BRIEFING: By Keith Jackson

This week turned out to be one of those only too frequent turbulent periods in Papua New Guinea when you never know what’s going to happen and, for long periods, who might be in charge.

And the week ended with the deployment of half of the PNG Defence Force’s ground troops to the region as the government has clearly decided to crush for once and for all a well armed, if disorganised, blend of angry landowner, disaffected tribal and criminal elements.

First angry supporters of losing candidates in last year’s contentious national elections set alight an Air Niugini aircraft and burned down court buildings and the governor’s residence in the Southern Highlands capital of Mendi.

READ MORE: ‘Those of you who condemned the actions of the people of Southern Highlands in Mendi should have been more scared about the judiciary being compromised’

The blazing Air Niugini Link PNG aircraft at Mendi airport. Image: EMTV News

The entire nation watched attentively as for some days Prime Minister Peter O’Neill seemed to be reluctant to visit his troubled home area and use his authority to placate people whose aggression had reached boilover point.

Fortunately, in this incident there were no deaths recorded and just a few injuries.

O’Neill eventually flew to Mendi, touching fingers with some of his people through the mesh of a safety fence before flying out to Beijing where the action was more benign but could ultimately turn out to be just as precarious for a stable South Pacific.

Then more violence erupted in neighbouring Hela province where landowners protesting about the non-payment of gas royalties by the PNG government set fire to equipment and blockading and airstrip and roads leading to the major resource project operated by ExxonMobil.

Pipeline project damaged
ExxonMobil said heavy equipment had been damaged at its Angore gas pipeline construction project and the impact of the equipment damage on the project’s schedule of work was being assessed.

As the noted commentator Martyn Namorong put it: “While PNG’s prime minister is wined and dined in Beijing, landowners destroy ExxonMobil’s PNG LNG assets in Hela Province. Shows how out of touch the ruling class are.”

By now the PNG government had declared a state of emergency and begun to deploy the first of 440 Papua New Guinea Defence Force troops to the distressed region.

This is a huge number of troops for a PNG operation and is reminiscent of the then government’s response to the Bougainville crisis of the 1990s when PNG soldiers were overcome by guerrilla and irregular forces of the Bougainville Revolutionary Army and forced into a humiliating and costly retreat.

Their commander, Brigadier-General Gilbert Toropo, was confident his soldiers would restore the rule of law.

“We will only use minimum force to contain the situation,” he said.

Meanwhile Deputy Prime Minister Charles Abel tried to reassure landowners saying the government was working to release royalties from the LNG project but court disputes were holding up the release of funds.

Too many excuses
But landowners have heard too many excuses in the past and this one was unlikely to provide much comfort.

By yesterday, Mendi police commander Chief Inspector Gideon Kauke was able to say the town was operating normally with a 6am-6pm curfew in place.

“Police are working around the clock to collect the names of criminals who were involved in burning down of Link PNG DHC-8 plane and the buildings,” Kauke said.

In Tari, tribal hostilities were also reported to have quietened down. Tari had been the focal point for deadly tribal fighting with about 20 people reported killed since March in and around the town.

But the police commander there, Thomas Levongo, said there was no guarantee fighting would not break out again.

“You know Tari, expect the unexpected. So now at the moment it’s quiet but I don’t know, anything could happen any time.”

Chris Overland comments:
The 440 PNGDF members deployed to Mendi represent a full battalion of troops or about 50 percent of all PNGDF land forces.

This is, on the face of it, an extraordinary response by the government. Presumably, there is little confidence that the RPNGC (police) can handle the situation, possibly because it is out gunned in this case.

Moving such a large number of troops into the area is fraught with risk. While their rules of engagement aim to minimise the risk of conflict, it will only take one idiot on either side to open fire to ignite a conflagration.

Let us hope that the leadership on each side is wise enough and strong enough to prevent this.

Keith Jackson is the editor and publisher of the independent Noosa-based PNG Attitude website.

Video footage of Southern Highlands landowners protesting over the suspension of the provincial government by Prime Minister Peter O’Neill’s government. Video: Tonny Maben/Cafe Pacific

PNG landowners protesting over non-payment of their LNG royalties. Image: Loop PNG

By Freddy Mou in Port Moresby

More than 1000 villagers from Portion 152 where the Papua New Guinea LNG plant sits have gathered on site to protest over their overdue royalty payments.

Spokesperson and chairman of the Porebada Besena Association, Judah Matt Baru, said  they had not received any payment since the first shipment of LNG in 2014.

He said the government had promised repeatedly to pay its royalties but never kept its promises.

“We cannot sit and spectate on our own land. The government must come good with their promises or else we will shut the plant site for an indefinite period,” Baru said.

Baru said their petition was being given to the government but nothing had been done.

Meanwhile, police have been deployed to the site and are manning the entry gate.

Protest condemned
The Provincial Police Commander for Central Province, Superintendent Laimo Asi, today condemned the protest.

Asi said no approval was given by authorities to stage the protest.

The commander, who was at earlier today, said he had warned landowners not to cause any damage to the plant site but to allow the operation to continue as normal.

He had advised them that the protest was illegal and while the landowners had been reluctant to back off, they promised to do it peacefully.

Asi said his men were on the ground to protect facilities and to ensure the protest did not turn rowdy.

Police and soldiers in Papua New Guinea wait to board a flight to Hela Province in the Highlands. Image: Eric Tlozek/ABC/PNGMineWatch

By Catherine Graue of Pacific Beat

As hundreds of police and soldiers begin their work in Papua New Guinea’s Hela Province this week, there have been comparisons made with the civil war in Bougainville in the 1990s.

The defence forces are in Hela as part of a government security call-out with concerns warring clans are using high-powered guns, while landowners are also disgruntled as they have not received royalty payments from the PNG LNG project.

While there was no once single cause for the Bougainville war, the Panguna mine played a central role; with the mine’s operations and sharing of its revenue a major sticking point between Bougainville and the PNG government.

Jerry Singirok was commander of the PNG Defence Force during the Bougainville crisis, which lasted for a decade and resulted in the deaths of tens of thousands of people.

He said it was not fair to compare Hela with what happened in Bougainville and said the situation in Hela should be easy for security forces to contain.

Pipe Dreams … a warning in 2012 about the future violence in Hela.

PNG Mine Watch reports that in December 2012, the anti-poverty advocacy group Jubilee Australia published a report warning that the Hela development would lead to increased violence in Papua New Guinea, PIPE DREAMS: The PNG LNG Project and the Future Hopes of a Nation.

The report examined in detail the potential costs and benefits of the Exxon-Mobil LNG project and concluded “it is very likely the project will exacerbate poverty, increase corruption and lead to more violence in the country.”

In one part of the report, the authors, Luke Fletcher and Adele Webb, canvased the serious possibility the LNG project would likely fuel clan violence or, even more seriously, conflict between local people in the Hela Province and security forces representing the Government in defending the project.

“With these scenario’s now being played out on the ground and army and police units being deployed to Hela Province it is poignant to revisit the report and two pages in particular,” PNG Mine Watch reports.

 Catherine Graue is a reporter for the ABC’s Pacific Beat.