Mrs Rooney won’t go

back to Justice

Received just as PIM went to press, the following story from Angus Smales in Port Moresby brings Papua New Guinea’s ‘Rooney Affair’ up to date to mid-October. Smales ’ background account, written earlier, begins on pi 7.

Although the immediate crisis posed by the Rooney affair has

passed, its repercussions and

long-term effects are still with Papua New Guinea. Mrs Rooney is still a member of cabinet, but without portfolio, and Mr Somare has made it clear she will not be getting

back the justice portfolio.

For the time being Mr Somare himself is continuing to act asjustice minister, and he has given no indication of who will eventually take over the portfolio and of what responsi bilities in cabinet will be given to Mrs Rooney.

Mrs Rooney has lodged a

non-legal appeal process

against her contempt convic tion, approaching a statutory committee known as the Advis ory Committee on the Powers of Mercy which is headed by the United Church Bishop of PNG, Bishop Ravu Henao.

The committee has power to recommend to cabinet full or conditional pardons or re missions of sentences.

It is believed the committee

has already formally recom

mended that she should be par doned, but the matter lies with cabinet and no statement is expected before November.

In any event the decision although no doubt of profound

personal importance to Mrs

Rooney has little bearing on the chain of events which brought so much criticism on the government.

One of the major manifes tations of the criticism was a wave of unrest through at least nine Papua New Guinea gaols, including confrontations with warders, destruction of prop erty, mass escapes, and clashes with police who replied on three occasions with teargas.

Four weeks after order was restored in the gaols more than 100 escaped prisoners were still free (500 were free at one stage) and it is now doubtful that they will all be recaptured.

Mr Somare has established a committee of inquiry to look at

what happened in the gaols, and it will be chaired by a

senior magistrate, Joseph

Iramu.

Its terms of reference will in clude whether there was col lusion with some warders in the events, and whether the media and organisations outside the gaols helped to promote the trouble.

The parliamentary oppo sition has criticised the terms of reference on the grounds that they ignore what the oppo sition sees as the real source of the trouble the government’s action in overriding its own

judicial processes.

In the long term, Mr Somare says cheerfully that his country has not been damaged by what the government did and he de nies strongly that his govern ment has interfered with

judicial processes.

The judges carried out their

duties correctly and properly,

he says, there was no inter ference with them, and the

government subsequently

made a decision which it be lieved was fitting.

Mr Somare says there was no need for the judges to resign, and he will have no hesitation in appointing other Australian judges if necessary. ‘ln fact

there are already telephone

calls and letters for me from

suitably qualified people,’ he

said a few days ago.

But Mr Somare has also indicated that some of the new appointments to the bench will be from Papua New Guineans.

Two names unofficially tipped are those of the present secretary for justice, Kubulan Los, and the former law reform commissioner Bernard Naro kobi.

The first of the present judges to be leaving PNG will be Mr Justice Pritchard in December, and the others will probably leave in March and April next year.

Mr Somare does not expect to announce new appointments until about February.