Opposition wants fair inquiry

The Opposition yesterday called for the involvement of the United Nation Human Rights Commission (UNHRC) in the Commission of Inquiry (COI) into the shooting of University of PNG students in Port Moresby.
Opposition Leader Don Polye said that they welcomed Prime Minister Peter O’Neill’s plan to set up a COI but wanted the involvement of the UNHRC with a top legal officer from any Commonwealth nation.
“If not we will challenge the COI’s terms of reference in court,” he said.
Polye told a press conference at Parliament, along with Deputy Opposition Leader Sam Basil, National Party leader Kerenga Kua and Goilala MP William Samb, that COI’s terms should be fair.
“We prefer a top lawyer from Australia, New Zealand or United Kingdom with a UNHRC representative to be appointed in the inquiry,”  he said.
“These international representatives must be involved in the inquiry because serious breaches of human rights, including freedom of speech, freedom of expression and freedom of association and assembly have been applied on the ordinary citizens of this country, especially the students.”
Polye said that senior officers from the PNG Defence Force and Correctional Services must be included in the COI to help assess the sequence of events to ascertain whether excessive force was necessary.
“The Australian Federal Police officers in PNG must be involved in collecting evidence at the scene of the shooting, like collecting and classifying empty shells from the automatic rifles used, and empty gas canister, etc. Evidences might be tempered with, especially the ballistic and forensic results,” he said.
Meanwhile, Polye said that they would file an appeal at the Supreme Court to recall Parliament.
“We are preparing court proceedings to sue the five members of the Parliament Privilege Committee for suspiciously breaching the Parliament Standing Orders by denying our notice of vote of no confidence.”