PNG unrest raises fears
WHEN Brigadier General Jerry Singarok says he is “very concerned, if not frightened” there is major cause for concern.
The former PNG Defence Force commander is usually cautious in both word and deed.
What has generated his alarm is a state of civil unrest bordering on anarchy in PNG’s resources rich Southern Highland Province.
Last Thursday, armed mobs rampaged through the SHP capital Mendi, torching the courthouse and an Air Niugini Dash 8 aircraft.
Only 10 armed police were present and unable to prevent damage to the aircraft and airstrip.
The protest was in response to a Port Moresby court confirming the election of SHP governor William Powi.
Losing candidates had challenged the poll result claiming electoral officials had declared the result before all votes had been tallied.
Mendi, a former Australian Army garrison town is just 1500km from Townsville.
In late February, a 7.5 earthquake on the Richter scale caused massive infrastructure damage and deaths in and around Mendi.
As civil unrest escalated this week, the armed mobs destroyed roads and airfields using stolen heavy plant and equipment, which they then destroyed to frustrate any government repair efforts.
The PNG Government’s reaction has been to declare a state of emergency, deploying constabulary and PNGDF elements under police command into Mendi.
Singarok commanded PNG forces on Bougainville in the late 1980s during that ince’s secessionist war.
He has compared the current SHP situation with the Government’s reaction to Bougainville when the country was faced with a decade- long civil war.
Singarok believes the SOE is both irresponsible and premature but he has even greater concerns.
In 1996, under Singarok’s command the PNGDF pur- prov- chased MAG 58 medium machine guns.
It is an air cooled, piston and gas operated weapon manufactured in the USA and Belgium.
It fires 7.62mm NATO beltfed ammunition and can effectively engage targets from 200- 800 metres and, in open country, up a kilometre.
Several have been “stolen” from PNGDF armouries.
Singarok has been appalled to see them appear on social media mounted on the cabins of four- wheel- drive utilities in SHP.
He fears history may be repeating.
He fears the economic damage suffered in PNG by the closure of Bougainville’s Panguna copper mine could be repeated by prolonged civil disturbance closing SHP’s oil and gas fields, still struggling to return to full operations after February’s earthquake.
He believes it is a “cheap, reckless knee- jerk reaction” to deploy a severely underresourced PNGDF without appropriate air mobility against heavily armed protesters.
This is happening on Australia’s doorstep but has received scant coverage here.
Seasoned PNG observers have instead turned to NZ media for regular coverage as well as social media, including Facebook.
Even within PNG, it seems Facebook has provided the most detailed coverage of events in SHP.
Some in PNG have canvassed the possibility of external intervention, possibly through the UN.
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