Australia urges restraint as PNG judge arrested

Australia urged restraint on Thursday in Papua New Guinea after police arrested the country's chief justice and attempted to charge him with sedition.
The poverty-stricken but hugely resource-rich country has been stuck in a political impasse for months with the Supreme Court ruling again this week that Prime Minister Peter O'Neill's rise to power was illegal.
It said veteran leader Sir Michael Somare should be reinstated.
O'Neill claimed the judiciary was biased and rejected the decision, which led Thursday to Deputy Prime Minister Belden Namah and 10 police storming into the court to arrest Chief Justice Sir Salamo Injia.
ABC radio reported from the capital Port Moresby that after more than two hours of negotiations, police escorted Injia to a courtroom for a formal interview.
Assistant commissioner Thomas Eluh said he expected to charge him with sedition after Namah warned Injia and two other judges who handed down this week's ruling they should resign within 24 hours or be arrested.
Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard spoke to O'Neill to express her concerns and urge restraint, the Australian Associated Press reported.
Foreign Minister Bob Carr said he also called his counterpart Ano Pala and gave the same message.
"Papua New Guinea has taken the crucial decision to proceed to elections in accordance with the constitution -- to give the PNG people the chance to determine their national leadership," Carr said.
"It is important that recent events not distract from proceeding to those elections in a peaceful and orderly way.
"Australia remains fully committed to assist Papua New Guinea in the planning and holding of its elections."
Somare, 76, is expected to be a key figure in national polls scheduled to begin on June 23.
The court ruling delivered Monday is the second to find that O'Neill's appointment as premier, which happened while Somare was recuperating from serious illness, was invalid.
Somare, who was PNG's first leader after independence, suffered ill health in 2011 and his family announced last June that he had resigned as leader while hospitalised in Singapore.
But he recovered and returned to challenge O'Neill, who had been elected by lawmakers to the top job in August, and won the support of judges who said he should be reinstated.
Impoverished PNG has been struggling to throw off its reputation as a politically dysfunctional and often lawless nation, and has a huge liquefied natural gas project, led by US-based corporation ExxonMobil, under way.

AFP

Comments

  1. Is belden namah a policeman? The constitution has been tampered with once again. No policeman is subject to direction and control from anyone including namah. Shame on you taomi kulunga.

    ReplyDelete
  2. The first step to dictatocracy... good luck free speech, the media, the justice system na png.

    ReplyDelete
  3. PNG owes it to the Police Force for restraining any further ditatorial moves.
    God Bless RPNGC and PNG.

    ReplyDelete
  4. While I appreciate this report on the political turmoil in PNG, I hate the way the reporter describes PNG as "poverty-stricken" and "impoverished". You cannot use your social and economic indicators to label our country as such. We are in two different worlds! We are so rich in more ways than you can imagine and none of it can be bought with money. Forget all the resources that you are talking about. Our happiness and wealth are found in very simple things. We have problems, who doesn't? But we will find a way like we always do. We are so diverse and yet so united. That's the beauty of this country I will forever love and defend.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Too true - why are we being labelled as "poverty-stricken" and "impoverished"? Unlike the reporter of this story we are rich in tradition, culture & history that is thousands of years older then his.

    ReplyDelete
  6. PNG Blogs..
    Please let's be responsible here on this blog and don't please paste articles of neo colonialism here on this blog.. We are a proud sovereign nation very capable in handling our own domestic affairs as well as international affairs. And we are rich unlike your drug problems, porn immoralities and drunk in inhuman abnomalities..
    Get it right you decendants of criminals.

    ReplyDelete
  7. They label us as such to justify their continued medling in our affairs

    ReplyDelete
  8. Forget worrying about australia and whatever they say for that's normal for a colonial master to say such. Our issue at hand is Namah's unprecedented attempt to arrest CJ Injia while supreme court is in session. Namah is not worthy of being a MP any more. He should be dismissed from parliament. He can win the elections and return but a leadership tribunal must be set up to deal with his recent stunt and dismiss him. Contempt charges should follow and he should return to back to where he rightfully belongs. BOMANA!!!

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Please free to leave comments.

Popular posts from this blog

Connect PNG Unveiled: A Tale of Ambition, Scandal, and the Quest for Accountability

James Marape's Missteps Openly Exposed at Australian Forum

PNG GOVERNMENT MINISTER IN PORN VIDEO

PNC CANDIDATE & FORMER NHC CEO FILMED WIFE HAVING SEX WITH COUSIN IN NHC CEO'S OFFICE

MARAPE'S K10.2 MILLION KINA "SNAKE OIL" SALESMAN

IS THE PM'S WIFE INVOLVED IN LAND GRABBING?

Marape's Connect PNG is a conduit for money laundering