Violence and police successes for Xmas holidays in PNG
News that matters in Papua New Guinea
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Jiwaka police were forced to torch this house to force the ward councillor who sot dead a UPNG undergraduate to surrender.
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Violence and police successes for Xmas holidays in PNG
PORT MORESBY: The Christmas holiday in Papua New Guinea was tainted with violence, robbery, gang rape, murder and natural disaster.
But it was also compensated by police successes in capturing the suspected criminals.
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| A woman salvaging whatever she can from the burning house. |
Here are the details of the cases published by The National:
Rocky Xmas
- By CLIFFORD FAIPARIKVIOLENCE, robbery, gang rape, murder and natural disaster dominated Christmas in Papua New Guinea this year – but police also scored a major success in the arrest of a ward councilor wanted for shooting dead a University of Papua New Guinea (UPNG) undergraduate in Jiwaka on Dec 14.
The rocky incidents and drama were: - On Christmas Eve at about 3am, Jiwaka police were forced to burn down a house to force a ward councilor wanted for murder to surrender;
- On Friday, three men were arrested for gang-raping a woman, shooting her brother in the leg and slashing him to death with a bush knife in Yangoru’s Howi Village;
- On Christmas Day, a man was beaten up by the public and handed over to the police for trying to rob a Public Motor Vehicle (PMV)-load of passengers in East Sepik;
- on Christmas Eve, 11 men used a rural health centre ambulance to cart away with goods after raiding and ransacking an Asian-owned shop in Maprik (police have detained the ambulance driver); and,
- On Christmas afternoon, a hailstorm pelted Kunjika Village for 45 minutes – destroying crops and livestock belonging to some 1,500 Truka Memeka tribesmen in Western Highlands’ central Hagen (see page 2 and 3 for full report and pictures).
Jiwaka commander Chief Insp Gideon Kauke told The National police surrounded a house in Kindeng Village at about 3am Christmas Eve and ordered the murder suspect, a ward councillor, to surrender.
“We had been hunting for him and the community was harbouring the suspect. We warned them to surrender him to the police but they refused.
“So, we surrounded the house where he was hiding and warned that the house would be torched if he refused to surrender,” Chief Insp Kauke said.
He said police had no choice but to burn the house and force him out and surrender.
The gun-toting councillor fired at least three times at a fleeing thief who was believed to have burglarised his store on Dec 14.
Instead, one shot hit UPNG undergraduate Stenic Whome Poiya, 25, who was walking home from Kindeng Market with four friends at about 8pm.
Stenic, a final year University of Papua New Guinea tourism and hospitality student, was spending his holiday in the village.
In another incident, East Sepik commander Supt Albert Beli told The National that a woman was returning home after work in Wewak town to celebrate Christmas in Howi Village when she was ambushed by three men armed with a gun and a bush knife.
She had just got off a Public Motor Vehicle bus and was walking home when she was threatened by the armed trio.
“After gang raping her, they warned the woman not to report to anyone.
“After telling her brother about her ordeal, the brother grabbed a bush knife and looked for the rape suspects.
“In the fight, the brother was shot in the leg and slashed to death with a bush knife. But the brother managed to inflict serious injuries on one of the suspects before he was killed in the fight,” Supt Beli said, adding that the injured killer was arrested in Maprik Hospital where he was warded for medical treatement.
The other two suspects have been arrested and detained in the Maprik police station lock-up.
Supt Beli said the villagers were now demanding that the police hand over the murder suspects to them or “they will attack our policemen”.
“We are not taking their threat lightly and we are now looking for the villagers who issued the threat,” he added.
In another incident in East Sepik, Supt Beli said the public beat up a man and handed him to the police for trying to rob a PMV busload of passengers on the Kreer-Boram main road at about noon on Christmas Day.
“He and two others, armed with improvised homemade firearms like wire catapult and staple gun, robbed the bus passengers.
“But the public chased the robbers and caught one of them. They were believed to be under the influence of homebrew,” he added.
The suspect’s two accomplices managed to escape in the bush.
“We have their identities and we expect the community to surrender the duo.
“I am extremely delighted that the public had responded by making the citizen’s arrest.
“We have been carrying out awareness throughout the province that police could not be present everywhere at all times.
“So, in this case, the public has helped fight crime to uphold public safety.
“The community must not harbour the suspects who will eventually turn against them,” Supt Beli stressed.
In another case, 11 men used a Naksmigel Health Centre ambulance to cart away mobile phones, electrical items and an undisclosed amount of money from a store at about 8am.
“We have detained the ambulance driver for questioning.
He claimed the robbers hijacked the ambulance but he failed to report it,” Supt Beli said.
He said the robbers, armed with firearms, stormed the shop when it was opening for business.
“They then fled in the ambulance towards Yambi in the Wosera-Gawi electorate.
“However, along the way, they encountered a police vehicle with policemen on normal police routine patrol without knowing about the ambulance used in the robbery .
“But the driver panicked, and drove the ambulance off the road. The ambulance flipped twice and the policemen made a U-turn to investigate.
The robbers fired two shots at
the policemen who then returned fire.
“But the robbers managed to escape in the bush with the money and loot.
“Policemen from Yangoru and Maprik joined the manhunt but the robbers could not be located,” Supt Beli said, appealing to villagers in Wosera-Gawi to help keep a lookout for suspicious people and report to the police.
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