Two American C-17 Globemaster transport planes will bring 20 vehicles to Papua New Guinea in the next few days as part of preparations for the arrival of US President Joe Biden next week.

All eyes will be on APEC Haus as the President and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi will meet Pacific Island leaders at separate meetings.

Dubbed “the Island”, APEC Haus will be the most watched building in the country if not throughout the whole Pacific region.

On Sunday, four security armoured vehicles were flown into Port Moresby and were under heavy escort out of Jackson International Airport.

Just yesterday afternoon another lot of vehicles was brought in as momentum builds up to the first ever visit by a sitting President to a Pacific island nation.

Another 16 vehicles will be arriving over the next few days.

The presidential limousine, popularly referred to as “The Beast”, Marine One and security detachments are expected to arrive before the President touches down in Port Moresby.

Advance Secret Service team
White House officials also arrived in the country on the weekend to join an advanced Secret Service team that flew in last week.

About 1000 local security personnel, both PNG Defence Force and police will be assisting about 200 members of Biden’s security team.

The Correctional Service team is on standby to assist, CS Commissioner Stephen Pokanis said.

From the police, the Special Services Division (SSD) will be providing 200 men from the mobile squad, 36 from the national security unit, 20 from the air wing unit and several members from the bomb squad, bringing the total to 241 men.

Other units who will be involved include the NCD dog unit, the water police, police headquarters, Bomana police college, Central Province police, the incident management team, and the planning and co-ordination team. NCD police will support with 150 men and women.

Minister for Internal Security Peter Tsiamalili Jr confirmed the collaboration between the PNG task force who will work hand in hand with US security and intelligence teams, as well as the Indian intelligence.

Security ‘dry run’
“To ensure a seamless experience for our Pacific leaders, we will be conducting a dry run on Wednesday, May 17.

“This will involve running through the airport arrival procedures, as well as the routes from the Apec Terminal to the Apec Haus,” Tsiamalili said.

“We are expecting a full support team from the White House and the Indian Prime Minister’s office to accompany their respective leaders.”

The National Co-ordination Centre will be operating from Morauta House and will accommodate the different local agencies.

The Post-Courier understands that the airspace around APEC Haus will be closed to all aircraft while President Biden meets with Prime Minister James Marape and the leaders from the Pacific.

Security will also be tight at sea, with ships guarding around APEC Haus.

Sniper teams will be stationed around APEC Haus and the airport.

14 Pacific nations
Pacnews reports that the 14 Pacific island nations taking part are Cook Islands (current Pacific Island Forum chair), Federated States of Micronesia, Fiji, Kiribati, Marshall Islands,  Nauru, Niue, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu and Vanuatu.

The forum between India and 14 Pacific island countries began in 2014, with India offering assistance to major projects.

They included the setting up of a US$1 million funding for adapting to climate change and clean energy; establishing a trade office in India; a Pan Pacific Islands e-network to improve digital connectivity; extending visa-on-arrival at Indian airports for the 14 countries; cooperation in space technology applications for improving the quality of life of the islands; and training diplomats from Pacific Island countries.

India also increased the annual grant-in-aid from US$125,000 to US$200,000 to each of the Pacific Island countries for community projects of their choice.

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

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

A curfew has been imposed in part of Papua New Guinea and extra police have been moved in to quell unrest over the shooting dead of 16 prisoners.

The prisoners attempted to escape on Sunday by cutting open part of the fence at the Lakiemata prison in West New Britain province.

One inmate is in hospital and a further seven are on the run.

PNG media reports in the aftermath of the shooting say angry relatives and opportunists looted several stores with police shooting two men inside a local hardware shop in Kimbe town.

Police commander Chief Superintendent Peter Barkie has confirmed the arrival of Mobile Squad 18 to assist in easing tensions in the province.

Provincial Chairman for Law and Order John Rova said: “We are trying to address the issue and allow normal businesses to commence and operate and allow for outside communities to travel in to receive basic services.

“After the PEC meeting, we have agreed that a curfew will commence at 8pm and go until 5am every day and we will try to monitor the movement of residents because of law and order issues.”

Full investigation promised

The PNG Post-Courier reports Internal Security Minister Peter Tsiamalili Jr saying Corrections officers are mandated by law to ensure that the orders of the court are adhered to and that they are stopped.

But he said any death was regrettable, and he offered assurance that when seeking to prevent a prisoner from escaping, the last thing that anyone wanted was for loss of life to occur.

He promised a full investigation.

“There are several points that I think is important to I make,” he said.

“The first is that the men who escaped were in custody because of the crimes that they had committed.

“In Papua New Guinea, our criminal justice system is underpinned by the Criminal Code that mandates that when individuals commit certain crimes that they must serve time in prison.

“In this sense, those individuals in prison are re-paying their debt to society.

“The second point I would make is that our corrections system is focused on rehabilitation and preparing those detained for re-integration to society.

“It is a requirement that prisoners participate in rehabilitation and re-integration programmes before they can become eligible for release.

“Those that seek to escape custody before serving their term of imprisonment are demonstrating contempt for our laws.”

Some escapees on remand
However, Papua New Guinea’s Correctional Services Commissioner has confirmed that seven out of the 24 prisoners who tried to escape were not yet convicted of an offence.

Commissioner Stephen Pokanis said the ages of the prisoners who tried to escape was  between 22 and 40.

He said the court system was often slow, which meant someone could be on remand for years while they waited for their court session.

“Time spent in prison as a remandee sometimes goes up to even eight years. For them I do not know but I would think they would have been in prison for maybe two to three years or more,” he said.

RNZ Pacific is investigating reports that a number of the prisoners who were shot had already turned themselves into authorities.

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

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

Private security companies are currently holding Papua New Guinea together with the largest workforce of 29,445 and supporting the police in managing law and order issues.

There are only 6832 policemen and women serving the country currently, according to reports.

Internal Security Minister Peter Tsiamalili Jr told Parliament that the security industry in the country was one of the biggest supporters of law and order in helping to reduce crime by protecting life and property, including providing employment.

He said growth of the security industry had increased drastically after 16 years with a total number of licensed security companies recorded at 562, employing a total of 29,445 security guards.

Of these 562 companies, 15 were owned by foreigners.

This week the Royal PNG Constabulary announced that the constabulary would only get 560 best candidates from 13,039 applicants shortlisted out of 48,772 applications received from across the nation.

With the increase in law and order issues throughout the country and job scarcity currently faced, Minister Tsiamalili assured that the government was addressing this critically.

SIA established in 2006
The Security Industries Authority was established by the Security Protection Industries Act 2004 and it came into operation in 2006.

And by than it had registered 174 security companies that employed a total of 12,396 guards.

But after 16 years, as of December 2022, the total number of licensed security companies rose to 562 employing a total of 29,445 security guards.

“You will note that since 2006 till December 2022, the number of licensed security companies and the number of guards has been gradually increasing every year since 2006,” Minister Tsiamalili Jr said.

“The security industry is one of the industries in the law and justice sector that employs the largest workforce (29,445) and this security industry is supporting police and (managing) law and order issues in PNG.

“Security companies are supporting police help reduce crime by protecting life and property and also providing employment for many of our men and women, and more importantly supporting the economy, while police concentrate on investigating and arrest.”

Gorothy Kenneth is a PNG Post-Courier reporter. Republished with permission.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

Papua New Guinea’s Internal Security Minister Peter Tsiamalili Jr says the Royal PNG Constabulary is “stretched” with only 5000 men and women serving the country of more than 9 million people.

“Now more than ever we need leadership, we are stretched as a force, we all know that — we only have 5000 men,” he said.

“We are making recruitments happen.

“Issues in Hela — we are making every effort to manage this.

“That is happening in Hela, and it’s across the country. I am asking for help. This issue did not happen overnight, this is a culmination of the neglect our force has faced in the last 10 to 15 years.

“I am having sleepless nights, ensuring we work with the operational side of police. We are looking at stronger laws to deter citizens of such criminal acts.”

The minister — who is in charge of both the police and correctional services — was speaking during Parliament when he was asked by Mul-Baiyer MP Jacob Maki and a supplementary question from Abau MP Sir Puka Temu.

They questioned the minister on law and order issues over the latest crimes committed — in particular the alleged rape of a 15-year-old girl in Hela and the kidnapping of researchers in Southern Highlands.

Suspects on social media
Sir Puka said the rise in the use of social media had enabled many to see pictures of the suspects posted on media platforms.

“We have seen the faces of criminals being posted and what is police doing about it?” Sir Puka asked.

“Citizens are using the platform of social media to put out those criminal behaviours.”

The minister said police were working on the issue.

“In terms of the prosecution of those exposed, we have a cybercrime office and team, working on prosecution, there are processes in place,” he said.

“Police have taken action and it is a process that will take place.”

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

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz