Basil: Leave Grand Chief alone

By JEFFREY ELAPA

NATIONAL Planning Minister Sam Basil says members of parliament in the Somare faction should stop misleading Sir Michael Somare and allow him to rest, The National reports.
Basil suggested that some MPs were using the Grand Chief for their personal gain and should stop to allow him to recover from his operations.
“Anderson Agiru, Sir Arnold Amet, Patrick Pruaitch and Arthur Somare have been forcing the old man,’’ he said.
“Leave him alone and allow him to rest so that he recovers well from his operation. It is about time we help him and not use him and put more pressure and stress on him.”
He said if the Grand Chief got more ill from the pressure, the MPs should be held responsible.
He said the country acknowledged the many contributions Sir Michael had made for the young nation and he should be left to rest.
He said Agiru and Sir Arnold needed to go back to their provinces and provide the leadership as their people needed them.
He said Madang and the Southern Highlands provinces needed good governors to provide leadership in their provinces and not stay in Port Moresby

K3.7 million Singapore ‘allowances’ to Somare family and visitors probed

By JEFFREY ELAPA

AN investigation has been launched into the payment of K3.7 million in allowances to a group of people who visited Grand Chief Sir Michael Somare in a Singapore hospital, The National reports.
The group consists of public ser­vants serving in the Prime Minis­ter’s office, officers from other government departments plus those who were not public servants.
Chief Secretary Manasupe Zurenuoc, when asked to comment yesterday, declined to say who was entitled to travelling allowances while accompanying the prime minister – who went on a medical leave.
But Deputy Prime Minister Belden Namah said everyone who received the allowances would be investigated.
He pointed out that Sir Michael was on sick leave and not on official government business.
Namah also questioned why the entire Prime Minister’s Department had to make the trip to Singapore.
The government-appointed Task Force Sweep team had been directed to investigate why allowances were paid to non-public servants and officials from other government departments.
“Some of these people who benefited from the K3.7 million of public funds during the hospitalisation of Sir Michael will be arrested soon,” Namah said.
More than 30 people, including family members of the Grand Chief, received allowances on the pretext of visiting the sick leader. Namah termed it as “daylight robbery” and “corruption of the highest order”.
According to Namah, Sir Michael and Lady Veronica received almost K700,000 as allowances, daughter Betha Somare and son Sana’s wife each received almost K200,000 and Sir Michael’s brother Paul Somare received more than K76,000.
The others allegedly paid allowances were Paul Bengo K85,000, Seki Karingai K192,000, Rodney Kamus K105,000, police Const John Keai K108,000, Richard Gogo K143,000, police Snr Const Ekonia Puki  K71,000, police Const Rodney Eminoni  K88,000, Tambon Tara K77,000, Margaret Elias K23,000, Hudson Ramatlap K23,000, Insp Simon Dugumi K26,000, Ipai Edward K48,000, Michael Ikau K26,000, Nora Solien K45,000, police First Const Peter Wesley K22,000, police Const Simon Guvi K23,000, Joan Vanariu K19,000, Chris Haiveta K10,000, Anna Abal K4,000 – plus four others who received less than K3,000 each.
Betha Somare, daughter of Sir Michael, said as employees of the prime minister’s office at the time, the public servants were entitled to the travel allowances.
She declined to comment further and referred other queries to the secretary at the Prime Minister’s Department.
She called on leaders to stop politicising the allowance issue because some of the payments were genuine.
She did not say if non-public servants, who accompanied the Grand Chief, were entitled to allowances.

Rabaul marks 70th anniversary of Japanese invasion

By MALUM NALU

Rabaul, East New Britain province, marked the 70th anniversary of its bombing by the Japanese today (Wednesday, Jan 4, 2012).

The Japanese dropped their first bombs on Rabaul on Jan 4, 1942, and continued with almost daily air raids until the 5, 000-strong Japanese invasion force attacked Rabaul soon after midnight on Jan 23, 1942. 

Bitapaka War Cemetery, not far from Rabaul, is a peaceful and beautiful cemetery containing the graves of over 1, 000 Allied war dead and the Rabaul Memorial commemorates those who have no known grave.-Picture by MALUM NALU

Rabaul had been the administrative capital of the Mandated Territory of New Guinea.

Its pre-war populace included about 1,000 Europeans, 1,000 Asians (mostly Chinese), but also a few Japanese and about 3,000 New Guineans.

Australian troops, local police and some civilians retreated south but the Japanese captured over 500 European civilians, six army nurses and some wounded soldiers (some of whom were executed) in and around Rabaul.

These captives included 350 missionaries, priests and nuns who were interned.

The Chinese were especially fearful, as the Japanese had massacred Chinese in other countries.

Some were executed soon after Rabaul fell but there was no large-scale massacre.

Instead, they were ordered to live in designated areas outside Rabaul. Men were forced to work as labourers alongside Chinese prisoners of war brought to the island.

An unknown number of women and girls were raped and, in the worst instances, forced to serve for periods as “comfort women”.

 The situation might have been even worse had the Japanese not begun importing some Japanese, Korean and Chinese “comfort women”.

 Villages and plantations were spread across New Britain and New Ireland.

The small Australian garrison, Lark Force, was overwhelmed and most of its troops, including six army nurses, captured.

Approximately 400 of the troops escaped to the mainland and another 160 were massacred at Tol Plantation.

Rabaul, despite the 1937 volcanic eruption, continued to remain as capital of New Guinea until 1941 when renewed volcanic forced the transfer to Lae in Oct 1941 right up to the Japanese invasion in January 1942.

War, however, had begun in the Pacific with the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour on Dec 7, 1941.

Rabaul was bombed on Jan 4, 1942 followed by Lae, Salamaua, and Bulolo on Jan 21.

 In July 1942, , about 1, 000 of the captured Australian men, including civilian internees, were drowned when the Japanese transport ship Montevideo Maru was sunk by an American submarine off the Philippines coast en route to Japan.

The ill-fated Montevideo Maru. In July 1942,  about 1, 000 of the captured Australian men from Rabaul, including civilian internees, were drowned when the Japanese transport ship was sunk by an American submarine off the Philippines coast en route to Japan.

 Only the officers and nurses, sent to Japan on a different ship, survived.

Tony Subam funeral service tomorrow

Funeral service of late TONY SORU SUBAM will be held at 2pm tomorrow, Thursday, Jan 5, 2012, at St Joseph's Catholic Church, Boroko.
Casket departs on Friday, June 6, 2012, for Madang.
For additional information, please call Barleyde Katit on mobile 72392315 or Cyril Lumbia on 72369929.

75 users of homebrew, drug to face court in Manus

By ANGELINE KARIUS

POLICE say 75 people who consumed homebrew and marijuana in Manus during the festive season are awaiting their court cases, The National reports.
Provincial police commander Chief Sergeant Alex N’drasal says the 75 arrested were mostly youths who hung around the main Lorengau town area. Others were picked up on the central Manus highway during the New Year operations.
He confirms that 60 police officers had taken part in the special festive season operation in the province.
“The celebrations here was very peaceful and quiet,” he said.
Apart from a boating incident and an arson case at Tingou village on the Manus highway, the weekend was relatively quiet, he added.
Members of the public went on air on Radio Manus to thank the police for their work.
N’drasal also thanked his officers for their tireless efforts and time into carrying out the operation.

River tragedy

TWO students – a teenager and a five-year-old – drowned while nine others suffered injuries when the bus they were travelling in was washed away by a fast-flowing river, The National reports.
The incident happened at around 9pm on Monday at the border of Hagen Central and Anglimp district, Western Highlands province.
An eyewitness said the 15-seater bus was washed away by the Lel River.
It was carrying Michael Pati and his family members from a birthday party in Olgulben.
They were travelling to Wurup.
According to Alois Meringa, who lives near the scene of the accident, the bus was slowly crossing the Lel bridge when the strong river current washed away a 20m section of the road, carrying with it the bus and the passengers.
Meringa said an alarm was raised that night and the nearby villagers rushed to the scene.
Despite the strong current, they managed to rescue nine passengers trapped inside the bus.
He said two passengers – identified only by their first names as Cedric, five, and Wanuga, 18, were washed away.
Wanuga should be doing Grade 10 this year at Kombalopa High School.
The two missing youngsters were from the Okune tribe in the Baiyer district.
They were related to Pati’s wife.
The villagers looked for them on Monday night and continued their search yesterday along the river banks but could not find them.
Among the injured were Pati’s small daughter who broke her leg and a 16-year-old girl who sustained deep cuts to her legs.
A bus crew also sustained a deep cut to his forehead and two wo­men had injuries to their backs.
Meringa said the injured passengers were rushed to the Mt Hagen Provincial Hospital on Monday night.
Some were treated for minor injuries and released while others were admitted.
The water pushed back by a blocked culvert destroyed many food gardens, coffee trees and other properties upriver.
Meringa blamed the incident on poor engineering work carried out by a contractor when it sealed the road from Warakum to Wurup Kaip about 10 years ago.
He said when the Lel River had a wooden bridge, water flowed freely even during floods.
But when the road was sealed, the contractor removed the wooden bridge and replaced it with the culvert which was too small to allow excess water to flow through during heavy rain.
Meringa said they had raised complaints with local MP Jamie Maxtone-Graham and Governor Tom Olga but nothing had been done to fix the problem.
Fellow villager Peter Puri blamed the accident on the negligence of the leaders and contractor.
Puri said if the bridge had been fixed properly, or if the contractor had done his job well, the incident would not have happened.

70th anniversary of Rabaul bombing today

Lest we forget, today is the 70th anniversary of the bombing of beatiful RABAUL, EAST NEW BRITAIN,  in World War 11 by the Japanese.

 Rabaul was bombed on January 4, 1942 followed by Morobe gold towns Lae, Salamaua, and Bulolo on January 21.

To go into detail about the long and bitter fighting that took place between Lae Salamaua and Wau in 1942 and 1943 would fill pages.

Many hundreds of Japanese, Australians, Chinese as well as Papua New Guineans were killed in the two years of fighting.

  I'm going to write a series of articles this year about the 70th anniversary of WW11 in New Guinea, and hopefully, people can start realising that Rabaul, Lae, Salamaua and Wau were just as important - if not more important - that Kokoda.