Kidnapped New Zealand professor rescued in Papua New Guinea
AN ARCHAEOLOGIST from New Zealand has been rescued through “covert operations” after being kidnapped at gunpoint by an armed group in Papua New Guinea.
Prof Bryce Barker and three female researchers were taken hostage in the remote mountain village of Fogomaiyu on Feb 19 and taken six miles into the bush.
One of the three women, Cathy Alex, who had taken leave from her job with a Papua New Guinea NGO to join the field trip, had earlier been released and was found last Wednesday, weak from hunger and hours of walking, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation reported yesterday. Prof Barker, who is based at the University of Southern Queensland in Australia, was investigating whether the country provided the bridge for the first human migration to Australia tens of thousands of years ago.
Police said the kidnappers were “opportunists” who were demanding a ransom of $3.5 million kina (£830,000).
The gang was already known for staging attacks on villages and carrying out armed robberies.
Prof Barker, Teppsy Beni, his doctoral student, and Jemina Haro, a Papua New Guinea National Museum researcher, were released after a reduced ransom was paid, said Alphonse Seiyaka, an official with the government of Mount Bosavi. “They didn’t catch the criminals,” he said.
As soon as soldiers exchanged money for the Australian and the two Papua New Guinea women, he said, the captors “ran away into the bush”.
James Marape, Papua New Guinea’s prime minister, said yesterday that the full ransom had not been paid and that the final three hostages had been freed “through covert operations”.
The rescue mission, carried out in consultation with the Australian and New Zealand governments, saw extra police and security personnel deployed.
Police identified the gang members and asked their relatives to try to persuade them to give themselves up.
“We apologise to the families of those taken as hostage for ransom, it took us a while but the last three have been successfully returned,” Mr Marape said. “We thank God that life was protected.”
He also thanked missionaries who had acted as intermediaries and had spoken to Prof Barker on a satellite phone.
Geraldine Mackenzie, vice-chancellor of the University of Southern Queensland, said she was “relieved to hear that our much-loved colleague” had been released.
Penny Wong, the Australian foreign minister thanked the Papua New Guinea government for “securing a safe and peaceful resolution” – a sentiment echoed by New Zealand.