Mt Hagen court sessions suspended

 By ELIAS LARI 
THE National Court in Mt Hagen has been suspended indefinitely.
Senior resident judge Justice Goodwin Poole suspended the sessions yesterday after seeing extensive damage to the building that housed the district and the national courts during Wednesday’s riot by students from the Mt Hagen Park Secondary School and the public.
National court judges Justice Kenneth Frank and Robert Lindsay were presiding over a case on Wednesday when stones and objects were hurled through glass windows.
Frank and Lindsay took cover amid flying missiles. Windows were smashed and other court properties were destroyed.
Poole said those held at the Mt Hagen police cell and Baisu jail would remain in custody as long as the court remained suspended.
He said that Government property was public property built with taxpayer money and aid funding.
“It is a great shame when a Government institution destroys a public property,” he said. “Public properties are built by taxpayers and aid from donor agencies.”
Poole said it showed that people were destroying where they would live and that meant they were still living in their primitive culture and mentality.
Poole called on the students at the Mt Hagen Park Secondary school to go to the court and apologise for their actions.
He asked them to clean up the mess they created.
“You destroyed it and you have to say sorry for your actions.
“We have the new court complex coming up and such actions are not good,” Poole said.