# data[].attributes.body
A Medecins Sans Frontieres publication on the impact of violence

# data[].attributes.headline
Violence against women, Papua New Guinea's silent war

# data[].attributes.subject
Violence against women, Papua New Guinea's silent war

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
This story of domestic abuse - which MSF communications officer Veronique Terrasse related to AlertNet after a recent trip to Papua New Guinea - is all too common in the South Pacific nation.

The beauty of its rugged highlands, jungles and islands belies widespread violence against women in the form of gang rapes, knife attacks, beatings and torture - often committed in the home by family members, friends and neighbours.

"Because it's so widespread, women think this violence is normal," another MSF worker, a counsellor who didn't want to be identified, had told the MSF officer. "They have developed a mentality where they say, 'It's OK to beat me up with a stick but don't chop me up' and this mentality is really stuck in their head.

"Making them understand that beating with a stick is not OK, they don't deserve it - even that is quite hard. Deep down, it boils down to where society places women here," she said, describing this issue of violence as "a silent war taking place."

Surveys by carried out by aid agencies CARE International and Save the Children in 2010 showed that 22 percent of young women aged 15 to 30 in Bougainville, a remote and autonomous province, had experienced forced sex in the preceding year. In the Eastern Highlands province, it was 15 percent of 15 to 25-year-olds.

"Our culture here is changing towards favouring men and because of that we are seeing a lot of abuses," Ume Wainetti, national programme director of the country's Family Sexual Violence Action Committee ( FSVAC) told AlertNet.

"We also make excuses for why men should behave the way they behave, trying to say things like, 'he's a man and he can do these things'," she said.

"I think our biggest problem is as women we still have not taken a stance and said 'No, I'm not going to accept this. I'm going to make sure that my son is not going to be like that.' But no, we're teaching our sons to be like that," she added.

Julie Stinshoff, a doctor at another MSF centre in Tari in the Southern Highlands province, told her colleague Terrasse the centre treats an average of 65 new cases of domestic violence and between 10 to 20 cases of sexual violence a month.

"We know this is only the tip of the iceberg," Stinshoff said. "These are people who come forward and seek treatment."

WHY IS IT HAPPENING?

Aid workers say a combination of poverty, lack of education and an entrenched patriarchal system may explain the horrific levels of violence against women in Papua New Guinea.

More than one third of the country's 6 million people live below the poverty line and most Papua New Guineans survive on what they can grow in small villages. Violence among different tribes is rife in the Pacific nation where over 800 languages are spoken.

Peter Raynes, country director in Papua New Guinea for global charity CARE International, said there was severe gender inequality in areas ranging from school enrolment to access to healthcare and income.

"The impacts of it are very severe, not only as an issue itself but the implications on health and education and various other things," he told AlertNet.

Aid workers say polygamy, the practice of paying a dowry to a bride's parents, as well as alcohol and drug abuse and rising inequality in the resource-rich but cash-poor country fuel the violence.

FSVAC's Wainetti told AlertNet the community encourages a woman to accept polygamy and another wife. She said the community will say: "You should be content you're his first wife, or you have bore him a son so you're important, let him marry another woman."

Compounding violence are social stigma towards rape victims and towards women wanting to leave their partners, as well as a lack of law enforcement, support services or awareness of women's rights, especially in remote corners of the country.

Activists say the police often dismiss domestic violence as a 'family's affair'. Sometimes they themselves are the perpetrators, making women fearful of reporting abuse.

MSF's Stinshoff saidshe had treated women with open skull fractures caused by them being beaten with stones, hit by axes and machetes or being punched violently in the face,Terrasse said.

"I have seen women being kicked with boots even when they are pregnant," Terrasse quoted Stinshoff as saying.

SMALL STEPS TOWARDS CHANGE

The latest United Nations Human Development Index for Papua New Guinea showed only half as many women as men have secondary education. And the country's 109-member parliament only has one woman, Dame Carol Kidu, who according to media reports plans to run as a one-woman opposition in elections this June.

There were glimmers of hope when the country's male-dominated parliament, headed by Prime Minister PeterO'Neill, passed the first stage of a historic women's right bill last November that would guarantee up to 22 seats for women in parliament after elections in June this year. However, a recent reading of the bill failed to muster enough votes to become law.

"...the news on the 22 reserve seats for Women in PNG (Papua New Guinea) is unfortunately very disappointing," CARE International's Raynes said. "Because of the current split in government with approximately a quarter of MPs (the Somare camp) boycotting parliament, the O' Neil government in recent readings of the bill has been unable to get the numbers needed to pass it," he said.

"At the moment it looks unlikely that this situation will improve since the parliamentary divisions seem set to continue up until the election."

Compared to other countries worldwide, Papua New Guinea also scored low in the U.N.'s latest Gender Inequality Index, which rates how women fare in reproductive health, empowerment and the labour market. It scored 0.674 on a scale of 0 to 1, with 0 being complete equality between women and men. Only Niger, Democratic Republic of Congo, Mali, Chad, Yemen and Afghanistan scored lower.

MSF stressed the importance of free, quality medical care for Papua New Guinean women, and also the need for the authorities to ensure women had access to justice, for example, by setting up police units focusing on family violence in rural areas. There is currently a Sexual Offences Squad but aid workers say their law enforcement does not go beyond the capital Port Moresby and other major urban centres.

"Without proper healthcare, survivors of family and sexual violence risk serious long-term physical and emotional harm," said an MSF report released in June that highlighted the "urgent, unmet medical and emotional needs" of survivors at risk of various diseases including HIV as well as depression and suicidal thoughts.

In fact, violence against women has been identified as a major factor contributing to the HIV rate in the country, with 1 percent of adults living with the virus in 2009.

Aid agencies say the violence also affects the wider community including aid workers who have to let women return to partners who abused them because of a lack of safe houses or difficulties in pursuing justice.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Violence against women, Papua New Guinea's "silent war"

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
This story of domestic abuse - which MSF communications officer Veronique Terrasse related to AlertNet after a recent trip to Papua New Guinea - is all too common in the South Pacific nation.

# data[].attributes.headline
Woman accused or sorcery, burned to death

# data[].attributes.subject
Woman accused or sorcery, burned to death

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
UN Condemns Papua New Guinea 'Witch' Burning

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The burning of a 20-year-old woman accused of sorcery has drawn condemnation from the UN, and sparked debate over the 1971 sorcery law.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Bougainville, with a populations of only 160,000 has managed to close and keep closed one of the biggest mines in the world. They have held their ground for a decade with antique weapons and home-made guns. These people have taken on the biggest mining company in the world and won.

# data[].attributes.body
Three types of raskols: street raskols, nasty street raskols and the real raskols

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The real raskols blame the street raskols for everything; and the educated but ignorant people follow their lead. Meanwhile the real raskols and the nasty street raskols are a tight unit who get away with the loot; leaving the street raskols to take all of the blame and the punishment.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Updated August 30, 2013 06:48:14

Papua New Guinea politicians, academics and community leaders have gathered in the capital Port Moresby to discuss the future of the country's autonomous province of Bougainville, more than 10 years after the signing of the island's peace agreement.

Signed in 2001, the Bougainville Peace Agreement formally ended the island's bloody civil war in Papua New Guinea - a decade-long conflict that had been sparked by local opposition to the Australian-owned Panguna copper mine.

The agreement's three main pillars were to grant Bougainville a high degree of autonomy, the de-militarisation of Bougainville, including weapons disposal, and a future referendum on independence from PNG.

Initially there was plenty of help from the PNG government and the international community to implement the agreement, but that has since fallen away.

Bougainville's President John Momis told the gathering negotiations with the PNG Government have dropped off and talks about funding have broken down.

"I think it is a mistake to expect us to carry out huge responsibilities with meagre resources, with a bureaucracy that does not have the capacity," he said.

"We are coming out of the ashes of war, dealing with a society that is highly divided."

We are coming out of the ashes of war, dealing with a society that is highly divided.

John Momis, President of the Autonomous Bougainville Government

Australian academic Anthony Regan, who is advising the Bougainville government, told the meeting a number of factors have caused this slow-down in interest in the implementation of the agreement.

Mr Regan, who helped to draft the peace agreement, and Bougainville's constitution, says there has been a high turnover of PNG politicians since the agreement was signed and most of those initially involved have now moved on.

Funding constraints

The other main problem Mr Regan recognised was financial, saying that "We're now in arrears by 188 million kina."

The issue will only get more important as Bougainville takes tentative steps toward reopening the Panguna mine and as the window for the referendum on independence opens in 2015.

According to the agreement, talks about the referendum must be held between 2015 and 2020.

Leaders of the gathering in Port Moresby are hoping to organise another meeting in Bougainville's Buka or Arawa later this year, to generate momentum on the issue.

PNG's deputy prime minister, Leo Dion, was supposed to appear at the meeting, but was replaced by vice minister Joe Sungi, alongside other government representatives.

The meeting continues on Friday and the issue of the Panguna gold and copper mine is expected to feature on the agenda, in combination with the Bougainville government's efforts to develop a mining policy.

Topics: unrest-conflict-and-war, government-and-politics, bougainville, pacific

First posted August 30, 2013 06:20:55

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Fresh Bougainville peace agreement talks in Port Moresby

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Updated August 30, 2013 06:48:14 Papua New Guinea politicians, academics and community leaders have gathered in the capital Port Moresby to discuss the future of the country's autonomous province of Bougainville, more than 10 years after the signing of the island's peace agreement.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The Bougainville Revolution was a nine-year secessionist revolt on the island of Bougainville which ended in 1997 after claiming some 10,000 to 20,000 lives. Bougainville Island, part of Papua New Guinea (PNG), has a history of separatist feelings.

# data[].attributes.headline
The Gangs of New Guinea: a photographic essay

# data[].attributes.subject
The Gangs of New Guinea: a photographic essay

# data[].attributes.body
Photographic essay by Photojournalist Stephen Dupont examining the gangs of PNG

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
The criminals from the exotic island of Papua New Guinea are the subject of a new photo book about the Raskol gangs ruling the streets of the country's capital city, Port Moresby.

Photographer Stephen Dupont traveled to the mysterious land off the northeast tip of Australia to photograph the faces of these gang members who roam the streets of the city .

Dupont, a native of Australia, traveled to the island, which is one of the least explored spaces on earth, in 2004 and captured the essence of the renegades running the city, in a recently to be released book Raskols: The Gangs of Papua New Guinea .'

Dupont's montage came after his trip to 'a land where crime has gotten so out of control, personal security services are the country's largest growth industry,' according to a description for his book.

With an unemployment rate of 60 per cent, the dire poverty and fight for survival has made it a breeding ground for crimes such as rape, murder and carjacking,

Poverty pervades the entire Commonwealth, which declared independence from Australia in 1975, and its capital city of Port Moresby has been ranked as the most dangerous and unlivable cities on earth.

'This fenced-up, razor-wired, lawless metropolis is infamous for its criminal gangs known as raskols (the indigenous Tok Pisin word for criminals) ...Throughout Port Moresby, dense urban settlements and a general lack of law and order have led to intertribal warfare and a seemingly endless stream of kidnappings, gang rape, carjackings, and vicious murders. That's all in addition to soaring HIV rates and massive unemployment.'

In order to chronicle this dangerous population, Dupont 'infiltrated a raskol community and documented the rough and ruthless individuals involved in Papua New Guinea's gang life. Raskols presents formal portraits of the Kips Kaboni (Scar Devils), Papua New Guinea's longest established criminal gang.'

'Dupont set up a makeshift studio inside the Kips Kaboni safe house where he photographed his subjects and their unique handmade weapons and firearms. These mostly young, unemployed adults and teenagers orchestrate raids, carjackings, and robberies as a means of survival.'

'The gangs control the streets. Despite the crime and violence they have unleashed on their city, some view them as modern-day Robin Hoods. With a corrupt government and police force, every day in Port Moresby is survival of the fittest. Many of these raskols initially turned to crime, violence, and anarchy in a bid to protect and provide for themselves and their communities.'

Since he began his career as a photojournalist in 1989, Dupont has covered conflicts in Afghanistan, Burundi, Iraq, and Rwanda.

Dupont has exhibited his across the globe and has authored several books highlighting his work, including, STEAM: India's Last Steam Trains and FIGHT: A global retrospective on traditional wrestling.

Watch an interview with photojournalist Stephen Dupont

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
The Gangs of New Guinea: Chilling photographs show the street criminals in one of the world's most uninhabitable cities

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The criminals from the exotic island of Papua New Guinea are the subject of a new photo book about the Raskol gangs ruling the streets of the country's capital city, Port Moresby. Photographer Stephen Dupont traveled to the mysterious land off the northeast tip of Australia to photograph the faces of these gang members who roam the streets of the city .

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
BBC NEWS | Special Report | 1998 | 05/98 | Arms to Africa row | Spicer calls Sierra Leone affair 'ethical'

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The head of the mercenary firm at the centre of the arms-to-Africa row has described his conduct as "ethical". Tim Spicer's Sandline International took weapons to Sierra Leone to help restore President Ahmed Kabbah's government after a violent coup. This action proved to be in breach of both United Nations sanctions and UK law.

# data[].attributes.body
State Terror documents the character of the violence that took place on Bougainville with the most serious offences committed by the PNG Government forces.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
State Crime :: State Terror and The Bougainville Conflict

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
In PNG the state owns sub-surface minerals. However, it is clans who own the land which mining companies must access to extract the minerals and build essential facilities. In order to press home this customary power, clan groups in the Bougainville mine area organised themselves through the Panguna Landowners Association (PLA).

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Despite incidents of violence, opinion on all sides has increasingly converged towards a peaceful resolution to end the ongoing strife in Afghanistan.

# data[].attributes.headline
Deaths and violence as polls turn ugly in PNG

# data[].attributes.subject
Deaths and violence as polls turn ugly in PNG

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Deaths and violence as polls turn ugly in PNG

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
By Hamish Mcdonald Normal text size Larger text size Very large text size WEWAK: Three to six people are reported to have been hacked to death with bush-style parang knives in an ambush near a polling station as Papua New Guinea lurches into the second week of its troubled national elections.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Papua New Guinea is heading to a general election after a year in which two men claimed to be prime minister and a judge was charged with sedition.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The Australian Defence Force is heading to PNG to help beef up security in a region notorious for election-related violence. Watch World News Australia 6.30pm nightly and 10.30pm Mon-Fri on SBS ONE.

# data[].attributes.headline
                            THE RPNGC HIERARCHY

# data[].attributes.subject
                            THE RPNGC HIERARCHY

# data[].attributes.body
ACP Logistics

# data[].attributes.body
ACP Public Safety

# data[].attributes.body
ACP & Central NCD

# data[].attributes.body
Police Comissioner

# data[].attributes.body
Acting Deputy Commissioner Operations

# data[].attributes.body
Assistant Commissioner Islands

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
The payment also represents a previously secret aspect to Australia's ''PNG solution'' of directing asylum seekers to PNG.

James Sipuan, 65, said his son Raymond, 21, had only been drunk and swore at the officers when he was beaten in front of hundreds of horrified islanders in the main market last month.

He said Raymond had left the island police station later that day and was in the market when the officers saw him there and started brutally bashing him again, fatally injuring him.

"They picked him up like a rugby league tackle and speared him into the ground twice, according to witnesses,'' Mr Sipuan said.

The squad has also been provided with three rented Toyota LandCruisers with the cost running to about $200,000, a bill paid by Australian Immigration Department funds, according to the rental agent.

The cars can be distinguished from other rentals by the 28-man squad's practice of hanging its crowd-controlling whips, made out of rubber fan belts, from their side mirrors to intimidate residents.

On Friday the Immigration Department did not deny the payments were being made and said $558,821 had been allocated last year to cover costs associated with the temporary centre.

A spokesman said the police operations raised by Fairfax were "a matter for the PNG government and its law enforcement authorities".

The presence of the paramilitary unit on the island suggests PNG and Australian officials fear a major clash with landowners, who have already threatened a protest if they do not get a cut out of the asylum seeker detention centre projects.

The squad's name has become a byword for police brutality in Papua New Guinea and many of its operations have been condemned by human rights organisations such as Amnesty and Human Rights Watch, which point to alleged incidents of killings, rapes, bashings and evictions.

Last year Australian anthropologist Dr Andrew Lattas, who had done extensive field research in PNG, said the mobile squads were being used as private armies by logging companies and said they had been beating up villagers, locking them in shipping containers and whipping them with sticks and fan belts to ensure logging projects went ahead, with police expenses paid by the companies.

The mobile squad has been stationed on the island since December.

Mr Sipuan said he believed his son had been killed at the market. "I believe he was killed at that time,'' he said. ''They took him to the police station and left him in the cells.

''They didn't try to take him to the hospital.''

On hearing of the bashing, Mr Sipuan rang the police station and was told his son was asleep.

"I drove down there and I couldn't wake him up. We took him to hospital but they couldn't revive him.

"Such behaviour, the murder of my son is barbaric. The mobile squad is for dealing with tribal fights or rioting people. They should not be on the island. If something goes wrong then they can call them in.''

Mr Sipuan said having Australian funding going to the squad was wrong. "This is a waste of money. They should be doing a good job, not killing my son.''

The day after the alleged killing, PNG Prime Minister Peter O'Neill promised an investigation and said the particular unit involved would be removed from the island.

Three members of the squad have been arrested and charged. They are not being kept in the cell where Raymond died.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The payment also represents a previously secret aspect to Australia's ''PNG solution'' of directing asylum seekers to PNG. James Sipuan, 65, said his son Raymond, 21, had only been drunk and swore at the officers when he was beaten in front of hundreds of horrified islanders in the main market last month.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Car skeletons dot a Mad Max landscape, with mangy dogs and aimless youths wandering the streets of Port Moresby's ramshackle Morauta settlement. Light flickers from the homemade lanterns of betelnut sellers while a television glow shines through barred, shopfront windows selling black-market beer to silent audiences squatting in the dirt outside.

In these wildlands, PNG police drive with cocked M16s pointing out their Land Rover windows. They boast they have a shoot-to-kill policy against local car thieves. "They are just criminals," one says, as we speed after a suspect vehicle.

The impoverished settlement, another product of the urban drift into PNG's capital, is home to notorious raskol leaders and the favoured destination of the carjackers who haunt Port Moresby. It is a world away from the rapturous reception that greeted 29 Australian police starting daytime patrols in the capital on Thursday.

The Australians - who are in PNG as part of a joint $1.1 billion program aimed at preventing the country's slide into lawlessness - were swamped by crowds shouting "me hamamas" ("I'm happy" in local tok pisin). "We are really happy, because there was corruption all round in the PNG police force," says Simon Londari amid the throng at the market in the suburb of Gordons - a hang-out for petty thieves.

The Enhanced Co-operation Program will place 210 Australian police on some of the most dangerous beats in the world, and put more than 60 public servants in key positions to crack down on corruption, improve the legal system and invigorate a stagnant administration.

Prime Minister John Howard and Foreign Minister Alexander Downer describe the move, alongside the Solomon Islands intervention, as Australia's most important regional initiative. PNG Foreign Minister Sir Rabbie Namaliu describes it as "the most significant development in our bilateral relationship since PNG achieved independence".

Victorian Senior Constable Glenn Keyte admits he is "out of my comfort zone" as he drives a new Australian Hilux out of the Gordons police station for the first mobile patrol. His local companion, Constable David Tololo, is enthusiastic about the Australian arrivals and their new equipment. "It's boosted our morale," he says. "I think it will make a big change."

Later in the day, the Australians get their first taste of law enforcement, PNG-style. They arrive soon after the men of the local mobile squad have chased a stolen car, and find two bullet-riddled bodies on the roadside. They are warned not to touch them as they could face a compensation claim from relatives.

Graphic:The Age

Australian commander Barry Turner talks of a partnership with local police despite an official review last month that found PNG's force was corrupt, criminal, violent, leaderless and in a state of almost total collapse.

Police Minister Bire Kimisopa believes Australia needs to double the program's four-year time frame. "This place is literally bought off by vested interests," he says. Corruption goes right to the top, brutality is rampant and, without the program, the police and his nation will be a lost cause, he says.

Although re-establishing law and order is pivotal to PNG's future, many believe there are broader problems in this faltering, fractured nation of more than 800 tribes that the program can hardly begin to address.

Professor Hugh White, head of the Australian National University's Strategic and Defence Studies Centre, has just completed a Government-funded review of the PNG-Australia relationship. He says it ranks, alongside Indonesia and China-US relations, as Australia's key foreign policy challenge. "There is a long-term Australian interest in the security and viability of PNG," he says, and its downwards trajectory is cause of serious concern.

Sir Moi Avei, PNG's Minister for Planning, agrees that "Australia and PNG through history and geography are condemned to share the same destiny".

Although leaders such as Avei attack the media for sensationalising crime, in the first seven months of this year, Port Moresby - with a population of about 300,000 - was the scene of 85 murders. Fiji, with a population nearly three times larger, had seven killings. Earlier this week, a Highlands policeman on patrol killed a woman and was hacked to death by axe-wielding wontoks ("one talk" tribal members). Last week, one of the Enhanced Co-operation Program's public servants took a morning run along the capital's Ela beach, only to be confronted by two boys with pistols who relieved him of his car and wallet.

A survey by The Economist rates Port Moresby the worst of 130 world capitals in terms of hardship due to poverty, crime, poor health care and a rampant gang culture. The World Bank grants PNG its lowest ratings for "control of corruption", "rule of law" and "government effectiveness".

White sees PNG struggling with more than law and order, still searching for nationhood and national identity, shackled by pervasive corruption, poor governance and ineffective administrative structures.

The Australian officials examining PNG's books are uncovering a horror story, according to one well-placed source, with a near total deterioration of administrative controls over a "pandemic" of fraud. They have decided that "there is so much collusion, that preventative controls won't work, what you need is detection after the event," he says.

At a provincial government level, it gets worse. A PricewaterhouseCoopers review of the Southern Highlands province, obtained by The Age, found almost every cent of its $15 million revenue had been misappropriated, leaving schools and hospitals crumbling. Similar stories are being uncovered by Australian officials across the nation.

PNG Treasurer Bart Philemon complains development is hobbled with 71 per cent of his funds tied up in debt servicing and salaries. He despairs at the lack of service delivery to his people. "Thirty babies die each day due to poor health care. It's shocking. If you put 30 bodies a day on the steps of Parliament, imagine the reaction."

And, to top it off, an AIDS crisis is looming. The disease is already the leading cause of death in Port Moresby hospital and 500,000 could be infected by 2010, according to Australian officials.

Old-style, no-nonsense coppers like Assistant Commissioner Tony Wagambie, Port Moresby commander, understand the social drivers of the crime explosion around him. "The problem here is unemployment," he told The Age. "People have to survive somehow, legally or illegally. People move to the city and can't survive."

The Enhanced Co-operation Program will provide the resources to put his, and Australian, police back on the beat and provide a real deterrent, Wagambie says. Deputy Commissioner Gari Baki warns the program will not be a quick fix, but should reverse the downfall of his force.

Turner is enthusiastically promoting a return to community policing and a retreat from the violent tactics that have pervaded the PNG force. In his own goodwill gesture, he shipped across his Christmas decorations and this week was atop Moresby's four-storey police headquarters, garnishing it with fairy lights and a Santa statue, to the delight of local children.

Managing expectations in PNG and at home worries him, especially after the near-instantaneous success of the Solomon Islands intervention. Turner has opted for a gradual roll-out to stations around Moresby, then Lae in the Highlands and finally Mount Hagen, hoping for a trickle out effect of stability and respect for law. Much depends on setting new standards for PNG colleagues.

There are no plans to tackle the pervasive presence of high-powered weapons in the Highlands, but some high-profile anti-corruption cases are in the pipeline to send a message to the community. Australia has planned for possible casualties, but Turner says his officers "accept it's risky, we accept this environment can be dangerous".

Kimisopa believes the Australians will motivate a force that "is no longer functioning" and in a "cul-de-sac of corruption".

"The greatest fear people have in this country is not about criminals, it's the police force.

"I firmly believe that the ECP people will see that this isn't a jungle of crime anymore," he says.

On Thursday, watching the new Australian police cars pull out to revive his cherished sector patrols and high visibility policing, even the hard-bitten Wagambie was gushing.

"All together, this is a green light to go forward," he says. "These new cars, it's bloody magic."

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Car skeletons dot a Mad Max landscape, with mangy dogs and aimless youths wandering the streets of Port Moresby's ramshackle Morauta settlement. Light flickers from the homemade lanterns of betelnut sellers while a television glow shines through barred, shopfront windows selling black-market beer to silent audiences squatting in the dirt outside.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Papua New Guinea's Defence Minister Dr Fabian Pok has announced that PNG plans to build up its military capacity from around 2000 personnel to 10,000.

While it is hardly unusual for fast-growing resource-rich countries to increase military spending as their national ambitions expand, Papua New Guinea has yet to address very significant development challenges in basic health and education. Increased spending on the military in such circumstances must therefore be questioned.

Why does Papua New Guinea need a larger military capacity? One factor in the Government's consideration could be the land border with Indonesia. The border skirmishes between the traditional people of PNG's Sandaun Province and Indonesian military spotlight the PNG Government's inattention to border issues. These issues pose a test for the Treaty of Mutual Respect, Friendship and Cooperation PNG has with Indonesia.

In a Radio Australia interview, former PNGDF Commander General Jerry Singirok noted key issues of concern with the announcement. He said there was no PNGDF White Paper to guide this proposed expansion, the PNG Government has never prioritised defence spending and there would be a substantial cost involved in rebuilding a downsized force.

The ongoing retrenchment exercise of close to 2000 personnel, which began in 1999, is a difficult issue that the Defence Department is still not adequately addressing. Further to that, there are challenges for the PNGDF to raise its performance level and the security of its weaponry. The recent mutiny case, insubordination and misconduct of soldiers all undermine the ministerial statement.

Policy announcements have tended to be more frequent than policy implementation in Papua New Guinea. But if this announcement reflects a serious intention by the PNG Government, it warrants more discussion.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Papua New Guinea's Defence Minister Dr Fabian Pok has announced that PNG plans to build up its military capacity from around 2000 personnel to 10,000. While it is hardly unusual for fast-growing resource-rich countries to increase military spending as their national ambitions expand, Papua New Guinea has yet to address very significant development challenges in basic health and education.

# data[].attributes.headline
PNG to increase military strength five-fold

# data[].attributes.subject
PNG to increase military strength five-fold

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Updated February 13, 2013 22:41:37

Papua New Guinea's government says it plans to build the country's military up to five times its current strength.

The Defence Minister, Dr Fabian Pok, has told the PNG parliament that defence force personnel will be increased from the current 1,900 to 10,000.

Dr Pok says the government has approved the purchase of new weapons, aircraft and patrol vessels.

Former Papua New Guinea Defence Force commander, General Jerry Singirok, has told Radio Australia's Pacific Beat program that while he supports the defence build up, he doubts the government can support such a large increase in personnel.

General Singirok says more than 2,000 retrenched soldiers are currently awaiting repatriation by the government.

He says the government has not provided any budget guarantees to prioritise the defence force.

"The government has not produced a white paper or national security policy that will justify the increase of the defence force," he said.

"I'm not so confident that the increase in the defence force will solve a lot of these in-house issues."

General Singirok says that PNG has unique security concerns as it's the only nation in the region that shares a border with another country.

He believes an increase in defence capabilities would ensure PNG's security.

Topics: defence-and-national-security, papua-new-guinea, pacific

First posted February 13, 2013 19:32:38

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Papua New Guinea to boost military strength

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Updated February 13, 2013 22:41:37 Papua New Guinea's government says it plans to build the country's military up to five times its current strength. The Defence Minister, Dr Fabian Pok, has told the PNG parliament that defence force personnel will be increased from the current 1,900 to 10,000.

# data[].attributes.headline
Papua New Guinea Defence Force Contingent

# data[].attributes.subject
Papua New Guinea Defence Force Contingent

# data[].attributes.body
The PNGDF, shown here posing for a photo at the Australian Army Skill & Arms meet in 2010, has made impressive advances towards becoming a capable national defence force.

# data[].attributes.body
Election related conflicts

# data[].attributes.body
Raskolism/tribal violence/violence against women

# data[].attributes.body
Bougainville/mine related issues

# data[].attributes.body
Aid and corruption

# data[].attributes.body
This is an Australian page but gives a good explanation of what impact corruption has on internal security.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Why exposing and preventing corruption is important - Independent Commission Against Corruption Website

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Jump to: Results table | Research analysis | Regional analysis | Resources

This year's Corruption Perceptions Index highlights that the majority of countries are making little or no progress in ending corruption, while further analysis shows journalists and activists in corrupt countries risking their lives every day in an effort to speak out.

The index, which ranks 180 countries and territories by their perceived levels of public sector corruption according to experts and businesspeople, uses a scale of 0 to 100, where 0 is highly corrupt and 100 is very clean. This year, the index found that more than two-thirds of countries score below 50, with an average score of 43. Unfortunately, compared to recent years, this poor performance is nothing new.

This year, New Zealand and Denmark rank highest with scores of 89 and 88 respectively. Syria, South Sudan and Somalia rank lowest with scores of 14, 12 and 9 respectively. The best performing region is Western Europe with an average score of 66. The worst performing regions are Sub-Saharan Africa (average score 32) and Eastern Europe and Central Asia (average score 34).
Download CPI 2017 XLSX dataset
Since 2012, several countries significantly improved their index score, including Côte d'Ivoire, Senegal and the United Kingdom, while several countries declined, including Syria, Yemen and Australia.

Further analysis of the results indicates that countries with the least protection for press and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) also tend to have the worst rates of corruption.

Every week at least one journalist is killed in a country that is highly corrupt.

The analysis, which incorporates data from the Committee to Protect Journalists, shows that of all journalists who were killed in the last six years, more than 9 out of 10 were killed in countries that score 45 or less on the index.

Read More

No activist or reporter should have to fear for their lives when speaking out against corruption. Given current crackdowns on both civil society and the media worldwide, we need to do more to protect those who speak up.

Patricia Moreira Managing Director Transparency International

CPI results correlate not only with the attacks on press freedom and the reduction of space for civil society organisations. In fact, what is at stake is the very essence of democracy and freedom.

Delia Ferreira Rubio Chair Transparency International

Our first-hand experience working in more than 100 countries around the world shows that activists and media are vital to combatting corruption. As such, Transparency International calls on the global community to take the following actions to curb corruption:

Governments and businesses must do more to encourage free speech, independent media, political dissent and an open and engaged civil society.

Governments should minimise regulations on media, including traditional and new media, and ensure that journalists can work without fear of repression or violence. In addition, international donors should consider press freedom relevant to development aid or access to international organisations.

Civil society and governments should promote laws that focus on access to information. This access helps enhance transparency and accountability while reducing opportunities for corruption. It is important, however, for governments to not only invest in an appropriate legal framework for such laws, but also commit to their implementation.

Activists and governments should take advantage of the momentum generated by the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to advocate and push for reforms at the national and global level. Specifically, governments must ensure access to information and the protection of fundamental freedoms and align these to international agreements and best practices.

Governments and businesses should proactively disclose relevant public interest information in open data formats. Proactive disclosure of relevant data, including government budgets, company ownership, public procurement and political party finances allows journalists, civil society and affected communities to identify patterns of corrupt conduct more efficiently.

For any press enquiries please contact press@transparency.org

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Jump to: Results table | Research analysis | Regional analysis | Resources This year's Corruption Perceptions Index highlights that the majority of countries are making little or no progress in ending corruption, while further analysis shows journalists and activists in corrupt countries risking their lives every day in an effort to speak out.

# data[].attributes.body
undermining public confidence in government.

# data[].attributes.body
Formed in 1997 by a group of concerned citizens, headed by the Late Sir Anthony Siaguru, with the aim of combating corruption and promoting openness, honesty and accountability in public and private dealings.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Transparency International Papua New Guinea - Fighting Corruption

# data[].attributes.body
Australia spends millions annually giving aid to PNG. Does it all make it where it is meant to go?

# data[].attributes.body
Capacity Development of Police & Defence

# data[].attributes.headline
The changing face of tribal warfare in the Highlands of Papua New Guinea. 

# data[].attributes.subject
The changing face of tribal warfare in the Highlands of Papua New Guinea. 

# data[].attributes.body
The implementation of gun culture has impacted severely on the nature of tribal warfare

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Blood Feuds and Gun Runners: Papua New Guinea's Tribal Battles

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Tribal Fights (2007): How the tribal conflict in Papua New Guinea has spawned a burgeoning arms trade in which politicians may be complicit For downloads and more information visit http://journeyman.tv/57480/short-films/tribal-fights.html Steve Marshall reports on the changing face of tribal warfare in the Highlands of Papua New Guinea.

# data[].attributes.body
From arrows to guns

# data[].attributes.body
Tok pisin (Pidgin English) for rascal.

Raskolism is considered to be the primary means of street and gang warfare in PNG