Mission & Justice

6/11/08; (2 Items)

Another 41 non-citizens, all from mainland China were apprehended yesterday at Malolo Lodge outside Madang Town and Basamuk area yesterday for breaches of Papua New Guinea labour and immigration laws. This brings the total number of illegal miners confirmed to be in the country working with the Ramu nickel mine to 104, together with those that were apprehended on Monday and Tuesday at the mine site. Madang police criminal investigation division also confirmed that some of the 84 apprehended earlier were released after the company produced certain documents on their employment contracts while 63 were charged for breaching labour and immigration laws. The mine workers are out on police bail after the company paid K189,000 (K3000 each). They are expected to appear at the Madang District Court tomorrow.

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4/11/08

Logging giant Turama Forest Industries Ltd has refused to entertain a review of one of PNG’s largest forest project agreement and timber permit areas, the Turama Extension Forest Development Project, in the Gulf Province although it’s 10 years is up. TFI’s refusal has raised concern among officers of the National Forest Authority and landowners of the project. It is understood PNG Forest Authority had asked TFI to provide a show cause letter. According to a letter dated October 29 to the PNG Forest Authority’s managing director Kanawi Pouru titled “Proposed Review of Forest Agreement”, the general manager of TFI, Mr KS Lu refused a review of the agreement.

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Justa Lokobau; 4/11/08

The chairman of Bougainville Restoration and Development Authority is challenging the Bougainville Reconciliation and Steering Committee (BRASC) to give more priority to weapons disposal before peace is fully restored. Sam Tulo said in order for peace and reconciliation to be carried out, all weapons should be disposed. “It is unwise to carry out the reconciliation process if people are still holding on to their weapons,” he added. Mr Tulo said there would be a lot of problems if reconciliation was done before weapons were surrendered.

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4/11/08

It is that time of the year again when The National does something special for the women of Papua New Guinea, especially for continuing female university students. The Empowering Women campaign is on again. Marketing manager Maco Hontiveros said through this campaign, business houses were invited to join hands with the newspaper by committing to sponsor one or more continuing female university students. The sponsorship basically involves payment of the student’s school fees for the next academic year (2009)

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4/11/08

More than 50 church representatives have completed a week-long HIV/AIDS workshop held at Ukata in Kabwum district, Morobe Province. The workshop was held from October 6 to 10 and funded by the ELC-PNG church partnership program. The training attracted 58 participants coming from as far away as Madang, Kabwum and Tewai/Siassi and qualified them to conduct HIV/AIDS awarness in Ukata district. The participants represented the 10 circuits of the church district in Ukata, Tewai/Siassi and Raicoast. Pastors, evangelists, church, youths and women leaders were among the group including six prisoners and a Correctional Service officer.

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Clifford Faiparik; 4/11/08

Police Commissioner Gari Baki’s encounter in assisting a sexually- abused child has prompted him to plan to set up a desk in every police station throughout the country to handle sexual abuse cases.One of his plans was to deploy senior police women officers in police stations to prosecute domestic and sexual violence cases. The other is to push for the Government to introduce rehabilitation facilities for domestic and sexual violence victims as currently such facilities are only provided by non-governmental organisations. Mr Baki said this yesterday when launching a one-week workshop on enhancing frontline policing in response to victims of crime at the Salvation Army headquarters in Boroko, Port Moresby.

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Eliabeth Vuvu; 4/11/08

Australian parliamentary secretary for international development assistance, Bob McMullen, yesterday announced a K250 million Australian government initiative to support communities and civil society in PNG. Mr McMullen announced the initiative during a visit to an innovative water catchment programme at Rainaou village in Kokopo, East New Britain province. Mr McMullen officially opened the Rainaou water supply catchment project together with Community Services Minister Dame Carol Kidu. He said the Strogim Pipol Kirapim Nesen (SPKN) was a new programme that would empower PNG’s communities to play a bigger role in their own development.

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Jacob Simet; 3/11/08

In the middle of Simpson Harbor in Rabaul, there are two rocks which jut out from the depth of this once volcanic crater. Locally these rocks are known as Davapia and in English they are referred to as the Beehives. The Beehives is a significant landmark of Rabaul and East New Britain, together with the twin volcanoes of Tavurvur and Vulcan. Local legend has it that the two rocks were the remains of two brothers who had indulged in the excessive eating of fish. The brothers had gone out fishing all night and caught a lot of fish. Instead of returning to shore in the morning, they selfishly decided to cook and eat the fish on their canoe as they did not want to share it with anyone. So after collecting firewood and bananas from their home they paddled back into the middle of Simpson Harbor to cook and eat their catch.

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3/11/08

About 150 people living with HIV are expected to attend the first national people living with HIV conference in Port Moresby this week. The three-day event was officially opened at Holiday Inn yesterday by the chairman of the Special Parliamentary Committee on HIV/AIDS Jamie Maxtone-Graham. Co-ordinator of Igat Hope Inc Annie MacPherson said 47 of the participants of the conference were coming from the 20 provinces, including the Autonomous Region of Bougainville. Sixty per cent of these people have also not yet disclosed their HIV status to the public. Overseas participants include representatives from the National Association of People With AIDS (NAPWA) in Australia, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islands, Solomon Islands and the Pacific Islands Association Federation in Cook Islands.

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1/11/08

An Australian mining company has failed in its legal challenge to a decision that blocked its exploration plans along the historic Kokoda Track. Perth-based Frontier Resources took Papua New Guinea’s Mining Department to court after Mining Minister Puka Temu refused to renew its exploration licence. Planned work at the Mt Kodu site would have threatened part of the Kokoda Track, where 600 Australian soldiers died fighting the Japanese during World War II. Acting Chief Justice Salamo Injia today rejected Frontier’s case as “misconceived and not arguable”.

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