Son: We want to bury mum

Main Stories

By SYLVESTER WEMURU
THE body of an 86-year-old woman who was caught in a crossfire between police and Tommy Baker gang members last year is still lying in the Alotau Hospital mortuary – awaiting a second post-mortem.
Rodha Dick from Milne Bay’s Suau village was shot dead on Dec 6 in a shootout between the police and Baker’s gang of killers and robbers.
“It’s been more than seven months since my innocent mother was killed,” Napoleon Saevaru, pictured, told The National.

Left: Napoleon Saevaru

“It’s so frustrating for me and my family to not able to perform the rites for her to rest in peace.
“We (family) were not satisfied with the first post-mortem that was conducted on Dec 18.
“The bullet that hit my mother was not removed. So, we requested for a second autopsy.
“The second post-mortem is to identify whether the bullet that hit my mother was from the police or Baker gang members.
“The Alotau district court magistrate has signed and approved for the second autopsy to be conducted on April 3, 2019. After three months, we are still waiting.”
Saevara said he had been going in and out of the Alotau police station but “no one seems to want to address our plight”.
“Seven months is too long to wait to give our mother a proper burial,” he added.
She was caught in the crossfire between police and Papua New Guinea’s notorious criminal Tommy Baker (who is still on the run) and his gang in Alotau last year.
Attempts to get comments from the Milne Bay acting police commander Insp Andrew Weda were unsuccessful.