warning

Namaliu's warning

ESCALATING crime was like a cancer eating away at Papua New Guinea’s political and economic stab ility, Prime Minister Rabbie Namaliu said. He said the breakdown in law and order, from the rascal gangs in the cities to tribal fighting in the highlands was the greatest threat facing the country.

“(Crime) has the potential to do more lasting and more severe damage to our

country and our future than the Bougainville (secessionist uprising) crisis and the downturn in the com modity prices put together,” he said.

“Crime is like a cancer eating away at the very life blood of our society. Like a cancer, it can only be cured by the most effective surgery, and by the will of the patient to beat it.

“It may well be that the surgery needs to be radical, because sickness which is crime has spread to every corner of our country and every section of our community.” Namaliu ruled out impo sing another state of emergency like in 1985. □

Liz Thompson

Port Moresby: the unemployed in a crime-ridden city