Papua New Guinea’s New Ireland Governor Sir Julius Chan has met and thanked Captain Nathan Tai Tombe and crew of the HMPNGS Moresby for their “brave action” in intercepting and impounding a foreign vessel off the coast at the weekend, reports the PNG Post-Courier.

Eight crew on the unregistered ship were arrested and charged – one of them wounded in the boarding operation.

Sir Julius was unaware of the action, but was inspecting a new fish processing plant in which the New Ireland government is a joint venture partner, with Arthur Jones and his company, PMAX, officials said yesterday.

When Sir Julius arrived at the site, he noted the PNG Navy vessel docked at the adjacent wharf and asked Jones what the vessel was there for.

He was told the HMPNGS Moresby had intercepted an unregistered foreign vessel at sea near Kavieng and had forced it to come to port.

Sir Julius immediately visited the docked vessel and the captain and crew.

On recognising the former prime minister, the crew double-timed from the ship and mustered on the dock, where they saluted Sir Julius on his arrival.

Sir Julius then introduced himself to Captain Tombe, who proceeded to explain what had happened two days before.

Warned by bullhorn
The Moresby intercepted the foreign vessel and warned the crew of the ship by bullhorm to stop for inspection.

However, the warning was ignored. Warning shots which were fired over the bow of the ship were also ignored.

An update on the Chinese vessel #PNG Defence Force Navy intercepted today: the AFP was involved with the operation which saw the illegal vessel brought back to Kavieng. Former PM Sir Julius Chan congratulated the team. The 8 Chinese citizens have been arrested and charged. pic.twitter.com/HclD2oUHai

— Deni ToKunai (@Tavurvur) August 25, 2020

As a result, the HMPNGS Moresby drew alongside the vessel and fired aboard, wounding one crew member.

Following this, the ship pulled up and was ordered to accompany the Moresby to Kavieng, where it is at anchor, with the wounded crew member in Kavieng Hospital.

Sir Julius expressed his thanks to Captain Tombe and his crew, and invited the captain and several crew members to accompany him on his inspection of Arthur Jones’ rehabilitated fish processing plant.

Following the inspection of the plant, Sir Julius invited Captain Tombe to accompany him on a tour of the new New Ireland Legislative Assembly building, which is scheduled to be officially on September 15 and 16.

Captain Tombe, who hails from Jiwaka province, said he and his crew were stunned at the opportunity to meet Sir Julius.

“You don’t get a chance to meet someone like Sir Julius every day,” Tombe said.

“And for him to recognise us for the work we do was just amazing.

“He is a great man.”

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

OPEN LETTER: By Gary Juffa, Governor of Oro

Dear Prime Minister,

You sold all our todays and were about to sell our children’s tomorrows too. You were in the most enviable and powerful position to do what is right and just by the people of Papua New Guinea – my people.

But instead you and a few chosen vultures and pirates and similar characters who you call “friends” chose to exploit our people and destroy our people’s future. All for profit and all for greed.

You and these despicable and greedy selfish raiders and plunderers will not package pieces of our homeland and sell it to benefit yourselves only.

READ MORE: Revealed – PNG PM Peter O’Neill’s ‘very bad’ Oil Search deal

Every Papua New Guinean is a shareholder of Papua New Guinea. They all have a say. And they won’t stand for it.

They are rising up to fight. That’s what we do when our homes and children are threatened by war. Your war. A war to take all that is ours and sell it to your friends and cronies.

Now I asked myself often why? Why would a Papua New Guinean destroy his own people? It is as if you don’t care about this country and are not from it.

I believe the answer to that is emerging soon enough. This question and all the questions rising from this need answers still.

Vultures and pirates
For your information, we are not going to let you do that. We are not going to let you and these vultures and pirates and minions of yours package and sell our children’s birthrights.

Land is our life. It will not be sold.

Ever.

We are taking back what is ours – and our children’s, our beloved Papua New Guinea.

Piece by piece.

You made a mistake. You arrogantly thought that the leaders supporting you would remain silent and continue to do so.

But you forgot one fundamental fact.

Not blinded by greed
They are Papua New Guineans. Not all would be blinded by your greed and agree to all your madness.

That’s not why they were elected. To follow and obey the destruction of this great nation at your will and whim for the benefit of your evil plundering and marauding pirate friends!

They are not all blind and deaf and ignorant as you have so arrogantly assumed. Many were disturbed and unable to sleep at night.

The cries of their mothers and sisters in our remote rural hamlets could be heard. The bitter protests of our landowners who trusted you and lost all their hopes was too loud.

The crumbling stations and districts and aid posts bereft of medicine and services could not be un-seen. The roads and buildings you built at exorbitant inflated prices with your friends could not be accepted.

Meanwhile, our children sat packed in hot dusty prisons to learn from unpaid teachers, our police had no vehicles and fuel to protect people and property.

The list of all you could have rectified but ignored to do so is grim and dark.

Master conductor
You were instead the master conductor of an evil symphony, with one wave of your hand you diverted our proceeds of resources offshore so you could get more loans that our we and our children and their children would pay off at huge cost for years to come.

With another wave of your hand you allowed a foreign owned company to sell us medecines from a source cited by the World Health Organisation for selling counterfeit drugs. With a deft flick of your wrist you invested in the plundering of our sea bed, and with the other hand you stifled action on addressing the plunder of our forests … and on and on it went.

Your arrogance and ignorance led to this terrible miscalculation that will bring you down. You thought that the elected Papua New Guinean leaders would keep supporting you as you destroyed our country and our people and their children’s future.

But as Papua New Guineans, many of these elected leaders would not stand for it. That is why they have stopped supporting you and started to listen to their peoples cries and are now with their people and not with you.

Signed on behalf of,
People of Papua New Guinea

#TakeBackPNG

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz