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March 2023

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More Focus on GBV and SARV

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GBV/SARV Workshop

by Harlyne Joku – Freelance Journalist

Hot spot areas of Gender Based Violence and Sorcery Accusation-Related Violence (GBV and SARV) especially in the highlands and other remote areas need more focus according to the Secretary for Community Development and Religion, Jerry Ubase .

Participants and speakers at GBV/SARV Workshop hosted at Gateway hotel, Port Moresby.
GBV/SARV Workshop hosted at Gateway hotel

Secretary Ubase made the remarks this morning (Wednesday 29th March) at the opening of the two-day GBV/SARV workshop held at the Gateway Hotel.

Mr Ubase welcomed participants of the workshop comprising of 13 Civil Society Organizations who are recipients of grants that help them carry crisis response and recovery services for the victims of GBV/SARV and urged them to do more.

“We need to do more; we need to extend the support further. We need to cover the wider areas of PNG especially the hot spot areas in the highlands.

“The government system has gone down to the provinces so we should not be pointing fingers to each other who is responsible to carry out tasks, we are all paid to serve our people,” Secretary Ubase said.

UNDP Gender Team Leader, Chelsea Magini speaking at the GBV/SARV Workshop in Port Moresby
UNDP Gender Team Leader, Chelsea Magini

UNDP Gender Team Leader, Chelsea Magini supported Secretary’s remarks saying she is happy to hear of the work or the CSOs done so far in the community level where the national and provincial governments cannot reach.

In 2022 the National Government allocated PGK7.93 million to address GBV, the biggest budget allocated to address GBV and SARV in PNG’s history.

On the 9th December 2022, the Department for Community Development and Religion (DFCDR) awarded 13 grants to civil society organizations.

The grants were jointly funded through the DFCDR and UNDP through the European Union Spotlight initiative on Eliminating Violence Against Women and Children.

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Sport

Hunters lose to Tigers in first home game of 2023 season

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The SP PNG Hunters were handed their first loss of the 2023 Hotplus Cup season in front of their home crowd at the Santos National Football Stadium on Saturday.

Hunters took an early lead 20 minutes into the match but were playing catchup towards the back-end of the game.

In a similar fashion to last weekend’s clash against the Souths Logan Magpies, the Hunters fell short in their try conversions.

Despite having scored seven tries on the day, they managed only four out of seven kick conversions.

Their opponents, the Brisbane Tigers, managed six tries and converted five out of six while an additional two penalty conversions helped them to a 38-36 victory against the Hunters.

It was a valiant effort at best.

Despite the high scoring match, Hunters started with 12 men in the opening 12 minutes after a sin bin to Sherwin Tanabi; and towards the end of the first half, Sakias Komati was given 10 minutes in the sin bin.

Both men penalized for a professional foul.

The Hunters scored first in the 5th minute through Solo Wane, but a missed conversion by Sakias Komati held the hunters at 4-0.

The Brisbane Tigers replied through a four pointer from Brayden Torpy, a successful kick conversion got the tigers in front 6-4.

The Hunters snatched back the lead in the 18th minute through fullback Morea Morea his conversion from the kick stretched their lead to 10-6.

Two more tries to Brandon Nima and Julius Yakopa and a failed conversion by Morea Morea left the scores at 18-6 in favor of the Hunters.

Tigers Max Lehmann scored in the 34th minute, a successful conversion bought the score to 18-12 Tigers,.

Tristan Hope’s converted try in the 37th minute tied the score at 18-18 before a Tigers penalty conversion took the lead from the Hunters 20-18 in to the half time break.

Both teams took charge in the second half exchanging tries at each end of the field. George Jennings opened the scoring in the second half for the Tigers with an unconverted try for a 24-18 lead.

Morea Morea scored his second try in the 51st minute this time a successful conversion by Morea leveling the scores at 24 all.

Max Lehmann scored his second converted try and the Tigers again took the lead 30-24 in the 64th minute.

A converted try by Captain Ila Alu in the 68th minute once again levelled the scores 30-30.

Max Lehmann with his hat trick converted try in the 71st minute snatched back the lead for the Tigers 36-30, a penalty conversation by Tristan Hope in the 76th minute extended the teams lead to 38-30.

With just over a minute to go before full time Morea Morea unleashed another individual brilliant effort, breaking through unscathed for the hunters final try; his hat trick met with a standing ovation but despite his kick conversion the team fell short by two points ending the match 38-36.

The Hunters going down 38-36 to the Brisbane Tigers.

In his post match interview, Hunters Coach Stanley Tepend, described the match as high scoring however, admitting that the hunters had a problem one the defense and conversions.

“It was a high scoring match but the Hunters managed to play right through to the end, but we still have a lot of work to do we still need to tighten up in defense and discipline as well.

“We played with 12 men in the first half and towards the second half; we have a bye next week and we can regroup, but I will bring the loss down to discipline, we are playing well, we were looking sharp but we need to tidy up our discipline,” Tepend said.

Depite an early awareness by supporters on the shorfalls in goal kicking, Tepend says his goal kickers need more practice.

“Goal kicking and errors, we need to spend more time on it in training, we have been scoring tries enough for a win but we need to work on our discipline,” Tepend said.

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TKATCHENKO KEEN ON SOUTH EAST ASIA TIES

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Minister for Foreign Affairs and National Events Hon. Justin Tkatchenko MP
departed the country today in a bid to encourage stronger diplomatic
relationships for Papua New Guinea between three South East Asian countries
of Indonesia, Malaysia and China.

Picture Courtesy of the Office of The Minister for Foreign Affairs & National Events

Minister Tkatchenko who led a delegation of five officials will travel to Jakarta
where he will meet his Indonesian Counterpart Hon. Retno Marsudi over a
period of 3 days to focus on key bilateral issues affecting both countries.
“In the last couple of weeks, we have passed the Basic Border Agreement
(BBA) in Parliament which opens the way now for a full review for all parties
to come on board and review the BBA.”
“This agreement enables us to talk about our boundaries, trade, traditions and
culture and our people “and review a long outstanding border agreement that
would now be reviewed.”
“This includes those members that are on the borders, including the defence and
police to enable a common understanding with our border of West Papua,
Indonesia and Papua New Guinea,”
Minister Tkatchenko said this was long overdue.
“As we have stated very clearly, Indonesia is a sovereign country and we
respect this nation.”

Picture Courtesy of the Office of The Minister for Foreign Affairs & National Events

“If there are any issues that Indonesia wants us to be involved especially with
West Papua, we are more than happy to support and assist.”
“We look forward to that open dialogue on West Papua with the Foreign
Minister Marsudi.”
“We have officially passed the reciprocal visa arrangements between Papua
New Guinea and Indonesia, those with a diplomatic passport or official passport
will get visa on arrival here in PNG and also in Indonesia.”
Minister Tkatchenko said another very important matter is the Defence
Cooperation Agreement between Indonesia and Papua New Guinea.
This has been approved by the National Executive Council that allows both the
Papua New Guinea Defence Force and Indonesian Defence Force to strengthen
their ties and their cooperation in areas of mutual security concerns.
The three-day visit to Indonesia will also capture initial coordination plans of
the official visit of Indonesian President Joko Widodo in June this year.
“Straight after Indonesia I travel to Malaysia to meet the new Foreign Minister
and their new government as well.”
“We will strengthen our ties with Malaysia as they are big economic and trading
partner to PNG.” Minister Tkatchenko said.

Picture Courtesy of the Office of The Minister for Foreign Affairs & National Events
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HON. TKATCHENKO ON
OFFICIAL TRIP TO CHINA

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Minister for Foreign Affairs and National Events Hon. Justin Tkatchenko MP
will make an Official Visit to China upon the invitation of the Government of
The People’s Republic of China.

Addressing the media today before his departure, Minister Tkatchenko said he
will be meeting with recently appointed Chinese Foreign Minister, Qin Gang
and will also attend the 2023 Annual Conference of The Boao Forum for Asia.
Minister Tkatchenko said his Chinese counterpart was previously the chief of
protocol for the President of China and had already visited Papua New Guinea
on more than one occasion.
“He is now the foreign minister and I look forward in working with him for our
relationship between China and Papua New Guinea.”
“We will be discussing our bilateral relationship, working relationship going
forward.”
“We will be discussing our economic importance between Papua New Guinea
and China.”
“China being one of our biggest trading partners to Papua New Guinea and also
people to people arrangements, infrastructure, education, health and
development, we will be holding discussions in these areas too.”

“I only go on these tours when I know there’s going to be good outcomes for
the people of Papua New Guinea and for our country.”
“When it comes to deference, security, health, education, investment and trade,
these things must come forward for the benefit of our people.”
This official trip will also cover a visit to Shenzhen City which currently has a
sister city arrangement with Port Moresby and the National Capital District.
“We will be renewing our sister-city relationship with our capital city and with
Shenzhen.”
“We will also be going to Guangdong, looking at their facilities there in
education, environment and their zoo and doing some conservation work with
them.
“A very productive six day trip to China covering many aspects but also to see
and introduce ourselves to Mr. Qin, the new Foreign Minister who has already
been to Papua New Guinea.”

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Rotary Club of Port Moresby Supports St John Ambulance

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The Rotary Club of Port Moresby has made a generous donation of K20,000 to St John to support its ambulance wash-bay.

President of the Rotary Club Mr Rio Fiocco and the club members, official handover of the cheque to St John Ambulance on Wednesday, March 15, 2023 at the St John headquarter.

The funds will be used to purchase a High Pressure Washer and a Wet Dry Vacuum for the ambulance wash-bay.

The ambulance wash-bay is a critical part of St John’s operations, as it ensures that all ambulances are clean and ready to respond to emergencies at all times.

With the new equipment, St John will be able to clean its ambulances more efficiently and effectively, ensuring that patients continue to receive the highest level of care possible.

“Keeping the environment where our patients are cared for as clean and clinically sterile as we can, is the most fundamental thing in our operations,” St John Ambulance CEO Matt Cannon said.

“We have a well-established standardised cleaning system and it takes 30-60 minutes for us to wash each vehicle.”

The CEO said there is a needed for heavy duty industrial grade cleaning equipment, and they are grateful for this donation, which have now enable them to purchase these equipment.

The Rotary Club of Port Moresby has a long history of supporting charitable causes in the country, and this donation is part of their commitment to making a positive difference in the community.

Rotary Club of Port Moresby president Mr Fiocco said, they are pleased to support the work of St John Ambulance.

“We know that they are doing a wonderful work in our community and our club is very pleased to continue our ongoing support,” Mr Fiocco said.

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Review Border Agreement

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Papua New Guinea is expected to review the land boundary it shares with Indonesia’s West Papua Province.

Foreign Affairs Minister Justin Tkatchenko before travelling to Jakarta yesterday, said PNG is now able to discuss this with Indonesia after Parliament passed the Basic Border Agreement.

“The Basic Boarder Agreement which opens the way now for all parties to come on board and review the Basic Border Agreement and talk about our boundaries, talk about our trade, talk about our traditions, our culture, and our people”, said Tkatchenko.

This is the second visit to Jakarta where Tkatchenko is expected to discuss issues like the PNG Defence Force and Indonesian Defence Force Cooperation Agreement and have open discussion on the West Papua issue.

“The Foreign Minister and I will also be discussing about West Papua. And as I have stated already, Indonesia is a sovereign country, and we respect Indonesia. If there are any issues Indonesia wants us to get involved in with West Papua, we are more than happy to support,” Tkatchenko said.

Since the first visit by Minister Tkatchenko in December 2022, both Governments have been working on improving economic, security, social and traditional ties between the two countries.

In the recent Parliament Sitting, the National Executive Council also approved the Reciprocal of Rectification for Visa Exceptions for Indonesian diplomats and government officials entering both countries.

“So the green and red passports for all the secretaries, government officials that we have in Papua New Guinea and Indonesia and all the diplomats we have in Indonesia and Papua New Guinea, we can travel to each country freely with visa on arrival, ” said Tkatchenko.

Tkatchenko departs Indonesia on Wednesday.

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Counterfeit Waswas Soap Seized by Lae Police

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287 cartons of counterfeit Waswas brand soap imported to Lae was seized by the Lae Police and Panamax Pacific Limited management on the weekend.

The counterfeit Waswas soap was loaded onto a 20-foot container, ready to be delivered to Mt. Hagen, Western Highlands Province by a trucking company when it got intercepted by the Police.

The operation was headed by Lae Metropolitan CID Officer In Charge, Leo Kaikas who produced a search warrant to open and search the container. This was done at the Panamax yard in Lae on Friday, 17th March 2023.

Lae Police and Panamex Management inspecting boxes of counterfeit soap.

Panamax Pacific Limited has been manufacturing Waswas soap for more than 20-years in Papua New Guinea. Waswas soap is a well-known and trusted brand to be found in most homes throughout the country.

According to Panamax Pacific Limited General Manager-Erich Illemann, it was brought to their attention that a significant counterfeit operation importing product impersonating the company’s Waswas brand was in progress.

“When I contacted PNG Customs in the morning, disappointingly, Customs have informed us it is beyond Customs control and beyond Customs jurisdiction. This is both ridiculous and an unacceptable response,” said Mr. Illemann.

Inside each of the 287 confiscated cartons contains 16 packs of 6-pack counterfeit Waswas soap worth K34,440 when sold in shops. This money is untaxed and directly impacts local manufacture and threatens local jobs.

Over the past few weeks, manufacturers in PNG are under extreme pressure from high costs and poor service delivery by the government. According to Panamax Pacific General Manager, Mr. Illeman, this additional threat compounds the situation threatening investment, manufacture and job creation in the country.

“Our industry (Soap Manufature) as well as many others is currently under pressure from Customs who have reclassified raw materials under different coding, changing previous duty-free status to one attracting duty, the same as for finished products,” said Mr. Illemann. “This undermines the case for local manufacture, which will reduce investment and subsequent employment with more reliance on imports compounding the Country’s Forex predicament,” added Illeman.

The popular soap product seen here is actually counterfeited which can make it hard for consumers to differentiate between the real product and its counterfeit equivalent.

The dangers of buying counterfeit products aren’t always obvious. There are economic impacts, legal implications, and health and safety risks to individuals who buy and use the fake products.

Each time you buy a counterfeit good, a legitimate company like Panamax loses revenue. This translates to loss profits, loss of jobs over time and contributes to the bad state of economy.

Meanwhile, Lae Metropolitan Commander, Chief Superintendent Chris Kunyanban said investigations are currently underway by Lae CID Police.

Kunyanban said, “If people starts doing counterfeit, the Government should have a very strict instreangent Law protecting the interests of the business houses in the country. Because that’s a national security issue on the economic aspect of things.”Lae Metsup added that, Forrex is the primary issue affecting local manufactures such as Lae Biscuit and Panamax. Kunyanban said the secondary issue affecting the manufacturers are counterfeit products.

“Their products are not moving because the Chinese are actually circulating counterfeit goods. They cannot buy it from the local manufacturers. The government has to be very serious in protecting the economy of this country. If those people are involved in counterfeit and they are found, they have to be immediately fined, deported and blacklisted and they should not enter the country anymore.” More needs to be done by the government in order to allow legitimate businesses to thrive.

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Government assistance needed for Bundi-Simbu road

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A local team of youths from Bundi and Simbu cleared up piles of dirt and debris blocking off the road from Simbu to Upper Bundi.

The blockage resulted from six landslides caused by continuous rainfall along the area two months ago.

Piles of logs and huge rocks completely covered the road making it impassable, blocking off all services into Bundi.

One local SME Owner, Nelson Gandai, led a team of 22 boys in the clearing exercise two weeks ago.

Using a chainsaw and bush knives, they hacked away at the logs and sticks and dug through dirt piles with sticks, crowbars and spades.

Founder of a local Community Based Organization, Kumura Foundation, Vincent Kumura in a statement, said it was a very daunting task.

Mr Kumura said the Kumura Foundation has gathered 16 youths from Pomie in the upper Bundi area and partnered with Mr Gandai and his team, along with a second team of nine (9) boys led by David Monguma from Simbu to continue the work of clearing debris just to create a pathway for four-wheeled-drive vehicles to pass through.

The youths camped out at Mondia Pass for two weeks at a height of 2,900m under freezing conditions at night to fix the road.

While it is somewhat accessible now, persisting damp conditions still beg for proper work to be done on the road.

Last Friday, 12 youths assisted an ambulance vehicle with wheels stuck in the mud.

The whole exercise of digging, pushing and pulling through piles of debris took them three hours before the vehicle arrived in Simbu.

Mr Kumura says fortunately, there weren’t any emergency passengers onboard the ambulance.

He stated that the 32km stretch from Simbu to Snow Pass and Yandera in Upper Bundi is badly deteriorated and needs urgent government assistance.

“We have three Primary Schools (Bundi, Yandera and Snow Pass), the Snow Pass Eco-lodge, the Snow Pass Medical Dispensary, Kumura Foundation, proposed Yandera Mining, SMEs, coffee farmers and the 20,000 people of Bundi including sick patients affected from these bad road conditions.”

Furthermore, the 2023 ‘Bundi Komba Festival’ will be held from April 17-19. The festival is a recognized event by the PNG Tourism Promotion Authority and the National Cultural Commission of Papua New Guinea.”

Therefore, the foundation is calling for respective government authorities to respond quickly in clearing up the landslides and maintain the road link to Bundi,” stated Kumura.  

Mr Kumura said the Kumura Foundation is prepared to work with local and provincial government authorities to serve the people of Bundi.

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ACT NOW Welcomes Moratorium on New FCA

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Community Advocacy group ACT NOW has welcomed the Moratorium on new Forest Clearance Authorities, recently announced by the PNG Forest Authority, but they say the measure does not go far enough.

“We are pleased the National Forest Board has recognized that the FCA system is being widely abused and has ordered a halt on the issuing of new Authorities and an audit of all existing FCA projects”, Campaign Manager Eddie Tanago said in a statement.

FCA is a permit issued by the PNGFA allowing a logging company to clear small area of forest for commercial agriculture or road construction, however the PNG Forest Authority has been issuing FCA permits that cover tens of thousands of hectares of forest, which are used by logging companies for large-scale export logging operations.

According to ACT NOW, evidence shows that 25% of total log exports in 2021 were sourced from FCA permit areas.

ACT NOW further pointed out that there are also widespread abuses associated with other logging permit types, particularly the Timber Right Purchase (TRP), that also warrants a moratorium and review.

In September 2022, ACT NOW! issued a public call to the new Forest Minister to urgently address rampant illegal and unsustainable logging by issuing a moratorium on both new FCA projects and on the extension or renewal of any permits issued under the Timber Rights Purchase Agreements.

They also called for an independent review of all existing logging projects to assess their legality and impacts as well as calling for an extension of the moratorium to cover all new timber permits and licences.

They say it is important that any audit of existing FCAs is conducted independently and transparently and with full community participation.

“It is the PNGFA that has developed and approved the existing FCA permits that are characterized by widespread procedural abuse and lack of community consent. It will clearly be nonsense for the same forestry officers to now audit the permits they issued to assess their legality” Tanago said.

ACT NOW! is also concerned that a National Court Order issued in June 2021 calling for a halt to all logging in TRP areas has been ignored by the Forest Authority and logging is continuing unabated in those areas.

According to research conducted by ACT NOW! the TRP areas covered by the court order are still producing over 40% of PNG’s total log exports.

ACT NOW! says while the moratorium on new FCAs is an important step, the Forest Authority and Board must go further and stop issuing any new logging permits or permit extensions, until all logging projects have been independently reviewed.

ACT NOW! is also calling on the PNG Forest Authority to publicly explain how it is intending to meet the government commitment to end all round log exports by 2025.

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Proposed media policy will hurt Public’s right to information

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The Pacific Freedom Forum (PFF), an advocacy network of Journalists and Media Practitioners have expressed grave concerns about the new media policy proposed by the office of the Minister for Communication and Information Technology, Timothy Masiu.

In a statement, PFF said this policy will put limitations on PNG journalists’ ability to report freely and impact the quality of public information.

A concern raised by current Chairperson, Robert Iroga of the Solomon Islands stated that the public right to information will be affected by restrictions and regulations of the PNG Media Industry.

All eyes of the outside media fraternity are now on PNG as recent news of the policy has sparked the interest of journalists regionally and globally.

“We join the many voices in opposing the policy as it is a red flag in democracies like PNG where the role of the independent media is important for keeping island communities informed,” said Iroga.

PFF is extending their support toward journalists in PNG and the Media Council of Papua New Guinea by calling on the PNG Government to heed the voices of PNG’s journalists’ and seek understanding of the outpouring support against the Government’s proposal.

“Media and elected leaders serve the same people, our communities of the Pacific”

PFF encouraged Prime Minister, James Marape and his cabinet to seek dialogue with members of the PNG Media fraternity and bring forth a solution that upholds the public’s best interest.

“We oppose any efforts to undermine democracies by using the law to curtail the freedom of journalists to report freely in any democracy.

“Efforts such as those aiming to regulate or license journalists must never replace our professional ethics and the freedom to report without fear or favor”

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