Morobe coast gets policemen and boats

By PISAI GUMAR

PNG’s first-ever maritime surveillance centre in the country was opened last Saturday  in the Huon Gulf district in Morobe.
To be based at Morobe station, about 45 kms from Lae, the center will monitor piracy and other illegal activities at sea.
Morobe station was once the colonial administrative center in Morobe, then was later moved to Salamaua and onward to Lae where it still stands today. Frequent happenings of sea piracy along the coast, starting from Lae to Popondetta in Northern has brought the onset of this special surveillance base.
The Morobe Post area in Huon Gulf has been without police presence for many years already resulting in a breakdown of law and order in the area. The presence of policemen along the coast should also send a signal to the mountainous part of the district that police are now in closer proximity to their communities.
Morobe station came alive last Saturday with singsing groups wiping the dust of their traditional bilas to put on a show. School children marched while police held a parade to mark the historid day.
The center is a partnership between police and the Huon Gulf district.
Assistant Commissioner of Police for Northern Peter Guinness, Morobe provincial police commander Augustine Wampe, Australian Federal Police (AFP) officer and Arthur Somare were on hand to witness Police Commissioner Gary Baki launch the programme.
The surveillance post will not only be good for law and order for people around Huon Gulf. People from Northern province and from Lae and other parts of Morobe traversing the seas will now find some solace in having police sea patrols along that part of the coast. Cocoa farmers, buai sellers and small scale alluvial miners are aplenty in Morobe and Northern. They travel between the two provinces to do business but many times fall prey to sea robbers.
Many sea farers have lost lives when their boats were intercepted by sea pirates. Many have lost store goods, betelnuts bags, money and other valuables.   Ordinary villagers or public servants and employees travelling home and back to Lae have fallen prey to these thugs. With the lack of any police presence, the thugs were getting away with murder, literally.
Some of these brutalities that happened, not too far from the coastline, went unnoticed by outsiders. Only their families noticed. But they could do nothing. Unsure of where to turn for help, they grieved quietly. Very few of these incidents did come to the attention of the media.
These sea pirates are armed criminals in motorised dinghies. They lie in wait at strategic places, beaches or coves, and hijack unsuspecting travellers in mid sea. Many times this happens under the cover of darkness.
Many people who have witnessed firsthand the trauma of such an encounter are those who managed somehow to jump into the sea and make it to the shore.  Even dinghy owners are forced by these armed criminals to abandon their vessels and swim to shore.
These law and order problems that haunted the breadth and length of Huon Gulf deeply concerned Huon Gulf MP Ross Seymour. Even the coast northwards towards Finschhafen and Madang are affected by these thugs.
Morobe Post shares common borders with Bulolo district and Sohe in Northern and is busy with criminals dealing in drug and gun trading. They hold up, and even murder alluvial miners along river banks, rob trade store owners and produce home brew.
Public servants are very few in this part of Morobe, many not taking up posts for fear of criminal activities. Basic services are also non-existent which adds to the preference of workers to stay away.
The Huon Gulf district development authority spent more than K3 million to build a police station in consultation with the provincial police commander, Augustine Wampe and ACP Northern Command Peter Guinness.
Commissioner Baki visited Wampar, also in Huon Gulf and then travelled to Morobe Post for the opening of the first ever maritime sea surveillance centre at Morobe station.
The surveillance program will extend its maritime surveillance as far the waters of Northern, Milne Bay, West New Britain and Madang.
The initiative took four years in the making .  In Wampar, three police houses, two at Nadzab and one at Zifasing. The district also donated three vehicles to police.
The launching at Morobe post also included the opening of two police houses, the donation of a vehicle, the handing over of four sea vessels including mv Labi and Mangae, Spirit of Huon Gulf and a 75hp dinghy. Two serving officers in the district were  also given a promotion.
Existing police houses have also been re-furbished along with the police station cellblock. Four policemen are currently based at the station.
Police boat, mv Labi was based in Madang but recalled to Morobe where it it received a K100,000 refurbishment at the expense of the Huon Gulf district. Mv Mangae was recalled from East Sepik back to Lae.
The partnership arrangement means Huon Gulf district will provide facilities and equipment while police to provide policing resources which the AFP is very keen to support.
Baki, after receiving the keys of the new facilities and equipment transferred the assets to Guinness who then handed it over to provincial commander Wampe who is in charge of policing in the province of Morobe.
Baki said the initiative by Seymour is timely and complements police bids to build police capacity in the districts and local level government areas.
It also boosts Governments aspiration to build police strength and capacity to 10,000 in 2018.
At Morobe post, two sections of police will take care of land and sea patrols.
Not only will sea security monitor sea piracy alone but cover various activities deemed illegal that creates fear and risk to travelers using sea and coastal communities.    Baki said that the boats apart from performing official police duties, can assist in health cases involving women and children.
Baki has announced that Morobe provincial police command will be relocated to Nadzab from its current headquarters at department of works on Milfordhaven Road in Lae.
A northern command mobile squad will be created and is likely to based at Gusap near Ramu Sugar.