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Showing posts with the label PNG Guns Control Committee

GUNS LIKELY TO CAUSE HAVOC IN 2012 NATIONAL ELECTIONS

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OP/ED A meeting of senior police officers is underway in Mt Hagen to discuss the security aspect of the 2012 national elections. One of the topics that came up, again and again in that meeting, is the prevalence of firearms and the threat they pose on the elections. To show the police bosses the seriousness of the matter, Mt Hagen Police showed the police chiefs two M16 rifles, five other factory-made guns, and eight military issued grenades confiscated from raids into villages around this highlands city. The demonstration was to send a clear message to the top brass of the Royal Papua New Guinea Constabulary that the accumulation of illegal firearms in the Highlands is a real threat to the coming national elections. Guns have left thousands traumatised and have the seriously grave potential to bring Papua New Guinea down to its knees. Statistics compiled by the police force, show that there is overwhelming evidence that the majority of serious crimes like robbery, break and enter and

GUNS LIKELY TO CAUSE HAVOC IN 2012 NATIONAL ELECTIONS

Image
OP/ED A meeting of senior police officers is underway in Mt Hagen to discuss the security aspect of the 2012 national elections. One of the topics that came up, again and again in that meeting, is the prevalence of firearms and the threat they pose on the elections. To show the police bosses the seriousness of the matter, Mt Hagen Police showed the police chiefs two M16 rifles, five other factory-made guns, and eight military issued grenades confiscated from raids into villages around this highlands city. The demonstration was to send a clear message to the top brass of the Royal Papua New Guinea Constabulary that the accumulation of illegal firearms in the Highlands is a real threat to the coming national elections. Guns have left thousands traumatised and have the seriously grave potential to bring Papua New Guinea down to its knees. Statistics compiled by the police force, show that there is overwhelming evidence that the majority of serious crimes like robbery, break and enter

KILL THE GUN CULTURE IN PNG

OP/ED Students at two schools in the Highlands will now go without their teachers because they were killed in a tribal fight at Minj in the Western Highlands. In that fight, Police tell us that guns were used. On the same day, three villagers from Kandep walked into our office in Mt Hagen and told us that some 300 firearms are in the hands of communities who are engaged in a conflict. They revealed that over 75 men have been killed in the conflict that has raged for a number of years. The breakdown of law and order, the proliferation of violence now increasingly blamed on guns, and the inability of the Police or the courts to exercise authority because of various reasons, are more obvious features in PNG today. According to Police, there is overwhelming evidence to show that major crimes over the last 15 years or more have been exacerbated by the use of illegal guns. Tribal fighting, robbery, break and enter and murder involve the use of guns. We can therefore assume that without guns,

KILL THE GUN CULTURE IN PNG

OP/ED Students at two schools in the Highlands will now go without their teachers because they were killed in a tribal fight at Minj in the Western Highlands. In that fight, Police tell us that guns were used. On the same day, three villagers from Kandep walked into our office in Mt Hagen and told us that some 300 firearms are in the hands of communities who are engaged in a conflict. They revealed that over 75 men have been killed in the conflict that has raged for a number of years. The breakdown of law and order, the proliferation of violence now increasingly blamed on guns, and the inability of the Police or the courts to exercise authority because of various reasons, are more obvious features in PNG today. According to Police, there is overwhelming evidence to show that major crimes over the last 15 years or more have been exacerbated by the use of illegal guns. Tribal fighting, robbery, break and enter and murder involve the use of guns. We can therefore assume that without g