The storm after the quiet

 THE 2014 Christmas period around the country was relatively quiet. However the same cannot be said of the New Year and the tragedies it has brought.

It seems the hope, optimism, goodwill and feelings of hope the Christmas period brought has just as quickly evaporated and the ugliness has returned.  

Over the course of the past four days a number of crimes, mostly violent, have been visited upon people and institutions in different parts of Papua New Guinea. 

Top on the list of crimes perpetrated was the shooting death of a young mother of three in Lae in the early hours of New Year’s Day.

The death has shocked residents of the Morobe capital and the nation but the circumstances surrounding Maoana Pisimi’s death must be made clear. 

The Lae police must be thoroughly investigated  and anyone culpable in killing and be given the maximum sentence possible.

One wonders whether the spate of crimes committed over the first few days of 2015 is only an aberration and that the year will still bring the promise of good things to come. 

We can only hope. 

In Jiwaka, two killings marred what was otherwise a peaceful Christmas and New Year period. 

A member of the PNG Defence Force was killed after stumbling on a thief breaking into a company’s premises which he was supposed to have been guarding. The unnamed soldier was attached with the Engineering Battalion in Igam Barracks, Lae.

In the other Jiwaka slaying, a grade 12 Kerowaghi Secondary School student was allegedly stoned by police after he was chased into a small body of water formed by a blocked culvert. His injuries resulted in his death. 

Guma Less, a road construction worker and other men, were said to have been collecting a toll from passing motorists who were bogged down on their stretch of highway. 

According Jiwaka Police Commander Joseph Ton­dop, Less had in fact drowned in the pool he had run into when fleeing arriving police because of the weight of the construction gear he had on. Tondop promised a full investigation into the incident as well as the death of the soldier.

In neighbouring Western Highlands, 33 prisoners who escaped from the Baisi Jail have yet to be recaptured and to make matters worse jail boss Superintendent Timbi Kaulga described the escapees, all from Enga, as a danger to communities. 

They were in remand and awaiting court appearances for serious crimes, including rape and murder. That is cold comfort to the Western Highlands, what they want to know is what is being done to recapture them and how are the police and the Correctional Service going to safeguard the people against these men? Elsewhere in the country, a woman was killed by her husband after an argument took a deadly turn on New Year’s Eve in Popondetta. 

The argument, which took place at the ATM in town, led to the man stabbing his wife to death in a horrific and violent altercation in a public place.

If the police were required to carry out their duties in a competent and professional manner during the New Year period, some were guilty of taking liberty with their role.

Several instances of police brutality were reported. 

In Goroka, two instances of police officers clearly abusing their powers saw a senior engineer with the Ramu Nickel Project beaten by police officers as he was returning home from a New Year’s Eve party. 

Keith Hedu claims he was assaulted by police personnel and locked up for a day at the Goroka Police Station for defending himself in a confrontation with an officer. 

Hedu was not charged.

To add insult to injury he was then forced to pay the police officer who had attacked him K100 for a torn button while he suffered cuts and bruises to his face  and a broken nose.

A University of Goroka student was beaten and locked up for asking a police officer to join a queue at a bank after the man had gone straight to the teller ahead of a long line.

It seems the police, as hard as they try, are simply not doing what they are supposed to do – to serve and protect.