Crime survey

LAW and justice sector (LJS) of the Justice Department has completed the 2009 crime survey in the Autonomous Region of Bougainville (ARB) after five weeks of interviewing communities in various parts of Buka and Arawa.
Crime survey coordinator Regina Rokam said although it was challenging, the team managed to collect the information they needed.
“There were still a lot of security issues where the research team had to make tough decisions about going into certain areas.
“There were hiccups along the way too,” Ms Rokam said.
She said there were houses in some areas that were occupied by Mekamui soldiers, BRA warlords and ex-combatants which the research assistants were not able to access to conduct interviews, or some of these people refused to give  information.
“But the good thing was that all the research assistants and the field supervisors were old hands who have been doing these since 2004 so that helped a lot.
“They knew how to go about in these situations,” Ms Rokam said.
She also went on air on Radio Bougainville to inform the people about the survey.
“That really helped us make the communities in Buka and Arawa aware of our work.
“Upon hearing our announcement they waited for us to go and interview them.”