Row leads to sexual assault in PNG

Port Moresby (The National): A LAND dispute and election-related violence have led to the sexual assault on three women, one of them a student, in the Usino local level government, Madang.

The three women, two of them mothers with children, from Bundi are calling on the police to quickly arrest the culprits so that they could be punished.

The schoolgirl has since fled Usino for Lae after her traumatising experience.

One of the two mothers said they were attacked because locals were angry that outsiders were squatting on their land.

She said they heard the attackers surrounding the house between 9pm and 10pm when they were alone at home.

She said they pleaded with the men to leave them alone and told them that they had sisters and mothers just like the two mothers.

The two women, who asked not to be identified, said by phone that a store and two houses, 50 chickens and three pigs belonging to them were destroyed.

Thomas Kembo from Bundi condemned the attack on the women, saying that police had not responded to the complaints and the culprits were still free.

“We are calling on the provincial police commander to remove police personnel here as they don’t seem to know what they are doing,” he said. 

“They are not making arrests and passing the buck to the community to pay compensation again. Why are they turning a blind eye?”

Rural police station commander at Usino Sgt Morea Hova said the police did not ask the settlers to pay compensation but it was up to the people themselves as they thought the court process would take too long.

He said they would be arresting the men who attacked the women.

One of the mothers said Usino was turning into a little outlaw station.