Wednesday, September 18, 2013

Police: Black Cat murder suspects are ‘dead men walking’



By MALUM NALU
 
Morobe police commander Leo Lamei says the four remaining suspects in last Tuesday’s Black Cat Trail murders and attacks are basically “dead men walking” if they do not turn themselves in like their four colleagues did on Sunday.
He told The National yesterday there were now up to 74 police officers and villagers scouring the rugged terrain between Wau and Salamaua for the remaining four suspects, after four were arrested on Sunday, and there was little if no chance of them escaping or getting out alive if they did not turn themselves in.
Police – with their ‘Eye InThe Sky’ helicopter - have been searching the rugged terrain between Wau and Salamaua for the gang that killed two local porters and attacked eight expatriate trekkers along the Black Cat Trail last Tuesday.
A man suspected of harbouring the suspects was hacked to death by angry relatives of murdered porter, Mathew Gibob, of Skin Diwai village.
“I ask them to surrender to police, village leaders, or pastors,” Lamei said.
“If they do not surrender, the relatives of the dead and injured porters will attack them.
“I also appeal to the relatives not to take the law into their own hands.”
Lamei commended villagers from all along the Black Cat Trail from Wau to Salamaua for their support.
“I want to commend the villagers, the people of Salamaua, the people of Wau, and especially the villagers of Bitoi and Mubo,” he said.
“Without them, we would not have arrested the first four suspects.
“They are still supporting us.”
Lame said the hard work put in by police over the last week deserved the highest praise.
“I would like to praise my men for a job well done, especially in arresting the first four suspects in just a few days, when it could have taken weeks or months in such rugged terrain,” he said.
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Tuesday, September 17, 2013

Porter's death in decrepit hospital

ROWAN CALLICK, ASIA-PACIFIC EDITOR
The Australian 
 September 17, 2013


SIX Papua New Guinea porters have been transferred to an international hospital in Lae after a third victim of the Black Cat Track attacks died, apparently of infection and heart failure, in the substandard facility to which all the local survivors were initially sent.
Lae International Hospital chairman Malcolm Lewis said when he visited Angau public hospital on Sunday, one of the men was lying in blood-soaked bandages on a blood-soaked bed.
Lionel Aigilo...the latest porter to die

"Another, who'd just had an operation, was lying on an inch-thick mattress on the floor in pain," Mr Lewis said. "Most had infections, but none had penicillin drips. They were just copping it. It was terrible."
Prime Minister Peter O'Neill was promised priority funding from his then counterpart Kevin Rudd for a $355 million renovation to the dilapidated hospital, the cost to be shared equally as a part of the PNG asylum-seeker deal.
Mr Lewis said food and water for the injured porters had not been provided by Angau, but was brought into the hospital by staff from the Newcrest-run Morobe Mining venture as well as by Daniel King, whose wife Christie was the guide who led the Australians and one New Zealander attacked on the trek to safety.
Mr Lewis, an Australian whose Lae-based engineering firm Hornibrook NGI employs more than 1000, said when the porters were taken to Angau last week only one doctor and a nurse were working.
Power outages, he said, had caused operations to be postponed. On Sunday, when Lae International had sought to obtain specially donated blood so it could prepare to operate on the porters, the Angau blood bank was closed all day because it was a long weekend; Independence Day followed yesterday and hospital management had been unavailable. "We know what happens in Angau," he said, its main buildings having collapsed from white-ant infestation. "People die."
Mr Lewis's wife, Sherron, managing director at Lae International Hospital, said the new facility was built four years ago with the help of a team including Queensland orthopaedic surgeon Greg Day.
"In Lae, just hours from the country (Australia) that has one of the best standards of medical care in the world, people suffer and die alone," Mrs Lewis said.
"We don't need a medical fund for the porters. That sort of thing obscures the whole issue and becomes 'band-aid therapy'. We are now treating them for free. 
"What is needed . . . is attention from both the domestic community and from international friends to get our public hospital up to a standard where it can at least get the basic standards right. That would really help."

Porter's death in decrepit hospital

  • ROWAN CALLICK, ASIA-PACIFIC EDITOR
  • The Australian
  • September 17, 2013 12:00AM

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SIX Papua New Guinea porters have been transferred to an international hospital in Lae after a third victim of the Black Cat Track attacks died, apparently of infection and heart failure, in the substandard facility to which all the local survivors were initially sent.
Lae International Hospital chairman Malcolm Lewis said when he visited Angau public hospital on Sunday, one of the men was lying in blood-soaked bandages on a blood-soaked bed.
"Another, who'd just had an operation, was lying on an inch-thick mattress on the floor in pain," Mr Lewis said. "Most had infections, but none had penicillin drips. They were just copping it. It was terrible."
Prime Minister Peter O'Neill was promised priority funding from his then counterpart Kevin Rudd for a $355 million renovation to the dilapidated hospital, the cost to be shared equally as a part of the PNG asylum-seeker deal.
Mr Lewis said food and water for the injured porters had not been provided by Angau, but was brought into the hospital by staff from the Newcrest-run Morobe Mining venture as well as by Daniel King, whose wife Christie was the guide who led the Australians and one New Zealander attacked on the trek to safety.
Mr Lewis, an Australian whose Lae-based engineering firm Hornibrook NGI employs more than 1000, said when the porters were taken to Angau last week only one doctor and a nurse were working.
Power outages, he said, had caused operations to be postponed. On Sunday, when Lae International had sought to obtain specially donated blood so it could prepare to operate on the porters, the Angau blood bank was closed all day because it was a long weekend; Independence Day followed yesterday and hospital management had been unavailable. "We know what happens in Angau," he said, its main buildings having collapsed from white-ant infestation. "People die."
Mr Lewis's wife, Sherron, managing director at Lae International Hospital, said the new facility was built four years ago with the help of a team including Queensland orthopaedic surgeon Greg Day.
"In Lae, just hours from the country (Australia) that has one of the best standards of medical care in the world, people suffer and die alone," Mrs Lewis said.
"We don't need a medical fund for the porters. That sort of thing obscures the whole issue and becomes 'band-aid therapy'. We are now treating them for free.
"What is needed . . . is attention from both the domestic community and from international friends to get our public hospital up to a standard where it can at least get the basic standards right. That would really help."
- See more at: http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/nation/porters-death-in-decrepit-hospital/story-e6frg6nf-1226720485698#sthash.hnUDdVXA.dpuf

Porter's death in decrepit hospital

  • ROWAN CALLICK, ASIA-PACIFIC EDITOR
  • The Australian
  • September 17, 2013 12:00AM

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SIX Papua New Guinea porters have been transferred to an international hospital in Lae after a third victim of the Black Cat Track attacks died, apparently of infection and heart failure, in the substandard facility to which all the local survivors were initially sent.
Lae International Hospital chairman Malcolm Lewis said when he visited Angau public hospital on Sunday, one of the men was lying in blood-soaked bandages on a blood-soaked bed.
"Another, who'd just had an operation, was lying on an inch-thick mattress on the floor in pain," Mr Lewis said. "Most had infections, but none had penicillin drips. They were just copping it. It was terrible."
Prime Minister Peter O'Neill was promised priority funding from his then counterpart Kevin Rudd for a $355 million renovation to the dilapidated hospital, the cost to be shared equally as a part of the PNG asylum-seeker deal.
Mr Lewis said food and water for the injured porters had not been provided by Angau, but was brought into the hospital by staff from the Newcrest-run Morobe Mining venture as well as by Daniel King, whose wife Christie was the guide who led the Australians and one New Zealander attacked on the trek to safety.
Mr Lewis, an Australian whose Lae-based engineering firm Hornibrook NGI employs more than 1000, said when the porters were taken to Angau last week only one doctor and a nurse were working.
Power outages, he said, had caused operations to be postponed. On Sunday, when Lae International had sought to obtain specially donated blood so it could prepare to operate on the porters, the Angau blood bank was closed all day because it was a long weekend; Independence Day followed yesterday and hospital management had been unavailable. "We know what happens in Angau," he said, its main buildings having collapsed from white-ant infestation. "People die."
Mr Lewis's wife, Sherron, managing director at Lae International Hospital, said the new facility was built four years ago with the help of a team including Queensland orthopaedic surgeon Greg Day.
"In Lae, just hours from the country (Australia) that has one of the best standards of medical care in the world, people suffer and die alone," Mrs Lewis said.
"We don't need a medical fund for the porters. That sort of thing obscures the whole issue and becomes 'band-aid therapy'. We are now treating them for free.
"What is needed . . . is attention from both the domestic community and from international friends to get our public hospital up to a standard where it can at least get the basic standards right. That would really help."
- See more at: http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/nation/porters-death-in-decrepit-hospital/story-e6frg6nf-1226720485698#sthash.hnUDdVXA.dpuf
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Third Black Cat porter dies in hospital



By MALUM NALU
 
Veteran Black Cat Trail porter Lionel Aigilo died on Sunday night after five days of excruciating agony at Angau Memorial Hospital in Lae without proper medical care and treatment.
He is the third to die after a gang killed two local porters, injured several others and attacked eight expatriate trekkers along the Black Cat Trail last Tuesday.
Lionel Aigilo along the Francisco Rover during a fact-finding trek of the Black Cat Trail in July 2003.

Aigilo, from Logui village in Salamaua, had both legs badly slashed and was awaiting amputation when he died.
He had been an active guide and porter along the Black Cat Trail since 2003 when trekking companies started operating there.
Both overseas and Papua New Guinea media reported last week of the shortage of medical staff and operating theatres at Angau to cater for the eight Black Cat Trail porters, and on the eve of independence, Aigilo sadly passed away.
EMTV last week showed footage of the badly injured porters lying on the floor because of no beds and awaiting operations that never eventuated.
Black Cat Trail Association chairman, Ninga Yawa, said yesterday that it took the death of Aigilo to spur operator, PNG Trekking Adventures, into action as the seven remaining survivors were moved to Lae International Hospital.
He said it was a sad indictment of both government and tour operators at the time of independence.
“Lionel and the other porters were in hospital for almost a week, however, the treatment given to them was not good,” Yawa said.
“I wanted PNG Trekking to put them in a good hospital, as they worked hard to make money for the company, but it was only this (yesterday) morning, after the death of Lionel, that they were moved to Lae International Hospital.
“The government has to look into this matter very seriously.
“We need some assistance from the government, especially when it comes to relatives, haus krais.
“The Prime Minister said he would take care of everything, however, if the porters are not treated, they will die one by one.
‘The PNG Tourism Promotion Authority also has to come in, as these porters worked very hard to bring into tourism money into the country.”
Yawa said the events of last week had been very stressful on everyone involved.
“These have taken their toll on all of us,’ he said.
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Sunday, September 15, 2013

Four of six Black Cat trek attackers captured in Papua New Guinea

Simon Black 

The Daily Telegraph 

September 15, 2013



FOUR of the six men who attacked an Australian trekking party in Papua New Guinea have been captured and a man suspected of harbouring the criminals has been killed in a retribution attack.
PNG police officers and local villagers have been scouring the jungle around the Black Cat trail since September 10 after a group of eight trekkers were attacked by six armed men.
Two of the group's porters were hacked to death and eight were potentially crippled during a frenzied attack which lasted more than half an hour and was described as "pure butchery".
"I believe it is only a matter of time before the other two are captured and brought in," PNG Commissioner of Police Toami Kulunga said.
photo
Constable Jason Wangud of the Airborn Tactical Unit patrols the jungle around the Black Cat track with an M203 Automatic Rifle. Picture: Luke Marsden.

Com Kulunga also confirmed a man, who was believed to be harbouring the bandits, had been hacked to death by the family of one of the murdered porters.
He said relatives of murdered porter Matthew Gibob had accused the man of harbouring the six criminals and attacked him - striking him to the head and back with a machete in a retribution style attack.
Police intervened and flew him to the nearest health centre but he died from loss of blood.
"There will be an investigation and the persons responsible for this recent death will be arrested. No-one has the right to take anyone's life," Commissioner Kulunga said.
"While I encourage the local community to continue to assist police capture the remaining attackers I urge you not to take the law into you own hands.
"Let the law deal with them."
One of the suspect was caught in Salamaua while the other three were caught in Wau.
While two of the men involved in the attack remain at large Com Kulunga said some 30 police personnel from Morobe Province will soon arrive in the area to pursue the remaining fugitives.
Pic Luke
Liba Naris, 22, was one of the porters attacked by machete-wielding bandits on the Black Cat trail in Papua New Guinea. Picture: Luke Marsden Source: News Limited

Commissioner Kulunga has personally flown to Lae, Morobe Province to supervise the hunt.
"While the attack has done a lot of damage to the country in general and to some sections of the local Wau-Bulolo economy which depends on trekkers, we must not forget the dedication, commitment, loyalty and professionalism of all Papua New Guineans involved, including the local porters who defended the trekkers with their lives and the police in the initial response and rescue operations.

Trek leader, Australian woman Christi King
Trek leader, Australian woman Christi King Source: Supplied
"The commitment of the villagers in helping police bring in the four suspects speaks volumes for our people's genuineness and hospitality as well. The attack was an isolated and one-off incident and not a reflection of the generally friendly people of the Morobe Province."
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