Remove thugs from police force

 POLICE brutality seems to be a never-ending story in Papua New Guinea. 

These undisciplined and violent actions of members of the Royal PNG Constabulary towards innocent people have reached new heights this year.

The gunning down of young mother Moanna Barnanga Pisimi in Lae on New Year’s Day followed by the slaying of cousins Nicholas Goru Rarua and Toka Gaudi at Hanuabada village in Port Moresby three weeks later have caused public outrage never seen and experienced before in this country.

In particular, the Hanuabada killings resulted in roadblocks set up by angry Motuan villages that cut off fuel supplies for a week and almost crippled the capital city.

Port Moresby, a city of more than 400,000 people, had never seen anything like it. 

Quick intervention by the O’Neill Government brought the crisis to an end with assurances of an independent investigation into the killings.

And while the Government is awaiting the outcome of a coronial inquiry into the deaths, Prime Minister Peter O’Neill was presented with a petition on Monday, which was signed by almost 4000 Hanuabada villagers.

“I accept this petition and give you my assurance that we will give it the utmost attention. There is an investigation by an independent team and the entire nation is watching how this is handled,” O’Neill told representatives of the villagers at Parliament House. Following the presentation of the petition, Rarua and Toka were laid to rest at Badihagwa cemetery near the big village.

During Rarua’s funeral service, Motu-Koita lea­der and former diplomat Ba­bani Maraga expressed his people’s desire to see an end to brutality by the police and defence forces. “Many Motu-Koitabu people have lost their lives and properties. I hope the recent tragic incident is the last one.”

Maraga may have referred to a raid by soldiers from the Taurama army barracks on his Kilakila village last year in which many houses and properties were destroyed.

The National yesterday carried the story and pictures of the Hanuabada funeral service and burial on the front page and page 3 and our readers may have assumed we will not be publishing any more stories on police brutality, at least for a while.

Not so, as the following pages carried stories of two new cases and pictures of the victims.

One of the victims was The National’s circulation manager Barry Bill, who was driving home last Thursday evening when police stopped him near Unagi Oval in Gordon, NCD.

Bill was pulled out of his company vehicle, punched and locked up at the Gordon Police Station cell for no justifiable reason.

He was allowed to check his vehicle but found that his mobile phone and K400 were missing. When he complained about the theft, a policeman punched him on the face and dragged him back into the cell with his nose bleeding.

After spending 15 hours in the cell without being charged, Bill was released on Friday minus his mobile phone, K400 and company vehicle.We were told the Gordon Police Station commander was not aware of the incident until yesterday afternoon when we trying to recover the vehicle.

The commander said he needed to be briefed by the officer-in-charge on Thursday night and promised to get back to us today. We hope he does but more importantly bring the culprits to face the full force of the law they are supposed to enforce.

The Gordon incident and the other case we reported in Goroka, in which a security guard had his face almost beaten to pulp, is indicative of the lack of control by the police hierarchy over its rank and file members.

It seems the constabulary has been divided into fiefdoms, which are being controlled by feudal lords.

Despite the tragedies that have rocked our two major cities and the repeated assurances by political lea­ders, many police personnel refuse to adhere to the constabulary’s rules of engagement.

They continue to commit acts of savagery towards innocent people because their superiors either cannot control them or simply condone their actions.

These uniformed thugs must be removed from the police force as a matter of urgency. They are a deadly menace to civil society.