Ok Tedi mine

Headlines

Papua New Guinea

Malaria kills 170 in Trobriand Islands

MORE than 170 people have died in an epidemic of malaria which is sweeping the picturesque Trobriand Islands off the south west coast of mainland Papua New Guinea.

The epidemic, described as the worst in 20 years, was also proving difficult to treat with medicines running low, and fears that the malaria was not responding to conventional treatment.

Director of the National Disaster and Emergency Service Leith Anderson said the situation was critical for the 36,000 people on the islands, with medical supplies nearly running out. As always, children and old people were particularly badly affected.

Anderson said officials on the islands had known about the problem for several weeks but political infighting and bureaucratic inefficiency had stifled any emergency action.

“Unfortunately they didn’t listen to the pleas for help from the guys down there,” he said. The malarial strain, which Anderson described as particularly vicious, was affecting around nine in every 10 people tested. It was also proving resistant to doses of chloroquin, the normal treatment for malaria. ***

Ok Tedi mine

workers walk off

PRODUCTION at the giant Ok Tedi copper mine in Papua New Guinea stopped when 1000 workers walked out in protest against an alleged expatriate visa scam. A spokesman for the BHP-controlled mine said the workers walked off from one of the world’s largest copper mines alleging a personnel supervisor had tried to bribe foreign affairs officials to get visas

for expatriates.

“Based on investigations by the company, the allegations are unfounded. We’re prepared to continue discussing that particular allegation about the staff officer, when they’re back at work,” the spokesman said. He said at a union meeting there were many other substantial issues discussed that may have caused the industrial action. One concern raised was the regime of 12-hour shifts, an issue that caused 900 members of the Ok Tedi Mining and Construction and General Worker’s union, to go on strike last September.