Ministers' Tears Over Tableau

A caned tableau of police quelling a village disturbance brought tears the eyes of PNG government ministers in July.

The tableau was hung in the cabinet room in Port Moresby after the usawah people’s movement in the Trobriand Islands presented it to the ef Minister, Mr Somare.

With a modern subject and in traditional carving style, the tableau wed police using tear gas and arms against island villagers. But one of teargas cannisters incorporated in the carving was a real one, and when arted to leak, ministers with tears in their eyes had to call for help.

Police experts were called in to “de-fuse" the work of art, but the can er fned while they were working on it.

No one was injured and the carving was unharmed. It is now back on wall with an empty teargas cannister replacing the original one.

Meanwhile, in Popondetta in northern Papua, a policeman and a soldier in hospital following the explosion of a bomb which had been lying in ' S>ass since World War Two. The two men were members of a bomb osal squad and were injured when a grassfire caused a premature osion.

The policeman has serious injuries according to a report from Popondetta.

Anthony Constantine Voutas CMG