Murder, Rape, Robbery

Crime Wave Engulfs PNG

Police and politicians stand by helplessly as an escalation of lawlessness terrifies a nation. By Frank Senge in Port Moresby

SEVENTH Day Adventist Pastor Peter Knopper, 32, of Perth, Aus tralia, was used to crime and crim inals. Since arriving in Papua New Guinea in 1985 he had lived and worked among people who accepted crime as a normal part of their lives. Pastor Knopper was very aware that even as a man of God, there was always a chance he could become a victim of crime. But he liked his calling. He wrote to his Pastor father saying: “My life and work here is everything I’ve ever imag ined it to be. I’m enjoying every moment of it and I plan to stay on for 10 years.”

It was not to be. On the evening of Wednesday, March 16, a man shot him at point-blank range as the pastor was re turning from his generator house. Nine shotgun pellets entered his face and head.

Sherry Knopper found her husband lying in a pool of blood, unconscious. He died on the way to the hospital.

Before Pastor Knopper’s body was flown out, more than 3000 Gorokans gathered to mourn his death and to con tribute cash to his wife and parents who flew up to take his body home to Australia.

As was demonstrated by the many mourners, most people in PNG, as else where, are peace-loving. They don’t like crime. As one rape victim put it: “The ma jority of the people are good. Only one per cent are freaks.”

That one per cent represents a stark and growing problem in PNG. The country’s public image is tainted. People are killed or maimed and ruined. Foreign invest ment is stayed. Tourism is retarded: what traveller wants to put his or her life at risk?

Each day the newspapers are full of news of riots, murder, robbery and rape.

The Wednesday before Pastor Knopper was shot, masked men held up five tour ists and three nationals returning from the popular Baiyer River Bird Sanctuary. The thieves ran off with Kl6OO worth of prop erty. Those tourists were lucky: they had prompt police help. But others have writ ten blistering letters to newspapers around the world describing their dangerous and bitter experiences in Papua New Guinea (see Letters, page 8).

PNG’s Culture and Tourism Minister Albert Karo is worried. “Tourism will def initely be effected by problems associated with law and order, particularly when tourists themselves are attacked or robbed

of their possessions,” he says.

In the immediate term Mr Karo wants tour operators, embassies and consuls to inform tourists of the problems they may face in PNG and to advise them to take precautions.

The US State Department, in fact, has already advised its citizens to take care. Its warning reads: “The Department of State advises US citizens that there is a contin uing crime problem in rural and urban areas of PNG. Individuals are advised not to travel alone into rural areas.

The PNG Chamber of Commerce and Industry warns visitors and intending res idents that the country is “experiencing a serious law and order problem created by both social and economic factors.”

From the national point of view, no place seems safe from criminals. Western Highlands province, the heart of the lu crative coffee industry; Lae, the commer cial centre; Madang, the tourist destination; Rabaul, the cocoa and copra port; Arawa, home of Bougainville Cop per; and Port Moresby, the capital, are all hotbeds of lawlessness.

The hard-core criminal is no respecter of the famous, the high office holder or the handicapped. A knight and former Gov ernor-General, Sir Tore Lokoloko, was robbed in broad daylight while playing golf. Prime Minister Paias Wingti nar rowly escaped being robbed while at a friend’s house. In 1987, criminals broke into the Cheshire Home for Handicapped Children but were chased away. In 1985 a deaf woman was pack raped.

To curb crime, a curfew was imposed in 1985 in Port Moresby and anti-criminal paramilitary operations have been carried out in Lae and the Western Highlands more than once. In Rabaul and Lae, frus trated and angry residents have formed vi olent vigilante groups that have sometimes caused more harm than the criminals themselves.

The tourist destinations of Madang and Wewak along the north coast of the New Guinea mainland have on many occa sions virtually been held under siege by armed criminals.

In March this year, the North Solo mons provincial Government declared the province a trouble zone and began “Op eresen Mekim Save” (“teach them a les son”). Police mobile squads literally razed everything in trouble areas to the ground.

“Operesen Mekim Save” has been brought to bear on Enga and the Southern High lands provinces as well.

Police action, however, has often had negative effects. On two occasions parlia mentarians from Enga and the Southern Highlands electorates raided by the police complained of brutality and even rape and succeeded in having the police operations investigated.

No parliament sitting is concluded without mention of law and order. Indeed, the topic is often the main subject for de bate. Parliament and cabinet have consid ered solutions ranging from the death penalty, public flogging and castration to asking for Australian and New Zealand soldiers to be brought in to control crime.

Attempts at setting policy and pro grams to overcome the law and order problem have taken much of consecutive governments’ time, energy and money.

Each year there have been reports, sub missions, papers, seminars and expert opinions offered on the crisis at the ex pense of private organisations and the tax payer; but the problem only grows worse.

Crime figures cited in the 1984 Wil liam Clifford, Louise Morauta and Barry

Stuart report on law and order show that there were 44 murders and attempted murders in 1976 and 274 in 1983, an in crease of 523 per cent; rape and attempted rape rose from 102 to 465 for the same period an increase of 356 per cent; and assault rose 233 per cent for the period.

Dangerous driving resulting in death has risen 1917 per cent between 1976 and 1982.

In February, a resident sociologist Bruce M Harris released his two-year study on criminal gangs in PNG through the In stitute of Applied Social and Economic Research (lASER).

Harris confirms that the police force is only as effective now as it was 10 years ago, while gangs and criminals have become increasingly sophisticated. (In 1985, the then Police Commissioner, David Tasion, went further. He admitted his force had deteriorated since 1978.) Harris says that today’s gangs are “ef ficient organisations, which operate with little fear of apprehension”. An estimated five per cent of stolen property is re covered and just one in 30 break and en ters and one in 15 stolen vehicles result in arrests. About 40 houses are broken into every night in Port Moresby.

PNG Police Commissioner Paul To hian discounts Mr Harris’ statistics as in accurate, but admits that Harris’ three possible crime scenarios give much food for thought.

Harris refers to the “Organised Crime ►

Opposite page: A criminal is apprehended. Top: Police Commissioner Paul Tohian claims the problem is under control. Above: Citizens march against crime.

“Rascal gangs are being employed by politicians to attack and injure their political opponents”

◄Scenario”, whereby the gangs use “strike forces” and have strong links with other criminal groups in the country and over seas middlemen to whom they sell and distribute stolen goods. The author claims he knows of PNG gang links with people and organisations in the Philippines and Australia.

The “Social Protest and Revolution Scenario” focuses on the danger of gangs becoming a medium to express the frus trations of the lower class.

The “Political Co-operation Scenario” sheds light on a trend that has seen rascal gangs in partnership with political pow ers: “Already some gangs have distributed campaign literature and ‘encouraged’ people to vote for particular candidates in return for payment of cash and/or beer.

“Politicians have used rascal gangs to attack and even injure opponents or those they consider enemies. This trend could lead to more formal and long-term alli ances in which the gangs become a violent enforcement wing of the parties in return for which they are allowed to freely traffic drugs and other illegally acquired commodities. ..”

The report offers many reasons for the law and order problem, but the experts agree on one main cause: the education system. Lack of education is common in many countries. Those who drop out of school resort to crime to stay alive.

But too much education can also be a

cause of crime. PNG has adopted an ed ucation system that pampers and spoon feeds a student to the extent where, if he does not win the job for which he has been trained, he has no alternative occupation and therefore cannot provide for himself.

Successive governments’ role in crime prevention has been mostly reactionary.

They have been afraid of making waves, fearing adverse effects on foreign invest ments and PNG’s overseas image. Mean while, the private sector spends K 76 million annually on security.

The public outcry rises and falls rela tive to the seriousness of the crime wave.

When the clamour is loudest, the govern ment jumps in with medium-term solu tions most of which are not acted on.

After the pack rape of a New Zealand girl and her mother in Port Moresby in 1984, the Somare Government came up with 49 measures aimed at curbing crime.

Among them: soldiers of the PNG Def ence Force were to be deployed to trouble areas and if necessary the Australian and New Zealand Governments would be asked for more soldiers; there was to be an immediate strengthening of police per sonnel and an annual increase thereafter in personnel and budget allocation. Com missioner David Tasion applauded it as a landmark decision. But none of the meas ures were ever followed up.

Law and order is too often just a politi cal catchcry; an electioneering ploy more

often than not. Government policy is va gue when there is any policy at all. When the public outrage dies down, the politi cians put the issue on the back burner.

Experts now agree that any solutions to the crisis would have to be approached short-term, medium-term and long-term.

The immediate need is to upgrade the facilities and resources of the law enforc ing agencies. This would require money to better train existing personnel, hire more officers, replace outdated equipment and improve the conditions of the police and prison warders.

Plans and policies aimed at commu nity action would comprise the medium term strategy. Communities could take care of common non-criminal disputes, and leave the hard core criminal problem to the police.

The long term solution would be to in stitute policies to upgrade and shift the emphasis of education, from job oriented courses to teaching total human develop ment that would prepare students to cope with the real world.

But the enormity of the task ahead is realised when Police Commissioner To hian claims to be unconvinced that crime is even a problem at all: “Law and order is not a problem at this stage,” he told Pa cific Islands Monthly. “Our arrest rate is very satisfactory. The situation is normal.

We have the law and order problem in this country under control.” □