Violencde against Asians

22 May 2009

Widespread violence against Asians has flared up across Papua New Guinea resulting in destruction and looting of Asian shops and the death of three local people.
The rapid spread of the violence beginning with a rampage at the Ramu Nickel Refinery site at Basamuk, and followed by rioting and looting in six provincial capitals of the country has surprised the authorities, including the police.
The country’s National Parliament has agreed to set up a special bi-partitioned committee to investigate the unrest while leaders have tried to make sense of the events.
Acting Prime Minister Dr Puka Temu has condemned the violence and apologised to Asian business that have been victimized. Dr Temu said: “While our Prime Minister Sir Michael Somare is overseas trying to lure investors to our country, here we have a handful of hooligans and opportunists doing the exact opposite”.
However, resentment against the influx of Asians and the way the PNG government has handled the issue has been growing amongst ordinary Papua New Guineans for some years now.
Four days before the riots in the capital cities and towns, workers at the giant Chinese owned Ramu Nickel project in Madang went on a rampage following an accident that has left a Papua New Guinean worker with permanent injuries.
The incident happened on Friday May 8 when workers were trying to deliver some heavy reinforcement rods uphill on a tractor driven by a Chinese worker. According to a relative of the victim, the heavy load caused the engine to stall and jerked the trailer throwing the victim off. He fell down and the tractor ran over him, seriously injuring his lower abdomen and his genitals. The incident sparked a fight between the PNG and Chinese workers which was eventually stopped. PNG workers then demanded that the injured worker be airlifted to Madang for treatment however, this did not happen further angering the local workers. Four hours after the accident, he was ferried to Madang by boat which took another two and half hours. Angry PNG workers and local villagers then went on rampage for more than two hours smashing buildings, vehicles and construction machinery and looting office equipment such as computers and radios. Five Chinese nationals were seriously injured, 33 received minor injuries, and the cost of the damage has been estimated at K11m. The seriously injured Chinese workers were airlifted by helicopter to Port Moresby for treatment at a private hospital.
PNG Mineral Resource Authority (MRA), which inspected the site after the incident, has criticized MCC for its continuous poor safety work practices. Managing Director of MRA Kepas Wali said during the stakeholders meeting in Madang that the company’s safety record was not good enough. MRA’s report to the Madang Governor’s office stated: “This incident would not have happened if there were proper safety measures on site. There is lack of safety culture and unsafe work practice.”
MCC and its contractors have a history of poor health, safety and work standards at the Refinery site and two years ago the PNG Department of Labour and Industrial Relations has threatened to shut down the operation because of breach of PNG labor and industrial regulations.
Meanwhile, four days after the Basamuk incident, a protest march was held against Asian owned businesses in Port Moresby which erupted into violence and widespread looting of shops. A day later mobs of local people in Lae, PNG’s second capital, attacked and looted Asian shops throughout the city in which a teenager was reported to have been trampled to death when police confronted the rioters. The town of Madang was next to be hit by looters however, only one shops was looted and police intervened and controlled the situation. The violence then spread into the Highlands region where Asians investments in the towns of Goroka, Mt Hagen and Wabag came under attack. Thousands of people broke into and looted shops owned by Asians and police had a hard time controlling the crowd. NBC radio in Enga reported that two men were shot dead by police in Wabag and a number of men had been injured.
While the clashes at the Ramu Nickel mine and the riots in the provincial capitals are not related, they have been caused by the same reasons. Sentiments have been building up for a long time as Papua New Guineans watched a large influx of Asians into the country to set up and run retail businesses in the major provincial capitals – especially businesses that by law should have been reserved for local people. Locals have also been concerned about how the foreigners have treated local employees over pay, working conditions and harassment of female workers. There is also suspicion of bribery of government workers, agencies and local leaders to favor and protect the Asian businesses.
The government’s special treatment of Chinese brought in to work at Ramu Nickel has also upset many Papua New Guineans. Most of the Chinese workers in the country cannot speak English yet have been issued work permits despite breaching labour and immigration laws that state that non-citizens must be proficient in the English language. The breach of these and other laws have been questioned by the Labour Department however, the PNG government has ordered the department to overlook the laws. A crack down by Labour Department last year to arrest hundreds of Chinese workers of Ramu Nickel who had been in the country without proper work permits came to nothing when a PNG magistrate’s court released all the workers. Chief Magistrate John Numapo handed down the decision to free the workers at the Madang District court after finding that the workers were brought into the country to work under a government-to-government agreement between PNG and China.
Local landowners affected by the Ramu Nickel project also have their own issues with the PNG government over the project. Landownership issues have remained outstanding for years and the national government has failed to convene a Land Titles Commission hearing to resolve the matter. Lack of funding to convene the hearings has been a major issue.
The lengthy delay in the review of the Memorandum Of Agreement (MOA) for the project caused by various reasons, has also been also been a key issue. Without an effective MOA, landowners and stakeholders have been missing out on spin-offs and compensation benefits from the project development.
Other recent developments such as the decision by the company to deviate the pipeline from the original agreement has also angered landowners who had signed the original agreements and expected compensation for their land on which the pipeline would follow.