Pacific Network Against Violence Against Women appalled by unprecedented deadly, armed raid on remote villages in PNG
29 Jul, 2024
The Pacific Network Against Violence Against Women (PNAVAW) is appalled by last week’s unprecedented deadly, armed raid on three remote villages in the Angoram District of East Sepik Province, allegedly perpetrated by a loose group of men – mainly youth – from several villages that exploit the massive fish stocks of a large nearby lake, for their sustenance (food security and nutrition) and for cash incomes.
Fish harvest, processing, transporting and trade – conducted largely by women and girls – is the undocumented, unresearched foundation of the Angoram / Sepik River economy. Many villages have access to the lake, but some are more successful than others. Villages that are missing out have contested their economic disadvantage, and enmity has built up over recent years.
It is too soon to count the tragic consequences of this shocking and unprecedented incident, but clearly women and girls have borne the brunt – raped, killed and many of their children left orphaned and destitute. Local police were reportedly too afraid to respond, to the unknown numbers and weaponry of the raiding ‘gang’, and it has taken a contingent of police more than a week to arrive from the capital to assist. But this delayed PNG police response is wholly inadequate to ameliorate the kind of social and economic address problems that have arisen from decades of post-independence decline in the delivery of basic services and associated sense of despair – manifested most in the behaviour of male youth.
Local and international news have reported the incident a case of tribal fighting, that is resurgent in PNG. Young male raiders who raped, pillaged, decapitated and murdered – reportedly mostly women and children – are portrayed as youthful warriors, engaged in a traditional tribal fight. But the situation in lowlands Angoram district is vastly different from The Highlands region, where tribal fighting has never really gone away because Australian colonial administration was too short and shallow to establish confidence in and respect for national law and police numbers are too limited to turn the tide of violence. It is NGOs – in particular women’s rights organisations and human rights defenders who are acting to protect lives across the seven highlands provinces.
Angoram district is the home district of PNG’s founding Prime Minister, Sir Michael Somare, who 50 years ago led an impressive team of young leaders to consult people across the nation, and deliver a founding constitution that emphasises people and village-centred rural development, equitable delivery of services, opportunity for all citizens to fulfill their potential, non-violent resolution of conflict and retention of customs that respect human rights, while discarding those that involve cruel, inhuman, degrading and discriminatory treatment of others. Failure to deliver policies, laws and programs, in line with this constitutional vision, is another important root cause of the recent incident in Angoram, exacerbated by poor policing and limited access to a very weak and uneven justice system.
Male youth living in remote, under-developed villages routinely consume home brew, smoke marijuana, smuggle weapons (including from rogue police) They move in and out of the village frequently, and return with an urban cockiness and disregard for law and order in the village setting. They provoke people to pay-back with violence, any real or perceived challenge or transgression by neighbouring villages. Watching social media daily – they are bombarded with frequent allegations of corruption by political and administrative leaders and senior police, all who appear to be above the law. The resulting disrespect for leaders and authorities is contagious. It is alienation, disenfranchisement and neglect by leaders who seem not to care about them, that prompts young men to form a gang, reportedly named “I don’t care”, to smoke spak brus (marijuana) drink home brew, and steel themselves conduct frenzied early morning murderous raids, rape and pillage, with seeming impunity. Domestic terror will reign unchecked on innocent citizens, especially women and girls, if the government fails to act and deliver justice immediately and take immediate measures to address other root causes.
Lack of basic services and development, unchecked, rampant logging and impending destructive mining, widespread substance abuse and unchecked manufacture of deadly ‘wire catapults’ (sharpened metal projectiles) by male youth, domestic terror and rape as a weapon for venting discontent, poor policing, weak systems of justice, gun smuggling, and the daily deluge and impact of social media claims of corruption at all levels of government, have created a situation that targets women, girls and children most in acts of terror, physical and sexual assault and murder.
We call upon PNG’s national government and the East Sepik provincial administration to do more than send a mobile police squad. Countering community terror and violence with state violence and terror is not the answer. All villagers, especially women and children, must be protected, and have access to justice.
Social development needs to be urgently addressed at the most local level. What is the budget and capacity of the Easy Sepik government’s division of Community Development? Which NGOs and faith-based organisations have the human and financial resources to respond? Government must enable and support them.
The Pacific Network Against Violence Against women once had very active member organisations in both Wewak and Maprik. They would have stood up and responded to such incidents and they may well have prevented them. But we have watched them fade away, even as the PNG National Parliament finally speaks out and makes laws to advance Gender Equality, women’s empowerment and to end gender-based violence.
We urge the PNG and East Sepik governments to provide immediate safety for affected women and girls, to make thorough investigation and documentation and urgent action to ensure justice for the victims of this violence. We urge them to be accountable, to address the underlying social and economic causes, and not just blame the people and custom. Very significant advances have been made in the promotion and protection of women and girls rights and children’s rights across the Pacific region. The challenge for the PNG government is to recognise, respect and fund civil society partners and programs to ensure those rights and protections set down in law are realised in the most local and remote communities. The PNAVAW stands ready to assist.