Papua New Guinea police illegally evicted families at gunpoint and burned down their homes alongside a large gold mine in the country’s remote highlands, Amnesty International said in a new report.
The motive for the alleged violence by police was not clear, although the government ordered extra police into the region last year after reporting a surge in violent crime and tribal fighting.
The Amnesty report released on Tuesday said that between April and July last year police raided areas adjacent to the Porgera Gold Mine and forcibly evicted families from their homes before setting the structures on fire. At least 130 buildings were burned down, the London-based rights group said.
Many residents reported getting no forewarning of the raids, and were unable to remove their belongings before their homes were set ablaze, Amnesty said. The families — including children, pregnant women and the elderly — had no alternative housing made available for them by the government.
“Instead of being able to rely on the police to protect them, people who were living next to the mine’s facilities have been the victims of human rights violations by police who illegally burnt down their houses and destroyed their belongings and gardens,” Amnesty’s Shanta Martin said.
The Porgera Joint Venture, which is 95 percent owned by Canada-based Barrick Gold Corp, supplies accommodation, food and fuel to police in exchange for security in the remote area under an agreement the company has said was conditional on police abiding by national laws and international standards.
Amnesty said the company should have reported the police eviction activity to Papua New Guinea authorities as soon as company officials became aware of it, but instead had supported the police.
Barrick said it was not informed in advance of the police operation, and did not request the destruction of any structures.
The company said that law and order had been largely restored as a direct result of the police deployment.
Barrick rejected Amnesty’s claims that company officials acted inadequately, saying their personnel immediately communicated with police authorities and community leaders after learning of the evictions, and had acted in good faith.
Barrick said Amnesty’s report did not take into account social and other issues such as clan rivalries.
“These omissions raise serious questions about the adequacy and objectivity of [Amnesty’s] investigation and analysis,” Barrick said in a statement.
Acting police Divisional Commander Thomas Eluh said by telephone that he was new in the position and could not comment on the Amnesty claims. Other police officials did not immediately respond
A US YouTuber who caused outrage for filming himself kissing a statue commemorating Korean wartime sex slaves has been sentenced to six months in prison, a court in Seoul said yesterday. Johnny Somali, 25, gained notoriety several years ago for recording himself doing a series of provocative stunts in South Korea and Japan, and streaming them on platforms such as YouTube and Twitch. South Korean authorities indicted Somali — whose real name is Ramsey Khalid Ismael — in 2024 on public order violations and obstruction of business, and banned him from leaving the country. “The court has sentenced him to six months in
Former Lima mayor Rafael Lopez Aliaga, a Peruvian presidential hopeful, gathered hundreds of supporters in Lima on Tuesday and gave authorities 24 hours to annul the first round of the country’s election over allegations of fraud. Lopez Aliaga is locked in a tight three-way race with two other candidates for second place in Sunday’s vote. The election runner-up wins a ticket to June’s presidential run-off against front-runner Keiko Fujimori. “I am giving them 24 hours to declare this electoral fraud null and void,” said Lopez Aliaga, surrounded by a crowd of several hundred supporters. “If it is not declared null and void tomorrow,
PAPAL RETORT: Pope Leo told reporters that he has ‘no fear, neither of the Trump administration nor speaking out loudly about the message of the Gospel’ US President Donald Trump has feuded with Pope Leo XIV over the Iran conflict — setting off an unholy row that could have serious political implications for the Republican leader back in the US. Trump has drawn barbs even from some allies over the attacks on the US-born pontiff, who has criticized the Trump administration over its immigration crackdown, the intervention in Venezuela and the Iran war. The president risks alienating the religious right in November’s crucial US midterm elections. So far the unprecedented clash between the leader of the most powerful military on Earth and the head of the world’s 1.4 billion
A 16-year-old boy has been charged with murder and aggravated sexual abuse in Florida in the death of his 18-year-old stepsister on a Carnival Cruise ship, the US Department of Justice said on Monday. Timothy Hudson was initially charged in February and subsequently indicted on March 10, but the breadth of the case was not known until a seal was lifted on Friday last week, weeks after US District Judge Beth Bloom in Miami said that he would be prosecuted as an adult at the request of the government. Anna Kepner had been traveling on the Carnival Horizon ship in November last
RSS