| Business |
Voting under the gun
THIS is one occasion when the leaders
and people of Papua New Guinea should listen to the PNG Defence
Force.
On Friday, we carried a front page story from Defence Force
Captain Thomas Kilala.
Capt Kilala, a career soldier and a veteran journalist, publicly
confirmed what many of us have known for a long time – the spread
of lethal weapons in the Southern Highlands province remains a
major threat to the coming elections.
This is despite the best efforts of those controlling the SHP
State of Emergency, and it is the considered opinion of the
Integrated Co-ordinating and Planning Team in the province.
The National Guns Summit in 2005 was told that more than 20,000
weapons were believed to be held in the province.
These were not pop guns with corks on strings.
They were reputed to include military issue M16 and AR15 weapons.
They were believed to be in the hands of military war lords in the
province.
And they were said to have been purchased by businessmen and
politicians or stolen from the RPNG Constabulary or the Defence
Force itself.
Following the Guns Summit, recommendations were sent to the
National Government recommending new and tougher gun laws.
Again and again the public has demanded to know what has become of
those recommendations.
There was no doubt about the outcome of the exhaustive gathering
of public opinion by the committee throughout the nation.
Overwhelmingly the people of PNG clamoured to get guns out of
their lives.
So why has virtually nothing been done in cabinet or in Parliament
to implement the National Guns Committee report?
Even the province’s own guns committee, set up to deal with the
issue, has failed to become a reality on the ground.
The ICPT team is determined to recover the more than 70% of the
guns believed remaining in illegal hands by the time of the
elections.
That’s in less than four months.
Let’s be honest.
If so little progress has been made since 2002, when the full
impact of this situation became obvious, how can this committed
and well-intentioned team hope to achieve a miracle in under four
months?
We believe it is quite simply too late to do very much about this
matter now.
There is little reason to doubt that the people of the Southern
Highlands will face very much the same savage scenario inflicted
upon them in 2002.
Then the Electoral Commission was forced to declare polls in six
electorates null and void, and go through the completely
unjustifiable expense of conducting supplementary elections almost
one year later.
The amnesty that accompanied the earlier attempt to get mass
hand-ins of weapons has expired, with ICPT considering asking for
a new amnesty in a desperate bid to get these weapons out of
circulation.
All eyes have been on the Southern Highlands.
That is the province seen as the centre of potential election
disruption.
But we are mindful of many isolated reports about weapons that
have surfaced since Election 2002.
Hold-ups using sophisticated weaponry have become commonplace in a
number of other provinces, stretching north from the SHP to reach
even the Islands region.
It may be that the use of these weapons has been isolated.
Candidates in most other provinces probably have no intention of
making use of weapons as enforcers in what is supposed to be a
democratic election. The trouble is that it is impossible to be
certain until the election is underway – and that is too late.
Candidates for SHP seats have used quantities of weapons and
ammunition to impose their will upon constituents.
It is reasonable to believe that some Members of Parliament have
been involved. It is even more probable that some SHP businessmen
and clan leaders have made certain that the “right” people have
the latest arms within reach.
On Friday, we pictured an allegedly 14-year-old child handing in a
weapon at Nipa.
Have we really sunk to that level?
Are SHP children already at home with the gun culture before they
become teenagers?
The National Government must act this week to get rid of weapons.
Any further delay may prove fatal.
Literally.
 
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