Eight dead in September violence at Papua New Guinea’s troubled Porgera

Details are emerging of violence which left at least eight people dead at Porgera Valley in Papua New Guinea’s Enga Province, in an incident for which local people have pointed blame at PNG’s Kumul 23 elite tactical police unit.

The police have denied that Kumul 23 are behind the killings, which reportedly occurred on 23 September, but the incident has raised serious concerns about ongoing efforts to target illegal miners at the Porgera gold mine.

A local official claims Kumul 23 forces came to Porgera’s Kulapi villages, setting fire to houses and reportedly firing into a crowd of people.

Jerry Maku, who is Porgera District administrator, said that eight people are known to have been killed, with one critically injured.

PNG Police deny this allegation and say Kumul 23 forces were not behind the killings, but were in the area to respond to fighting by groups invoved in a tribal conflict.

The Commissioner of Police, David Manning, said the police operation followed the recent murder of nine people and destruction of houses by opposing clansmen.

Manning released a statement today, announcing that “24 male criminals have been arrested and two armed men killed during a police operation targeting a violent criminal group in Porgera, Enga Province”.

“Specialist tactical police deployed discreetly into the area, conducted surveillance and, once the gunmen had been located, initiated the operation that resulted in 24 arrests and the deaths of two armed men.

“This operation should serve as a clear warning to those engaged in tribal conflict or holding illegal weapons: the law will reach you, and you will be held accountable,” the commissioner said.

RNZ Pacific has seen footage – taken at the end of that day – of bodies adorned with blankets and flowers, surrounded by grieving locals. In the footage, a voice says in Tok Pisin that “all our houses have been burned down” and that “many of our tribesmen are missing”.

Maku said that six people spotted near the Porgera gold mine, suspected of being illegal miners, were shot and killed by police officers, while two landowners were killed in their homes.

It is the latest incident in a long string of violence linked to efforts to relocate people who have been living on or near the Special Mining Lease (SML) area.

The owners of the mine, mining company Barrick Niugini Limited and the PNG state, have been trying to crack down on ongoing illegal mining at the mine site, but the ensuing displacement of local villagers has added to the problems.

“Frightening things are happening, and we are failing, the government is failing its own people,” Maku said.

“They have no place to go, that’s why they are just hanging around with illegal miners… but you know, they start shooting.”

Richard Yope, a 16-year-old student, is reported to be among those killed in the incident. According to his family, he was simply passing by the area.

A letter written by Pulumani Tribe spokesperson Andreas Wabiria, addressed to authorities and supplied to RNZ Pacific, said the officers were wearing military fatigue uniforms and black masks covering their faces.

“They ordered villagers to assemble, razed Kulapi Villages 1, 2, 3 and 4, burnt houses belonging to Pulumani Tribe landowners, and discharged firearms indiscriminately into the crowd.

“Many other persons remain missing and are presumed dead,” Wabiria said.

Afterwards, officers cordoned off areas of the district and formed a roadblock on the Highlands Highway towards Mount Hagen, whose hospital had been willing to autopsy bodies.

Wabiria said it stopped most relatives of the deceased from taking the bodies for post-mortem examination – but they managed to get Richard out.

Thirty family members accompanied Richard’s mother Rachel to Mount Hagen General Hospital, a four-hour drive from Porgera, where they still remain.

Wabiria told RNZ Pacific they were told over the phone by Maku on Saturday that officers were refusing to let them return with Richard’s body for the sake of a traditional burial at the village.

“I couldn’t really help them much, because Kumul 23 is going to get on me if I try to,” Maku told RNZ Pacific.

Wabiria said that many in the group feared for their lives if they re-approached the entrance to their homes.

“This is two deaths in two years suffered by the same family, at the hands of the same mine, under the watch of the same government… they are becoming a spectator on their own land.”

“The morgue fees is also exorbitant, every day it costs her dearly to keep the body in the morgue,” he said.

“All 30 of them, they are hungry. They have no whatever means of surviving.”

Enga Province has been plagued by violence for years – both election-related conflict and tribal fighting.

Lawlessness in and around Porgera, particularly in relation to illegal mining, has also been a problem that Engan authorities have struggled to contain over many years.

“The company doesn’t want illegal miners to stay close to the mine, every day they go in and disturb the mine operation,” Maku said.

“They suspect that the landowners are harbouring the illegal miners.”

Earlier this year, Enga’s governor Sir Peter Ipatas told RNZ Pacific that people in his province had taken lawlessness to another level using modern guns, with no respect for authority.

The national government has responded to the problem by resourcing police on the ground. In recent months, Kumul 23 intensified its ground patrols across Enga as part of operations targeting illegal firearms and violent offenders, and as part of an intelligence-led policing strategy.

The unit was established last year, in the wake of new anti-terrorism laws in PNG – its forces were given unprecedented ‘shoot to kill’ powers.

PNG’s former Deputy Prime Minister Don Polye, an influential Engan political leader, said he had concerns from the outset about the use of the ‘terrorism’ tag in a PNG context.

The latest events have deeply concerned Polye who told RNZ Pacific that a grieving father had approached him about the death of his teenage son.

“The father who lives in Port Moresby, he came to me crying. I said what happened. He said ‘my son has been killed and murdered’… he said ‘it was the police that shot my son’.

“Kumul 23 just went in and burned down houses and started shooting at this line of houses and this compound, that the intelligence told them that they were illegal miners.”

“They started shooting at them, and some of them were running. And one student who I know personally, he went into the wrong direction, and the Kumul 23 shot him and he died.”

Police have denied the claim.

Polye said in the absense of a proper relocation plan, a volatile mix of different communities has increased in Porgera while associated law and order problems have grown out of control.

“There is the soup of locals, immigrants, illegal miners, warlords, warriors, mercenaries – all squatting on the SML land,” Polye explained.

“For addressing the 30 years of outstanding SML relocation issues, funding will have to have been provided.”

“When no such relocation is taking place and (with) the gold price being at the highest peak in history, the SML area is breeding the chaos witnessed in Porgera at present.”

Wabiria said the Pulumani tribe were seeking just restitution from the government, noting a 700 million-kina budget set aside for the relocation of his people that thus far has been untouched.

The deal – which has yet to be settled between landowners and Prime Minister James Marape – included more than K200 million in ‘equity-related’ funding that is currently being held in a government trust.

Marape could start by rebuilding the houses that the violence has destroyed, Wabiria suggested.

“They should just have the courtesy and the respect, the human dignity, to at least bury the dead and facilitate the land.”

He added that as things stand, once the 30 locals return from Mount Hagen, none of them will have a home to go to.