PNG community evicted for APEC project fights for justice
Some 350 people were rendered homeless in Port Moresby, according to a Londonbased research forum
Port Moresby: “I lost everything,” says Joe Moses, recalling the day homes in his community of Paga Hill were demolished. Moses is one of thousands of Papua New Guineans who lost their homes to make way for new developments as the country prepares to host the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit, which begins on November 17.
Plans for the gathering in the capital, Port Moresby, were under way as early as 2011, when the summit was held in Honolulu, Hawaii.
The government has since embarked on a building spree to accommodate the world leaders and business executives expected to attend.
Throughout Port Moresby, roads have been resurfaced, cathedrallike conference centres have gone up, and endless billboards and flags proclaim the start of the summit.
Ordinary citizens, meanwhile, complain about the poor state everywhere else of infrastructure and basic services, including roads, hospitals and schools. The event’s climax, the APEC Leaders’ Summit, will take place in a glass conference hall built on reclaimed land right next to Paga Hill.
Given Paga Hill’s central, seaside and APEC-integral location, plans for the area that had previously been proposed and dismissed accelerated into one of the nation’s biggest development projects. Moses had just graduated from studying sociology and anthropology at the University of Papua New Guinea, and was looking forward to finding employment and living a quiet life taking care of his family.
His dream evaporated in May 2012, when Moses says bulldozers turned up at Paga Hill “without any notice.”
Moses became one of 350 people rendered homeless, according to the International State Crime Initiative (ISCI), a research forum based at Queen Mary University of London.
“I lost two dogs, two fridges, a TV set, two [diesel] generators,” Moses says. “My books were all over the place, everything was just destroyed.”
The event’s climax, the APEC Leaders’ Summit, will take place in a glass conference hall built on reclaimed land right next to Paga Hill.