People now afraid of policemen

 I  CONDEMN  the  act  of the police officers who were sent to Wewak to conduct operation during the festive season under the operation “Ston brukim Ston”. 

The last two months of the operation has been a setback to locals as many properties were lost and innocent people became victims for their cause. 

In another occasion, a girl was raped by police officers who abused the chain of command by doing  things not contrary to their code of ethics. 

This  shows that there is no  control  and  command to execute task legally which has resulted in millions  of  kina  being  spent on compensation with more cases each year. 

One of their bad conducts happened during a night  raid  at the Hundra village (Dec 14). 

Several houses including properties were torched while innocent people suffered injuries when policemen tied them up and chopped them.

Most of the injured are taking medication while eight youths were taken as suspects and illegally locked up. 

Among  the  suspects  was a little girl who was later sent  from  a  neighbouring village, some 8-10km from where she was interrogated and taken.   

The next day, the eight male suspects were released  because they were innocent while the girl sought refuge with some of the villagers and returned to her parents.

The policemen who were involved were not solving problems but creating new problems. 

In common understanding, the policemen should have arrested the murderers in daylight if they followed the chain of commands which students often learn in Grade 8 social science which states that in every organisation or group there exists the hierarchy where there is a chain of command and someone is responsible for the operation of  certain individuals or groups.

I urge the local MP to be careful when sending police officers as they do not seem to be doing what he wanted. 

Roger Nava, Via email