one count of conspiracy to defraud, one count of false pretence and one count of misappropriation.
He was detained at the Boroko police cell and later released on a K1,500 police bail.
This was the second arrest of Pondros. His first arrest was on Oct 21, 2011, for allegedly misappropriating more than K6 million from the National Planning Department. The case is pending in court.
Meanwhile, Yakopyia, who was an assistant secretary at National Planning when Joseph Lelang was the secretary, allegedly used his position to approve K1,975,006.05 variation claim lodged on behalf of Sarakolok West Transport Ltd (SWT) by its lawyer, Manase  and Co Lawyers.
These funds were paid on top of the initial K7.9 million paid to SWT, a company owned by Eremas Wartoto who was also arrested for not using the funds to rehabilitate the Kerevat National High School in East New Britain, the purpose upon which the funds under the RESI programme were released to the company.
It was alleged that while the initial K7.9 million was diverted for personal use, another K1.9 million was released under fraudulent circumstances to the same company.

Killings mark bleak start to New Year

THREE women were hacked to death while a 12-year-old girl was raped, killed and buried – in a bleak start to the New Year, police say, The National reports.
Nationwide they reported a total of horrific nine deaths
In Manus, an adult and two children under five died in a banana boat accident on New Year’s Eve.
In addition, police said there were two killings in Lae while a student was raped in Central on Christmas Day.
The four women from Eastern Highlands were killed by a fellow tribesman who had been upset over a long-standing land dispute outside Goroka town.
Eastern Highlands provincial police commander Supt Augustine Wampe said the man from Jotu Village, in the Kama area outside Goroka, got drunk before taking a bush knife and chopping to death the three women.
Wampe said the suspect had allegedly been aggrieved by an on-going land dispute and approached 17-year-old Emma Tura and asked for her father.
But the man allegedly did not wait for an answer, swung the bush knife, hitting Tura on her left ear.
Tura fell to the ground and died almost instantly.
Wampe said two other women, Okene Tura and Ina Blackie, who had been inside their house, ran out to find out what was happening.
Wampe said the suspect again swung bush knife at them, chopping Okene Tura on her right shoulder, left ear and on the back of her head, causing her to fall and die.
“The suspect then attacked the third female, Ina Blackie, chopping her on her head and waist, she fell unconscious to the ground and was rushed to the Goroka Base Hospital but died the next morning,” Wampe said.
He said the suspect ran from Kama to the Goroka police station still armed with the bush knife and surrendered to police

Sanguma band to hold tribute concert for Tony Subam

You heard it hear first! SANGUMA band will have a special tribute concert after the funeral of founding member, TONY SUBAM next week. 

This was announced at an emotional reunion of surviving band members BURUKA TAU, SEBASTIAN MIYONI, THOMAS KOMBOI, RAYMOND HAKENA and AARON MURRAY which I've just returned from. 

SANGUMA REUNION: Surviving Sanguma band members (from left) BURUKA TAU, SEBASTIAN MIYONI, THOMAS KOMBOI, RAYMOND HAKENA and AARON MURRAY at today's emotional reunion following the death of founder TONY SUBAM. This was at their old stomping grounds, the National Arts School (now University of PNG Arts Strand)

Memories of the glory days of the 70s and 80s came pouring out at today's gathering.

Tony Subam and the legend of Sanguma band

By MALUM NALU

For someone whose music rocked Papua New Guinea and the world, the late Tony Soru Subam, one of the founders of the legendary Sanguma band in 1977, was a quite person, who kept to himself and avoided the limelight.

Tony Subam performing in Port Moresby during the 1970s

I found this out myself a couple of years ago, when I tried to do a story on him after doing one on his band mate, Buruka Tau, however, Subam said the time was not yet right.

Sadly, I will never get to do this one-on-one interview as on Christmas Day, while most of us were celebrating, Subam passed away after a short illness.

Tony Subam performing a solo during a trip to Japan

His father was from Yabob village in Madang province while his mother was from Kairiru Island in East Sepik.

I will never forget that night at Theatre Lae in 1980 when, as part as of the South Pacific Festival of Arts, Subam and Sanguma took PNG’s second city by storm.

He is survived by his wife Juta and five children.

On Wednesday evening, while I was trying to piece together this story at University of PNG’s Creative Arts Strand, where Subam was head of music, Juta, workmates and Sanguma band mate Thomas Komboi agreed that he was not one who liked publicity.

Ironically, it was at this very same place exactly 34 years ago, in 1977, that Sanguma was formed.

Komboi, in fact, suggested that we wait until other Sanguma members like Aaron Murray, Raymond Hakena, Sebastian Miyoni, Leonard Taligatus, Buruka Tau and Paul Yabo got together so that I could do a proper interview.

Sanguma band performing one of its early concerts at the UPNG Amphitheatre in the 1970s. From left are Aaron Murray, Sebastian Miyoni, Tony Subam, Apa Saun and Thomas Komboi

“He was a very nice person,” Juta reflected.

“He was very quiet, both within the house and outside.

“He only spoke when he had to.

“Otherwise, he was in his own little world, writing his thoughts.

“His life was devoted to music.

‘He got along very well with his kids and was very protective of them at the same time.”

 Sanguma, arguably PNG’s greatest ever band, developed its own avant-garde style of music.

With forward-thinking PNG musicians like Subam, Miyoni, Komboi, Yabo, Saun, Hakena, Taligatus and later Ben Hakalits, PNG music went through an inimitable epoch in the late 1970s and early 1980s.

“I think Sanguma even today is very unique in itself,” Tau told me in a 2004 interview.

 “Sanguma was way ahead of its time. 

“Sanguma inspired a lot of people internationally, even though we were not a commercial band.”

“Up until today, it’s one of the most unique bands that have come out not only in PNG, but internationally.”

Sanguma, a band formed by students of the National Arts School (now Creative Arts Strand), eventually disbanded because they simply weren’t making money.

“It was basically survival,” Tau reveals.

“It came to a point where we had to survive. 

“The music was way ahead of its time.

“We did our last gig at the Expo in Brisbane (1988). 

“Sanguma reunited in 1992 for a concert with Yothu Yindi.”

Komboi told me that Sanguma started in 1977 after a creative workshop at the National Arts School.

“That year was that first year that the music school opened,” he recalls.

“Tony Subam, Paul Yabo and I came from Kerevat National High School, Tony finishing in 1975, while Paul and I finished in 1976.”

Subam, Yabo, Komboi and Miyoni were pioneer members of Sanguma together with Josepha Tamelagai, Robinson Guta, Hillary Laris, late Bill Stevens, Jesse James Pongap and Peter Piruke.

“The following year (1978), Buruka Tau, Raymond Hakena, Paul Yabo, Apa Saun and Aaron Murray came in,” Komboi adds.

“The band started because at that time, we were doing cover versions, even copying, songs of outside artists.

“Our teachers encouraged us to create our own music, such as that of Osibisa and Santana.

“We were all tasked to come up with a traditional song from our village.

“That’s how we started going into it.

“As we did that, we started writing our own stuff.

“We started to believe in what we were doing.”

Cyril Lumbia, technical officer at the Creative Arts Strand who has known Subam for more than 20 years, said he was someone who wanted the best for his music students.

He said Subam worked part-time there until 2006, when he became a fulltime contract officer.

“He took over as head of music in 2009 till today,” Lumbia said.

“He has passed a lot of students.

“He was very open-minded.

“He related very well to others and was very well respected in return.

“His approach to work was based on professionalism.

“That’s the kind of person he was.

“When it came to work and commitment, we must achieve all of our plans.”

Fellow musician Playton Gombo, lead guitarist of Bluff Inn Soles, another great band of that era, said PNG music would never be the same.

“He (Subam) was a very private man, despite being a public figure,” he said.

“He has followed us on many of the trips we had around the country.

“To us, he is a brother-in-arms, a fellow comrade musician.

“He was a front man of contemporary music and we shared those moments with him.

“These are the moments we will treasure for the rest of our lives.

“We were pioneer musicians.

“We believed in what we were doing, that was showmanship, which was the vision Sanguma and Bluff Inn Soles shared.

“I’d like to encourage young musicians to come and do what Sanguma and the Bluff Inn Soles used to do, which was performing live!”

Interesting, an interview with Sanguma band members including Subam in 1977, is now available on YouTube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rYtbPE1Y5D .

One Friday afternoon in November 1977, on a National Broadcasting Commission programme ‘University On Air, some of the band members, including Subam, were interviewed and played live some of their music, which is now online for anyone interested in hearing about the beginning of Sanguma.

Listening to Subam’s voice from 34 years ago was very emotional for me, more so, when he led Sanguma in his first-ever hit from his beloved Madang, ‘Naiyo, naiyo’.

“From different cultures we may come, speaking in different tongues, yet deep within, our souls touch each other through the language of music,” he is quoted on the clip.

“We communicate and talk in a common language with one talk. Throughout Melanesia.”

Thugs attack family at park

By KEVIN TEME

A FATHER and his son were treated in hospital for injuries they received when they were attacked by armed thugs at a public park, The National reports.
Simon Walg and son John Bereu were with family members at the Varirata National Park, Sogeri, outside Port Moresby, on Saturday for a Christmas family outing when they were attacked.
Walg, Bereu and his wife Jenny, their sons and family friend Regina Augustine were taken by surprise.
Walg and Bereu were attacked with bush knives while Jenny was threatened with a factory-made gun.
Sons Joesen and Kapul watched helplessly as their dad bled from the knife wound.
They were rushed to the Port Moresby Ge­neral Hospital but because there were no doctors on duty, they had to be taken to Paradise Hospital.
Jenny managed to scare the thugs off at the park after she ignored the gun pointed at her, ran to her husband’s taxi and grabbed his bush knife.
“I did not care if they had to shoot me because when I saw my husband and Walg bleeding badly, I managed to get away and did not care if they will shoot me,’’ she said.
“I went straight to my husband’s taxi, grabbed the bush knife and came back running at them. They did not shoot me but instead ran into the nearby forest.”
She believed the thugs only wanted to harm them and not steal anything.
“We had our backs turned at the lookout point of the park to see the city when the first one came hit my husband on the neck before running straight at Walg and hit him too,” she said.
She said Walg tried to ward off the knife and prevented more injuries to himself.
She blamed the incident on the National Environment and Conservation Department  which for some reason had reduced security officers at the park.
She said the park should be well guarded so that families could use it.
“At the moment, the park is not safe and the security is not guaranteed,” she said.
“Similar incidents happened before and it will be worse if the NEC does not look into this matter. We could see lives being lost out there.”
No comments could be obtained from the police and the department yesterday.

Suspect kills and eats woman

By ELIAS LARI

POLICE in Enga have arrested a man for allegedly killing a three-month pregnant woman and eating part of her body, The National reports.
Police said the gruesome murder took place in Mona­kam village in the Kompiam-Ambum electorate last Tuesday.
Police believe the man had been high on marijuana when he allegedly cannibalised the woman.
Police said they had never come across such an incident before.
They described it as a first of its kind in the province – one which was known more for tribal fight and not cannibalistic practices.
Provincial police commander Martin Lakari said last Friday the man had been detained at the Wabag police cell.
Lakari said the man drank the woman’s blood and then started cutting her throat and ate it before locals were alerted and stopped the man.
He said locals then alerted police who arrested the man.
Lakari said to arrest such a person was not that easy because he had tasted human blood.
Police had to tie him with a rope before taking him to the police station.
Lakari described it as “unbelievable” and inhuman.
He said the man allegedly smoked marijuana and when his throat turned dry, he attacked the woman with a knife, killing her instantly.
Lakari said as the woman lay dead on the ground the man licked her blood and started eating her throat.
Lakari said these were actions of drug addicts and mentally ill people.
He said such actions had painted a bad name for the province.
Lakari said the woman had been expecting her first child and therefore it was a double murder because she was pregnant.
Lakari warned people, especially women whose husbands were known for smoking marijuana, to avoid them when they were alone.
He warned mothers not to let their children stay home with their fathers because such an incident could happen.
He said women and children must protect themselves and make sure to avoid such people who were mentally ill

American missionary attacked in Pangia

AN American Baptist missionary was attacked by a group of prisoners after row over land ensued between the Correctional Service (CS)and the Baptist mission, The National reports.

The land is at the Pangia station in Southern Highlands.

Missionary Chad Wells said a group of 20 prisoners armed with knives had been cutting grass in the mission compound while two unarmed warders watched over them.
Wells had asked the warders why they were cutting grass in the mission’s compound.
They replied that the land had been surveyed for a rural prison improvement project initiated by local MP and Prime Minister Peter O’Neill.
Wells told the warders that the mission held the title over the land. He tried to stop the prisoners from cutting trees but they attacked him with their knives, injuring his right back and wrist.
He said the warders did nothing to stop the prisoners and instead threatened to kill him and remove him.
They claimed that the CIS held the title to the land since the 1970s.
He said when the warders were asked to produce the papers on the land ownership, they ignored him.
Another missionary and a doctor who were at the scene said Wells was unarmed – and he was punched thrice on his chest when he intervened.
Nixon Kanema, the officer in charge of land matters in Ialibu-Pangia district, said the CS should have consulted the district administration.
He said the Baptist mission had the relevant land documents  and urged CIS authorities to develop the existing prison area and look for other alternative land.