Central people raise concerns

By LULU MARK
THE people of Central will not celebrate Papua New Guinea’s 46th Independence anniversary next week in protest against their continuous harassment and marginalisation, Governor Robert says.
During a peaceful protest march to Parliament yesterday against the continuous harassment, rape and killing of Central women and men in the National Capital District (NCD), Agarobe said it was time the people of Central stood up for their rights.
Agarobe was joined by 16 local level government presidents, all ward councillors, Rigo MP Lekwa Gure, Abau MP Sir Dr Puka Temu and a large number of Central people.
He said a young Central girl was allegedly raped by a group of men recently and a few days later, another jumped off a moving cab in fear of being abducted and raped in NCD.
“Our very basic rights as enshrined in our Constitution have now been held in question,” he said.
“Our mothers and our daughters can’t walk freely on the streets of Port Moresby freely – our own land.
“We are talking about our land issues and the basic rights of the freedom of movement for our people, especially our mothers and daughters.”
Agarobe said the public transport system in NCD was the worst in the world, yet was not fixed but maintained for political convenience and disregarding the security of girls and women.
He stressed that Port Moresby was the capital of Papua New Guinea and it would always be the town and city of Central because it was built on their land and there were a lot of issues that needed to be addressed.
Agarobe said when NCD was elevated to a provincial status, it took ownership of all assets despite an initial arrangement that NCD and Central would share parks, sporting facilities, markets and revenue (goods and services tax). He said the Government would be petitioned to address all the Central issue which would include: paying of the 10 per cent minimum goods and services tax to Central from NCD and stopping the customary land-grabbing on the periphery of NCD extending into Central.