Four rape suspects arrested

 By JAYNE SAFIHAO

FOUR of the six men wanted by police for questioning over the rape of an American woman on Karkar Island, Madang, have been arrested.

Madang provincial police commander, Chief Supt Sylvester Kalaut, detectives and local police conducted a successful dawn raid at a village on the island last weekend.

The four aged between 20 and 25 are from Gamog, one of villages at the foothills of the crater.

Kalaut thanked the islanders for the assistance offered to police to arrest the four men. 

“I emphasise that the private, public partnership arrangement does not work any better than what was witnessed over the weekend,” he said.

Kalaut said police would conduct another raid if the remaining two suspects did not surrender to them.

On complaints by islanders that police needed to address the crime situation on the island, Kalaut said Karkar “will be monitored from now on, something that was missing in the past”.

Shanon Gallegher, of Mangar Two village, had accused police for not performing their duties. 

He said there were rape and murder cases on the island but no arrests had been made.

He said most of the suspects arrested were not properly investigated and prosecuted.

He said the attack on the American woman had shocked the islanders and the country as a whole. 

“But the number of local women raped was seen as a minor issue and eventually ignored,” Gallegher said.