Officials need protection in public

By SYLVESTER WEMURU
VILLAGE court officials hearing civil cases in the villages or settlements need to be protected while they are out in the public.
Morata village court senior Magistrate Peter Kayape told The National that his team were victims of a recent case where there were threatened by a man while they were presiding a civil case in a public area at Morata.
He said they had been had been exposed to the public and had been presiding cases of different people with different mindsets and the decisions that they made would affect the complainant and the defendant. “Some people will accept the decision but some will not, and that is when they will try to attack us,” he said.
“They can do anything to us because we are out in the open.
“It is not only us here at Morata village court.
“Other village court magistrates throughout the country are also facing the same threat.”
Kayape said the village court was the foundation of the court system and they must also need support from the government.
Kaupa Kuma, who is in charge of the village courts in the National Capital District, said they were now working to build a proper village court house for village court magistrates in Port Moresby to hear cases.
He said one of the challenges they faced was with acquiring land to build the court house.
Village court Magistrate Josephine Durua said she did not feel safe when she was with the other male colleagues attending to complaints.
She said the people they dealt with were from different parts of the country and had different attitudes and their safety was important. She said they would need police presence while hearing cases and the police stations needed to provide man power