Namah calls for govt to pay out ex-servicemen

OPPOSITION Leader Belden Namah wants the Government to make urgent provisions to pay out former Papua New Guinea Defence Force servicemen nationwide.
Namah, who has a military background, said the Government had a constitutional and moral responsibility to humanely “send off or retire our ex-servicemen who have selflessly committed their lives to the service of the nation”.
“We can’t just evict them and throw them on the streets and say ‘we don’t owe you anything,” he said.
“That is just not right.
“Have we suddenly become heartless humans?
“We have a responsibility to them and we need to properly send them off with whatever entitlements that are due to them as per the PNGDF manual of personal administration.
“Prime Minister James Marape seems to be saying one thing about taking PNG back and ensuring no child gets left behind while his defence hierarchy is contradicting him by throwing mothers and children onto the streets.
“Several payments were made to the PNGDF over the years to settle entitlements but, apparently, the allocation had not been disbursed to the rightful recipients for some reason or other.
“When I was deputy prime minister, we allocated K100 million to Murray Barracks headquarters to commence the exercise but it seems that was never done.”
Namah said he was aware of various groups of ex-servicemen who have pressed their claims against the State through the courts for many years, some running over 20 years.
“Last weekend, I have received a delegation of ex-servicemen who sought my assistance as a last resort as they and their families were being forcefully evicted from Murray Barracks,” he said.
“This follows a Supreme Court ruling last week which threw out their appeal against a previous decision.
“Some of the members in this group comprise servicemen who were recruited under the Australia Defence Force Northern Command in the 1960s.”