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Aussie police leave Papua New Guinea after court verdict

Australian police who had been training their local counterparts in lawless Papua New Guinea (PNG) will leave the country today after a PNG Supreme Court ruling removed their immunity from prosecution.

A spokeswoman for the contingent yesterday said that 161 officers, including 19 who had been deployed on PNG's Bougainville island, were scheduled to fly back to Canberra on a charter flight.

The departure of the 19 comes at a critical time -- the officers were preparing to help their Bougainvillean counterparts provide security during the island's first election of an autonomous government after a secessionist war.

Local officers were to host a farewell ceremony for the Australians yesterday afternoon.

The spokeswoman described it as a temporary farewell.

"The mission is on hold while the governments negotiate possible solutions," she said.

The police were part of an Australian aid program costing almost A$1 billion (US$770 million) to improve the performance of the local force. They were stood down from duty on Friday after the ruling that their immunity was invalid.

Their presence in the former Australian colony has sparked some tensions.

Scores of PNG police officers at a rally this month called for the unit to leave, saying there had been no notable improvements in law and order.

The PNG police chief also shut down an Australian-funded police Internet link.

Luther Wenge, a provincial governor and PNG member of parliament who brought the successful Supreme Court challenge, has described the Australians as patronizing.

Relations between the two nations have been strained since March after Papua New Guinean Prime Minister Michael Somare took umbrage over security checks at Brisbane airport, where he was told to remove his shoes.

Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said on Friday that he hoped the legal problems could be overcome in talks between the two governments, but this "could be quite difficult."

A small number of officers will remain in Port Moresby in a caretaker role.

The run-down capital city has a major crime problem. Last month even the city's police chief was assaulted and robbed within sight of a major police station.
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