Papua New Guinea police have arrested five people in connection with the brutal attacks in Angoram district that left around 25 people dead last week.

RNZ Pacific correspondent in PNG, Scott Waide, said the ringleaders who initiated the attacks in three remote villages in East Sepik have not yet been arrested.

He said they were still armed and on the run after an estimated 30 young people targeted Tamara, Tambari and Agrumara villages over what is believed to have been a land dispute.

Hundreds of people have been displaced as a result of the deadly violence, with reports that survivors were hiding in bushes.

Waide said there had been no government presence or assistance sent to the survivors who desperately needed food and help.

East Sepik Governor Allan Bird has said tribal violence continued to deteriorate in the country.

A villager from Angoram, Andrew Sangi, told RNZ Pacific last week the government was not actively involved to solve the problem.

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

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Sepik villagers hit by Papua New Guinea’s earthquake flooding are desperate for clean water, says local volunteer Charles Marlow

“Since the flood, the main Sepik River we have been drinking from is not safe anymore, evidence of faeces is seen floating on the water,” Marlow told the PNG Post-Courier.

“When the earthquake struck on Monday, most tanks of most houses in the Sepik River area burst.

“Right now, I can say people are going hungry, food has become scarce and we no longer have access to safer water source to drink from,” Marlow said in an interview.

“I live in Pagwi area. Today I went by boat to three nearby villages and returned. I spoke to the people and did my own assessment on the situation as a volunteer.

“People are in desperate need of food and drinking water.

“They cannot harvest sago or food from the gardens, everything has been destroyed by the high tide from the main Sepik River which has covered the nearby inlands where sago and other garden produce are harvested from.

Houses collapsed
“From Pagwi, I went to Savanaut then to Yenjimangua and Naurange villages.

“In Yenjimangua seven houses collapsed and in Niaurange eight houses altogether sank into the water.

“No casualty from the earthquake was reported from those three villages but there are deaths I heard in other villages I did not visit,” he said.

East Sepik Provincial Administrator Samson Torovi said the 28 local level governments in areas affected by flood have been allocated relief funding as of yesterday.

“The LLG presidents of our 28 local level governments have resolved to use the K200,000 (about NZ$88,000) provincial support to immediately supply food stuff, canvas and relief supplies to our people,” Torovi said.

“The East Sepik Provincial Disaster Management team will draw down on its internal revenue allocation of K200,000 in this year’s budget to commence mobilisation of relief work at the provincial level.”

Phoebe Gwangilo is a PNG Post-Courier reporter. Republished with with permission.

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Papua New Guinea’s Defence Minister and minister responsible for the National Disaster Centre Dr Billy Joseph confirmed today that the government — with coordinated support from all stakeholder agencies and development partners — was responding appropriately to the natural disasters that has hit many parts of the country.

The National Disaster Center (NDC) is the national coordinating agency and is working with provincial governments and district development authorities (DDAs) as well as the Department of Works and Highways, PNG Defence Force and other stakeholders to coordinate and respond promptly.

The East Sepik provincial earthquake on Sunday left at least three dead and more than 1000 homes collapsed.

The US Geological Survey said it was magnitude 6.9 and just over 40 km deep.

A summary of the current crises impacting on Papua New Guinea.

King tides and heavy flooding
The minister confirmed that about 10 provinces are getting the necessary assistance from the National Disaster Center, including Goroka/EHP which was not included in the initial report provided to his office.

PNG Defence Force troops are working closely with the Simbu Provincial Government and Gumine DDA and their respective leaderships as Simbu was one of the worst affected provinces.

7 people missing off the coast of New Ireland Province
Nine people boarded a banana boat at Kavieng for Emirau Island but did not make it due to heavy weather conditions when the boat capsized.

Two of the young men swam to the island to look for help while seven others made a makeshift raft and floated awaiting assistance.

“As of today, seven people are still missing and our search is still active — if we don’t find them after 72 hours, we will declare them lost and the search will be discontinued,” Minister Joseph said.

The Australian Defence Force has provided a C27 aircraft to conduct low aerial surveillance of the subject areas.

A PNGDF Navy Patrol Boat has also been deployed to the area but no sightings have been reported.

The Search and Rescue operations are being coordinated by the National Maritime Safety Authority with oversight provided by the PNG Defence Force.

East Sepik Province earthquake
NDC is working very closely with the leaders of East Sepik, including the provincial government, to ensure much needed help reach the people that need it.

An emergency allocation of K200,000 (about NZ$90,000) has been made available for food, water, shelter and medicines etc as seen appropriate by the Provincial Disaster Committee.

It is at their disposal. A commercial helicopter is now in Wewak to assist in the relief operations and the PNDF military helicopter will join shortly.

“We are also mobilising support from our bilateral partners to assist but the challenge is now for the Provincial Disaster Center to provide reports to NDC so we define and coordinate what kind of emergency assistance is required,” Minister Joseph said.

Minister Joseph further warned Papua New Guineans to take precautions and not take risks, especially at sea, as the country’s emergency services are stretched and rescue efforts may not happen in time.

Miriam Zarriga is a PNG Post-Courier reporter. Republished with permission.

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Angry voters in East Sepik and Hela have destroyed ballot boxes and set fire to ballot papers after finding that their names were not on the common roll in Papua New Guinea’s general election.

No reports were received of people or election officials being hurt in the violence.

Polling started on Monday and will run through to Friday in all 22 provinces.

Despite an assurance by the Electoral Commissioner Simon Sinai that more than five million eligible voters would cast the ballots, many voters have been turned away because their names are not on the common roll, while in other locations there are not enough ballot papers for the number of eligible voters.

In Hela, nine ballot boxes were destroyed in various polling stations by angry voters while in Morobe, 300 ballot papers went up in flames by disappointed eligible voters who could not cast their votes because they were not registered on the common roll.

When responding to rumours of hijacking of ballot boxes, Hela provincial police commander Senior Inspector Robin Bore confirmed that ballot boxes were burnt and destroyed by voters on Monday morning.

He said the boxes destroyed were in Komo (4), North Koroba (2), South Koroba (1), Hulia (1) and Tari Pori local level government (1) while polling continued in the other parts of the province.

Polling boycotted
In Morobe, frustrated voters from Wampar urban local level government in Huon Gulf district boycotted polling on Monday and ordered the burning of about 300 ballot papers in the presence of police and Electoral Commission officials.

Huon Gulf returning officer Daniel Wasinak said eligible voters were frustrated that they were not registered on the common roll and they could not cast their votes.

He said about 700 ballot papers were designated for the ward, with two polling places identified.

First polling place is the Igam market just outside the PNG Defence Force Igam Barracks gate while another polling place was inside the army barracks for soldiers and their families.

In Wewak, East Sepik, polling at ward 12 Wewak Urban was suspended, again when names of eligible voters. This time PNG Defence Force soldiers from Moem Barracks could not find their names on the electoral roll.

Polling in Moem Barracks started at 11am with officers opening up the boxes but polling was halted for over two hours and cancelled at 2pm when soldiers argued that if their names were not on the roll, no one would vote, including their wives and children who were registered on the roll.

Polling was suspended indefinitely.

Voters devastated
At another polling station, also in Wewak, hundreds of voters who turned up at the polling booths yesterday were left devastated that they could not vote because they were not registered on the electoral roll.

Many of these voters were not first-time voters as they had voted in previous elections.

Long time families and residents of Makun and Malasi, including the Sauns, Koskys, Bangus and Silings are among those who have not found their names on the electoral roll.

In Aitape-Lumi, West Sepik Province, polling will commence when fuel and candidate lists are made available to the election officials on the ground.

Aitape-Lumi returning officer John Awas said polling has been deferred to whenever polling materials and fuel were made available.

He further confirmed that polling teams were yet to be deployed to their respective polling areas in the district.

Polling deferred
“Aitape-Lumi has deferred polling because payment for fuel to the local suppliers were not received and the suppliers would not give us fuel on credit either to enable us to move around and insert polling teams to their assigned location,” Awas said.

Meanwhile, candidates for several seats in Hela have warned that counting would not be allowed until they sorted out the disputed ballot boxes on record.

Candidate Francis Potape said there were two deaths from fighting at polling stations and six ballot boxes were allegedly hijacked at Takali.

He said yesterday that helicopters were still picking up people who were still polling in places only accessible by air.

Republished with permission.

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A female candidate in the Papua New Guinea elections believes it is more important than ever that the country has women MPs in Parliament.

Dulciana Somare-Brash is the daughter of the late Sir Michael Somare and she unsuccessfully stood in the East Sepik regional seat in 2017, finishing fourth in the vote count.

This time she is standing in the Angoram seat in East Sepik, which has previously been held by her brother, Arthur Somare.

Papua New Guinea has had very few women MPs over the country’s 47 years of independence, and none in the current Parliament.

Somare-Brash said it was vital that changed in this year’s general election — and she was hoping to be part of that change.

“Papua New Guinea is growing so quickly. We are growing at a population rate of about 3.8 percent each year. We don’t have female representation in Parliament at all and that too is a huge motivator for why I continue to persist,” she said.

“I work in a political space, as a technical advisor, and I am hoping, as I see my support base increase that I might have some success at the polls this time.”

Lack of equity ‘motivating force’
Somare-Brash said the lack of equity for many in PNG society — women and children, particularly — was a motivating force for her.

“I feel very confident with the policy priorities that I am promoting, with a deep understanding of my people and their challenges.

“And certainly the issues of the importance of equity in the benefit sharing arrangements in Papua New Guinea, where women and children and youth seem to be left at the back of the line when we are divvying out the spoils, if you like, from our massive resource base in Papua New Guinea.”

The nominations period is not yet finished but a record number of women candidates is anticipated.

Voting, over a two week period, is set to begin July 9.

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

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Indonesia is pressuring Papua New Guinea over an illegal group East Sepik claiming to form an army unit to help West Papuan pro-independence rebels fighting against Indonesian forces across the border.

Calling such armed groups as “terrorists”, Indonesia’s Ambassador to PNG, Andriana Supandy, said his country respected the sovereignty of its neighbour, PNG, and called on the PNG authorities to act over the threat.

A video of a group dressed in military fatigues and brandishing automatic rifles has gone viral on social media, prompting the Indonesian response.

The men in the video, speaking in PNG “tok pisin”, claim to be from East Sepik. They say they stand with the West Papuan rebels and are ready to cross the border to support the West Papuan cause for independence.

Supandy said the Indonesian Embassy had been informed that PNG government officials were in Wewak to investigate the viral video on the social media post.

“The Indonesian government honour[s] the PNG government as a sovereign nation and leave the response to the alleged militants to the relevant authorities in PNG,” Supandy said.

“Both governments have the same understanding about the challenge and opportunity in managing the formal relations through the spirit of friendship and mutual respect.”

Gratitude over safety
Supandy said that despite the video causing uneasiness, the Indonesian Embassy would like to convey its gratitude to the government and the people of PNG for “ensuring the safety and wellbeing of Indonesians” working and living in PNG.

The embassy said the Indonesian government and people were reciprocating the gesture for PNG citizens living in Indonesia.

Supandy said the video of a vigilante group would not affect the strong relations between Indonesia and PNG.

“These armed groups in Papua and West Papua have resorted to acts, methods and practices of terrorism aiming at destruction of human rights, fundamental freedoms and democracy while also threatening the territorial integrity and security of the Republic of Indonesia,” he claimed.

Right to ‘reliable information’
Supandy said Papua New Guineans had the right to “reliable information” relating to this issue.

He said Indonesia was committed to taking measures aimed at “addressing the root causes” of the situation in Papua and West Papua provinces.

He said in this context, Indonesia advocated humane, prosperous and inclusive development approach, including:

• Respecting the basic rights of the people in Papua and West Papua provinces;
• Establishment of good governance in Papua; and
• Opportunities for Papuans to shape and direct local development strategies and regional policies.

SBS News reporting on the West Papua conflict.

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Papua New Guineans awoke this morning to great sadness, reports the PNG Post-Courier.

As the bells tolled with the sad news of the passing of the much beloved statesman and the founding father of the nation, newsfeeds and social media were abuzz with shock, grief, sadness and tributes to the great man who led his country to independence in September, 1975.

Grand Chief Sir Michael Thomas Somare was 84 when he succumbed to pancreatic cancer at the Pacific International Hospital in the country’s capital Port Moresby.

The national government has ordered all flags lowered to fly half mast as the country prepares to mourn a man considered the architect and cornerstone of a free and democratic Papua New Guinea.

The Somare family announced his passing in a brief media statement saying Michael Thomas Somare had passed away at 2am today.

In a statement his family announced: “Sir Michael was only diagnosed with a late stage of pancreatic cancer in early February and was admitted to hospital on Friday, 19 February 2021.

“Sadly, pancreatic cancer is one of the most aggressive cancers that are rarely detected early. We as a family had only two weeks to look for possible treatments.”

“Sir Michael, born on 9 April 1936 in Rabaul, was a pivotal politician leading PNG to independence on 16 September 1975.

“His political career spanned half a century from 1968 until his retirement in 2017. He had been the longest-serving prime minister (17 years and four terms of office).

“He had been minister of foreign affairs, leader of the opposition and governor of East Sepik.

“As a man of great faith, Sir Michael was able to be given his last rites and anointing by Cardinal [John] Ribat. In our presence Sir Michael opened his eyes to acknowledge the blessing by his eminence before passing away peacefully. We take this opportunity to thank the cardinal for making himself available so quickly.”

The family said that Sir Michael would be taken home to his final resting place in the East Sepik province.

“We, his children, know that it is the wish of both our parents to be laid to rest together on Kreer Heights in Wewak.

“We thank everyone who in those few days had worked so hard to save Sir Michael’s life be it through a Medivac, healthcare itself or providing transport. We also thank everyone who wrote in to express their support and offer their prayers to our father and our family. We are humbled.”

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