Recalling the Black Water Refugee camp experience

Recalling the Black Water Refugee camp experience

PNG Indonesian border marker

By Patrick Matbob



In the early 1980s, confrontation between the Indonesian armed forces and the West Papuan rebels heightened along the PNG/Indonesian border. There were regular skirmishes between the Indonesian armed forces and the Free Papua Movement (OPM) rebels causing refugees to cross the border into Papua New Guinea. The PNG Government at the same time was doing its best trying to care for these refugees while facing criticisms for the way it was handling the issue.



I was working at the TIMES OF PNG newspaper when the then General Manager, Mr Rowan Callick called me into his office.

He wanted me to go over to the Black Water Refugee camp near Vanimo to report on the conditions of the camp and get the views from the refugees. I was to accompany an Australian Channel Nine news team who were flying up to do a special coverage of the Black Water Refugee camp issue.

At that time, more waves of refugees were crossing into PNG, straining the relationship between PNG and Indonesia and causing real headaches for the local authorities at Vanimo. Border skirmishes between the OPM, PNG Defence Force and the Indonesia Armed Forces were regular.

Refugees who crossed over into the Sandaun province were all being housed at Black water refugee camp, which had become overcrowded causing all sorts of problems.

The OPM issue which The Times of PNG excelled in covering was my beat at the time having taken it over from the experienced Neville Togarewa, who had given excellent coverage for many years.

That morning, I was dropped off at the airport and, together with the Channel Nine news team, boarded the charted Talair Beech Barren aircraft. All the Channel Nine TV crew plus their anchor man, scrambled for the back seats of the tiny plane leaving me with the pilot. Early that year, there had been a fatal air crash in the Kokoda Gap and the only survivors in that small Norman Britten Islander were in the back seats!

We taxied off and climbed as our route was direct from Port Moresby to Vanimo over the Enga Province. Once we had cleared the mountainous Enga province, we descended straight over the peaceful Sissano Lagoon in Aitape, then hugged the coast up to Vanimo.

We picked up our hired vehicles from the Government transport pool at Vanimo then headed for the Blackwater Refugee camp outside the town. Blackwater camp was a temporary camp set up by the PNG Government to harbour refugees who were pouring across from the border in the early eighties. It was still expanding with new homes being built when we visited. The Channel Nine news team went about shooting their news footage while I visited the refugees and interviewed them.

A few moments later we heard sirens and a number of police vehicles  led by the provincial police commander, Passingan Taru, drove into the camp. The commander jumped out his car and used a loud hailer to order us to stop what we were doing. He ordered his men to confiscate our cameras, notebooks and other equipment and then commanded us to get into the police vehicles.

We were shocked to say the least, but obeyed orders as the police were heavily armed. Down at Vanimo, we were brought into the police station and then locked up without any explanation.

The Australians demanded to speak to the Australian High Commissioner.

Back in the lock-up, I was getting to know the TV crew members better and trying to calm their excitement by assuring them that everything would be alright.

Some time later, one of the Australians assured us that the High Commission knew we were being detained by police. It wasn’t long before a policeman asked us all to see the commander in his office. The wheels of the ‘powers that be’ had already began to roll.

The police commander was apologetic and told us he was under orders from the Foreign Affairs Department in Port Moresby not to allow us to visit the Blackwater Refugee camp. He said the refugee issue was a sensitive matter and continuous local and international media coverage was hurting our relationship with Indonesian Government.

Eventually, the order came from the Foreign Affairs department in Port Moresby to release us and our equipment returned.

Back in Port Moresby, the incident was given publicity by the media which drew criticisms throughout the country.

This did not help the government because we continued on to complete our coverage of the Blackwater Refugee camp and its crowded conditions. The Government was under pressure to set up another refugee camp at East Awin in Western Province where the refugees from Vanimo were transferred.

PNG medicine men promise miracle cures

PNG medicine men promise miracle cures

By Patrick Matbob

BY the busy Madang market centre in Papua New Guinea they stand displaying their wares. Pasted on the market fence behind them, crude notices advertise the wonder drugs they sell. The drugs promise to cure anything from common cold to AIDS. There is even a PNG national flag to make things look ‘official’, and numerous ‘medical forms’ displayed as ‘evidence’ of the curative qualities of the drugs they sell.

These are the herbal doctors of PNG, the modern kind, who are becoming increasingly popular in the nation’s major centres for the herbal medicines they sell. They have cashed in on a lucrative niche in the commercial drug market brought about by the increasing medical costs, and deteriorating public health systems throughout PNG.

“We get patients from the hospitals, villages, or even workers in the towns,” said Raphael Paul, 33, who was manning one of the two stalls.

“People suffer. They go to chemists or private doctors, but get no help so they come to us,” he said.

Raphael who comes from Bogia in Madang province has no medical background. He was educated up to Grade 10 in high school and worked in various jobs in Lae city before returning home. There he attended a one-week workshop held by a ‘Dr Hanekuvi’ of Goroka in the Eastern Highlands. This has ‘qualified’ him to diagnose, recommend and sell herbal medicines to cure a wide range of ailments in the market place.

Little is known about ‘Dr Hanekuvi’ who was out of town except that he also has no medical qualifications. Raphael said he was an artist who did a ‘life study’ of plants, insects and human life. It was through this study that he was able to discover the herbal drugs he now used to effect miracle cures.

‘Dr Hanekuvi’s’ medicines were all in liquid form and was made, I was told, from garden fruits, roots and leaves. These are boiled in a pot and the juice is extracted. The concoctions are filled into empty 500mls coke bottles and sold at K12 ($5 AUS) per bottle.

“If someone has a strong disease, he returns to continue treatment. Otherwise, it cures.”

At K12 per coke bottle, I thought the price was a little expensive, but as we were talking, someone came and purchased a bottle. Raphael wrote him a receipt then advised him about the dosage. An empty iceblock plastic cup served as the measuring cup.

Meanwhile, the medical authorities in Madang are cautious about these herbal doctors and their medication.

“The contents of the herbs have to be tested,” said Chief Executive of the Modilon Hospital, Mr John Levi. “They have to be registered.”

Mr Levi said those who are promoting and selling herbal medicine must be registered and their herbs scientifically tested to determine whether they really cure the illnesses they claim to.

He said PNG’s National Health Plan for 2001 to 2010 has a policy to identify and register traditional herbal medicine for treatment of diseases.

For the claims to cure AIDS, Mr Levi said; “I don’t think anyone has discovered the medication to cure AIDS yet.”

His advice to the community is to be aware that they may be paying for something “not appropriate which does not cure AIDS.”

He also warned that some of the herbal vendors are just scams to make money.

Not all herbal medicine vendors in PNG operate illegally on the streets.

Minnie Bate is a qualified medical technologist from Milne Bay and runs Gemins Herbal. She has the distinction of being the first Papua New Guinean to promote PNG herbal products on a commercial scale. Minnie runs Gemins Herbal Products in Alotau. Gemins Herbal Products come in oils and cream and they are mostly for external application.

“The jungle is my pharmacy,” declared Minnie. Conditions which Minnie’s products are recommended to cure are skin impetigo, psoriasis, asthma, chronic dermatitis, numbness, warts, arthritis in septic form and vericose veins.

Her products were recently promoted at an Investment Promotion Authority (IPA) seminar in Australia.

There are also other supporters of traditional herbal medicine in PNG. World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) is encouraging in the Pacific, the use of traditional plants for curing common ailments. Oceania Traffic, a non-government organisation which specialises in the monitoring of trade in animals and plants is working closely with WWF on a project to determine if there is a medicinal plant traffic in the Pacific.

While herbal medication is big worldwide, there are always those who are out to make a quick buck.

Janget herbs owned by Simon Janget of East Sepik also shares a spot at the Madang market. Janget claimed his drugs were multi-purpose which he explained “worked in the blood cells, cleansing the blood, killing virus, germs and discharging it through urine and sweat.”

As expected Janget also has no medical background. In fact, he proudly claims to be a mechanical engineer. He said his knowledge came from doing correspondence course with an organisation called Health Science in New York. His concoctions were made from saps of trees and vines in the nearby jungles and again are supposed to cure all ailments, AIDS included. His products would cost you dearly too  - K50 ($20 AUS) per 500 ml coke bottle.

Hospital authorities at Modilon hospital have confirmed that Janget has approached them requesting official recognition for the work he is doing. They have advised him that his products will have to be scientifically tested, its curative qualities verified, its contents identified and labelled, and he must have a licence to trade.

Before I left the stalls, I asked if I could try some of the medicine. The attendants gladly mixed a little bit from each of the different coloured concoctions and offered me a plastic cup. The mixture had a strong scent of citrus or sugar fruits. I took a sip. It tasted like an extremely watered down passion fruit drink, not bitter or nasty, but certainly not something you would want to take for breakfast. I was told if I had any ailment at all, this mixture would cure it. I offered the rest of the medicine to the people around me. Two volunteers immediately stepped forward.

I did not find out what disease they suffered from but at K50 per bottle, I could understand their eagerness.

Ends

WC: 1048

Surviving on the barest minimum

Surviving on the barest minimum

By Patrick Matbob

Samson Wans used to go to school at Baitabag Primary School about 15 kilometres north of Madang. He quit school this year because education has become a luxury for him. His father’s K30 per fortnight wage, as a labourer at Milinat plantation, could not support him and his brother at school. The school fee was K50 for each of them.

“My father could not pay our school fees or even buy our books and pens. He needed the money for things like kerosene, rice, soap and clothes,” said Samson. He was collecting coconuts with his brother to sell for some much-needed cash. There are thousands of Papua New Guineans like Samson who are affected by the minimum wage rate being paid in the country.

Last year the Minimum Wages Board awarded an increase on PNG’s minimum wage from K45 a fortnight to K120 a fortnight. The award, which was gazetted, met stiff opposition from the powerful PNG Employers Federation and the Rural Industries Council who claimed that they could not afford the increase. They said 15,000 to 20,000 jobs would be lost as a result. The employers influential lobby has forced the Government to defer the award while trying to negotiate a lesser rate of K30 a week. So far no agreement has been reached.

The minimum wages was adjusted following the devaluation of the kina and the increased cost of living. The Consumer Price Index (CPI) increase in PNG is estimated at about 100 per cent since 1992 when the minimum wage was last adjusted. This means that since 1992 the prices of most of the goods bought by consumers have doubled.

For Samson’s father and other minimum wage earners in rural areas, the figures mean nothing. The increase in cost of living has hit them hard and K45 can buy very little. A bag of 20-kilogram rice costs nearly K40 and little is left for tinned food, kerosene, soap and PMV fares for two weeks. This is not even considering other costs such as clothing, health and education.

The managers of the companies that pay the minimum wage rate are aware of its inadequacies, yet are wary of the new increase.

Acting Manager of Madang Rural Products (MRP), a poultry company, Sam Gigimat, said his company was struggling at the moment and could not afford to pay the new rate of K120 a fortnight.

“We’ll go under,” he said shaking his head.

MRP pays at a varying rate, depending on sales, starting at a minimum of K45 up to K70 a fortnight when sales are good. This method of payment is allowed under the 1992 wage determination. However, Mr Gigimat is also aware of the needs of his 40 workers at their company site near Yagaum about 10 kilometres from Madang town.

“Each year we give out school fee loans to our workers to help them out.”

 The highest amount paid out is K500 and workers repay the loan through deductions from their pay. No interest is charged. Mr.Gigimat said about K3000 is paid out in school fee loans each year.

Madang Rural Products is a self-help venture set up by the major churches and Madang Government to help the local people and therefore, has a policy to return some of its profit to the people.

Peter Muriki is General Manager of Madang Development Corporation, the business arm of the Madang Provincial Government that owns Siar Plantation. Mr Muriki said they paid their labourers K60 a fortnight, which was about K15 higher than the minimum rate. K60 per fortnight is also the government’s new suggested minimum rate currently being negotiated. Yet, Mr Muriki said, this was inadequate to meet the needs of his workers.

“One worker had two kids in school and wanted a loan of K600 for school fees.

“How can you give them such a loan?”

He said the worker even offered his full pay packet for next 10 fortnights to pay back the loan.

“But I could not do that to him.”

Mr Muriki said he helped them to create other ways to earn money like allowing them to sell coconuts.

“The minimum wage rate is not feasible for a family. It’s a bit inhuman,” he said.

The Employers Federation and Rural Industries Council are made up of wealthy companies and plantation owners who are organised and influential. The minimum wage earners, on the other hand, are totally disadvantaged with no union representation and little government support to look after their interest. The PNG Trade Union Congress, which has been fighting hard for the minimum wage earners, has membership mostly from the higher paid urban workers.

General Secretary of the Trade Union Congress John Paska said: “The K45 minimum rate was at best redundant and at worse legitimising slavery.”

Mr Paska said the PNG Employers Federation and other employer groups have admitted that they pay well above the minimum wage rate of K45. He asked why should the minimum wage of K45 be retained?

Mr Paska was also critical of the Rural Industries Council, which is made up of plantation and farm owners. He accused them of living a lavish lifestyle while their workers were suffering.

“As for the Rural Industries Council, what we know is that management of plantations enjoy a lifestyle that would make urbanites embarrassed.”

Meanwhile, Mike Manning from the Institute of National Affairs is in support of the 1992 Minimum Wage Determination law that all workers should be paid according to the ability of each company to pay. In other words, if a company’s profits increased, the workers should be given a share of that increase.

“This has been the law since 1992 and if any workers are not receiving those increases they should blame their unions and themselves for not demanding their legal rights,” Mr Manning said.

However, this law puts the minimum wage earners at the mercy of employers and policing the law from abuse can be difficult.

“In order to make sure that this law is followed and that all workers are being paid a fair wage the Government should give every assistance to the workers and unions to find out what is a fair wage for each firm,” Mr Manning said.

Companies such as Madang Rural Products and Ululan Plantation in Madang have been following this practice.

The Catholic Mission owned Ululan Plantation paid the minimum K45 per fortnight to its 60 workers and when cocoa prices were good, increased payments to K60 or K70 a fortnight.

Former manager, Mr Paias Bokorum said if wages were raised to K120 a fortnight, he would have definitely closed down the plantation.

“Copra prices were very low. We were not earning anything from copra,” he said.

However, he was also aware of the plight of his 60 workers.

“Their fortnight wages only allowed them a 20kg bag of rice. That’s it. They were basically living on their gardens.”

Mr Bokorum said he helped his workers set up their own canteens to supplement their income. Mr Bokorum highlighted another problem. He said there is a general misconception that because plantations are in rural areas, all labourers can make gardens to supplement their meager income. However, that is not true.

Mr Bokorum said his plantation workers did not own land around the plantation but were allowed to make gardens temporarily by the landowners. However, now the landowners want their land back.

“I can see real problems coming soon,” Mr Bokorum said.

Madang Development Corporation’s General Manager Mr Peter Muriki said if employers want to keep the minimum wages down then they must provide their workers alternatives to earn additional income.

“They (employers) have to encourage self-help projects such as poultry, piggery, fishing or even mix farming,” Mr Muriki said.

He said employers must provide the resources for workers to set up and operate these projects.

While the minimum wage debate was on, the politicians in Port Moresby approved themselves a hefty 100 per cent salary increase much to the disbelief of the rest of the nation. An embarrassed Prime Minister Sir Mekere, who only days earlier had rejected the new minimum wage increase of K120 per fortnight, was going to get more than K6, 000 a fortnight. He has temporarily halted the MPs pay rise and sought a review.

The Employers Federation and the Rural Industries Council argue that by keeping wages low, more people can be employed and the money can help them with costs like school fees. However, that has not been the case for Samson Wans and his brother. Their father’s minimum wage and the high cost of education has put them out of school early to join the thousands of other PNG’s unemployed youths.

A tribute to my adopted mum

A tribute to my adopted mum

 

By Patrick Matbob

This is a personal piece I wrote about my adopted mum who died in February 2000.

 ABOUT 10 years ago, my adopted mum began talking about her death. She was convinced that she would die because she was well into her seventies - well past the 

 

Sons Manzo, Nathan & adopted yas.

average life expectancy age in PNG and was frequently ill. Each time I came home for holidays, I would visit her. When it was time to leave, she would remind me that I was seeing her for the last time.

“When you are in Port Moresby, you will hear the news of my death,” she would tell me confidently. But the news never came.

This year I quit my job in Port Moresby. After years of putting up with the stresses of city life, I headed home with my family. It took a few days to settle into village life. On the first Sunday, I visited my adopted mum. Unlike before she was unable to move or talk and remained in her house. Old age had caught up with her. But as usual she was happy to see me and my family.

I was planning to visit her again the following Sunday. However, that Saturday my sister in-law arrived with the sad news. My adopted mum had just passed away in her sleep at about midday.

I rushed over to her home. She lay on her bed on the floor of her tiny room. I raised the sheet gently from her face. Her body was still warm. Her wrinkled, weather-beaten face was relaxed in a smile. It seemed death had not visited her yet. I wondered why she smiled? At the foot of her bed was a statue of the Virgin Mary. Did the mother of Jesus come to receive her? She was a deeply religious person.

 As I was going through her meagre belongings to prepare her for burial, a brown bed spread still in its wrapper dropped out. My heart missed a beat as I recognised the package. No, it couldn’t be, I muttered to myself. My eyes moistened, as I realised this was a bedspread I had bought for her ten years ago at the old Burns Philp shop in Boroko. The shop had long since burnt down. She had kept it because she wanted her body to be wrapped up in it for burial. Her wish was going to be finally granted.

As we waited for relatives to come to mourn, I headed for a quiet moment by the seaside. Out on the reef edge, giant breakers from the Bismarck Sea thundered and crashed in regular monotony, drowning the cries of the hunting seagulls. These were sights and sounds she would have been familiar with all her life.

My adopted mum lived all her life in the village. After she had her first child, her husband died many years ago. She did not marry again. Instead she adopted me into her family. As I came from a fairly large family, I welcomed the luxury of a second home.

There was, however, nothing luxurious about her home. Being a widow, she hardly had any money and very little else. But it did not matter. Her gardens, the sea and the bush provided her needs. When she needed money she would sell her betelnut or garden crops.

 I always treasured those school holidays I spent with my adopted mum. My natural family never lived in the village because dad was a teacher and worked in other provinces and parts of Madang. It was through my adopted family that I lived in the village at an early age. I was able to grow crops in the garden, go hunting and plant my own betelnut palms. I even had my own pigs.

I realised that the death of my adopted mum had closed a chapter in my life. I had enjoyed a close relationship with her family because of my status as an adopted son.

But the situation would never be the same again. Like in other Melanesian societies, her death nullified that special status I had enjoyed with her family.

Still I would always be grateful to her for the special privilege of a second home and a second mum.

I know she had always loved me as her own. For her, I was not an adopted child. I was the second son she never had.

Mismanagement leaves workers in despair

 Mismanagement leaves workers in despair

 

By Patrick Matbob

 

People suffer when funds are mismanaged

KOMIS Angolo has worked for 26 years at the tobacco plant now owned by British Tobacco Company (B.A.T) in Madang. Since the early 1980s he has been contributing some of his fortnight pay towards his retirement savings with the National Provident Fund of Papua New Guinea (NPF).  He has been looking forward to retiring home to Saidor District where he plans to build a cocoa fermentery and start a family cocoa business.  His 25-year-old eldest son is already at home cultivating the farm.

However, for the last few months he has been a worried man. His employer has told him that the National Provident Fund has been mismanaged resulting in the Fund incurring a massive debt of K154m. Funds have been frozen and members risked losing 10 per cent of their savings.

Komis is worried about his money.

“I am not happy at all,” Komis said, shaking his head as he sipped a can of Coke during his lunch break.

“It’s not their money . . .  It is my hard work to look after my family.”

With little formal education, Komis does not understand the operations of NPF, nor how it has incurred the debt.

All he knows is that he gets regular statements from the Fund telling him how much his savings has grown each year. His last statement in 1998 said he had saved K14,000.

“It’s not good. I have a large family,” he said. He has eight children.

The Prime Minister, Sir Mekere has ordered an inquiry into NPF early this year which is currently in progress. Headed by a former judge, Toss Barnett, the inquiry has revealed gross mismanagement and abuse by former fund managers and directors since 1997.

“Officers have failed to fulfil their statutory responsibility and moral duties. There has been an almost total breakdown in operational procedures,” said Sir Mekere in a letter to all NPF members. “Checks and balances that ensure accountability have been ignored.”

Sir Mekere said the new managers of the Fund have sought legal advice to bring to justice those responsible.

The debt problem happened when the previous NPF board and management borrowed to fund the organisation’s growth. Many of the assets bought with borrowed capital were in the resource sector which did not generate dividends to meet interest costs. In 1998 and early 1999 resource markets came under strong downward pressure, with rising interest rates and a falling kina. This resulted in NPF being forced to sell these assets to retire debt. The other major asset built solely on borrowed money was the NPF Tower (known as the Deloitte Tower) to the amount of K60 million with an interest bill of approximately K12m per annum.

Camilus Dambui, from East Sepik believes he will never see his money.

“We have no faith in NPF. We will not get our money,” he said.

Camilus also works for British American Tobacco in Madang and has contributed K14 each fortnight towards NPF for the last six years.
He said his last statement which he received in 1996 showed he had over K1000 in his savings. He has no other savings.

He wants to go back to his village and use his NPF money to build a home and educate his children.

“How can the government treat us like this?,” he asked. “We are grassroot people.”

Contributors in Madang were furious when they first learnt about the plight of NPF. Employees of major companies such as B.A.T, James Barnes, and R.D. Cannery held urgent meetings with their employers and demanded that they withdraw their money from NPF and set up separate savings schemes.

“We have been meeting with the company four or five times already,” said Camillus. “We want them to set up our own fund.”

However, their employers have told them to await the outcome of the inquiry.

A new management has taken over NPF and since last year began the arduous task of restoring proper management of the Fund and retiring the massive K154m debt. As of December last year, the debt has been reduced to K38m and the new managers are confident that by December 2000 the Fund will be debt free. They have reported that their program is ahead of schedule.

The new managers have also drafted legislative changes to strengthen accountability and transparency in the NPF Act. The legislative changes recommended removal of government appointees from the NPF Board, to decide the appointment of both the chairman and managing director, enshrining the newly formed Audit and Remuneration committee within the Act, reducing the retirement age for entitlement from 55 to 50 years of age, and removal of the forfeiture rule on employer contributions.

Seated in his comfortable air-conditioned office in Madang, Francis Kasi is confident he will get all his savings from NPF.

“I know my money is safe. If they touch it, I take them to court,” Mr Kasi said confidently.

Mr Kasi is the branch manager of Ela Motors in Madang and another long time contributor to NPF.

Employers of Ela Motors and other companies have contributed K5 each and hired a lawyer to ensure that they contributions will be safe.

Mr Kasi has contributed for more than 15 years which, under the NPF laws, entitles him to all his savings.

“I’ve been in the system longer and I know how it works . . . The system is still operating,” he said.

He has suggested that a solution to preventing such mismanagement is to let the Bank of Papua New Guinea manage the Fund.

“That’s the best solution,” he said.

The prime minister has also made similar suggestions in Parliament recently.

Sir Mekere has promised action over the NPF crisis.

He said the government will prepare legislation to regulate the superannuation sector in PNG.

“The funds performance and the failings that caused it are unacceptable to the Government.

“This legislation will ensure that fund trustees, management and boards in every part of the industry are subject to the most rigorous monitoring possible and that fund processes and decisions are fully accountable and transparent.”

Thousands of Papua New Guineans like Komis and Camillus have been told by the employers to wait patiently.

They wait but anxiously. They will know their money is safe only when they have it in their hands. In the meantime, their dreams for retirement will have to wait . . .

ends

Tidal wave hits Madang coast 70 years ago

Tidal wave hits Madang coast 70 years ago

By Patrick Matbob

 

ON Christmas eve, 70 years ago the people of Sapara village along the North coast of Madang were preparing for a major celebration for the festive season. The occasion was also special because of the opening of a new church building for which many of the surrounding villagers were to attend. The celebrations never happened. A huge tidal wave hit Sapara coast the day before Christmas destroying the new church, the station, the villages and killing many people. One of the survivors of that tidal wave disaster was the late Rev Engel Mundus van Baar, a Catholic priest at the mission station at Sapara. This story is based on his autobiography, which tells of this tragedy.

Kids play peacefully at Sapra beach today.

---------------------------------------------------------

 FR van Baar had finished hearing confessions and was waiting outside near the church in case there was anyone else who wanted to go to confessions. It was Christmas eve, 1930, and there was an atmosphere of great expectation for the Christmas mass celebration as well as the opening of the new church. The Church was magnificently decorated and people had been preparing for a big feast and singsing.

Suddenly, Father heard a noise and looked out to sea. He saw a huge wave rush up the shore towards the church and the house. It was unusual. Nothing like this ever happened before.

“I saw the water retreating, but it was more than that; the sea was pulled back with such a noise, with such force as one cannot imagine, the whole harbour was half-empty.

The noise was so terrible; Fr van Baar called the boys who had rushed out to catch the fish, which were being washed on to the reefs, to come back. His voice was however, drowned by the roar of the sea.

“The yellow water churned and boiled through the holes in the reef. I shouted again to the children to come back . . . it was nearly too late! The whole sea turned and with all its strength rushed shorewards.

“Then I saw a gigantic wave crashing into my house and the church, I saw them breaking up - and I ran for my life.”

“I ran and ran towards the road, towards the village Meriman nearby. The village was empty; all had escaped into the bush. Frightened of the thunderous noise and seeing the place full of water, I raced onto the road into the bush; but already I was up to my knees in seawater. Thanks to God, although the whole road was under water, I went in the middle of it and so I just missed a big waterhole were the natives usually fetch their water for cooking.  If I had fallen into the well, I would have drowned.”

Father ran on hoping to find some people but sadly, the only person he met was the dying wife of his catechist Werner, who was in her last days of pregnancy.

“I spoke a few words to her, gave her absolution . . . and she was dead.”

Knowing he could not help her any more, Father dashed back looking for others. However, he was alone.

He made his way back to the coast but heard the sea still pounding and was afraid.

“It could happen again,” he thought, the sea could come back again and the water could sweep still further inland.

Eventually Father located some people and told them to find Werner, the catechist whose wife had died with her baby in her womb. Werner was found and told the sad news. His wife was brought to the village to be buried.

The station was totally destroyed. Not one house or anything on the station was spared, amongst them the new church and the priest house. The pieces were lying everywhere in the garden. The wife of another catechist was carried into the garden where all survivors had gathered. The old school church had fallen on her when she was busy polishing the chalice - there had been no warning. She may have broken her spine as she was in dreadful pain and had no strength in her body. There was no doctor, no hospital, absolutely nothing to help her. Her husband did his best to comfort her.

The search began for survivors and for bodies. A collapsing house killed a boy and a girl. Their bodies were so mutilated they had to be buried at once.

Someone reported a missing baby but the body was never found. A wife of one of the catechist was also missing but the search was abandoned when light failed.

The next morning was Christmas Day. The previous night was spent in the gardens, the villagers too scared to return to the villages. On the Christmas morning the wife of the catechist who had a broken spine was carried to another mission station, four hours walk away. There she died.

“Christmas morning . . . no mass, no people, no Christmas for us . . . there was nothing, only sorrow,” wrote Fr Van Bar.

That morning the search continued. This time the people moved the great piles of debris lying around and under the debris they found the missing wife of the catechist, lying dead covered with blood.

“She had been swept by the debris of the house and smashed against a coconut tree. She must have been killed instantly. Philomena, she was now the third one, the wife of my good catechist, Alois from Tumleo. And one should not weep?” wrote an emotional Fr Van Bar.

“My dearest people had been taken away under such tragic circumstances! And this was Christmas day, when all should feel the greatest joy, but we were clothed in deepest sorrow.”

Two native messengers were dispatched immediately to the Catholic Church headquarters at Alexishafen with the message about the disaster. The messengers arrived at Alexishafen at midday just when the missionaries were preparing to enjoy their Christmas lunch. The boys passed a short note about the disaster to the Bishop. Everyone was deeply shocked.

There had been so many deaths (no figures recorded) because people were taken by surprise and the tidal wave had swept them away with the houses and buried them under the debris.

“I’ll never forget that Christmas,” Fr Van Bar wrote.

Assistance was sent from Alexishafen on the 100 tons mission steamer Stella Maris. A government officer accompanied the missionaries to investigate the disaster.

After the disaster, the mission station was moved from Sapara to Ulingan where it is situated today.

Although, the disaster happened more than 70 years ago, today many old people in the villages along the north coast of Madang still remember the story of the tidal wave that hit Sapara.

Tourism regional office closure

Tourism regional office closure

By Patrick Matbob

Mambo Pipoi and her pots

Mambo Pipoi finished firing her pots; the small, medium and large bronze earthen vessels lay cooling in a pile by the roadside. Like most elderly PNG village women, she was stripped to her waist for this hot, sweaty task.

Pots were a source of income for Mambo and her people from Bilbil village and for many years has been a major tourist attraction in Madang. Today though Mambo had been disturbed by some bad news. The Tourism Promotion Authority’s (TPA) Momase Regional Office had closed down in April and the Manager Erigeri Singin was going back to Port Moresby. Mambo was sad that Ms Singin, who was like a daughter to her, was leaving and wondered if her departure would affect the little income that came from pottery.

As part of her job, Ms Singin had been working closely with the Bilbil people in promoting and marketing their unique cultural attractions such as the pots, traditional singsings and canoe making. Ms Singin had also been developing and promoting other village level tourism products such as guesthouses and attractions in the Momase region. The news that she was leaving had come as blow to those she helped.

“TPA promotes us and our resources. If they close down, what will happen to promotion?” asked an alarmed Gerhard Salib, the Bilbil village youth president.

Mr. Salib said in Bilbil they put on traditional singsings for visitors for a fee.

Last year traditional singsing shows had earned the village K5, 250. Some of the money was divided among the participants while the rest was kept in an account.

“I appeal to them to reopen the office or our income will drop,” said Mr. Salib.

Money or lack of it, is the main reason why the TPA regional offices have been closed down, said Sir Peter Barter, Acting Chairman of the Tourism Promotion Authority Board.

“There’s too little money. There’s very little capacity for tourism promotions and we were unlikely to get results,” Mr. Barter said from his office at Madang Resort Hotel.

The decision to abolish the regional offices was taken last year.

Initially, four regional offices for TPA were established. However, the Highlands office in Mt Hagen office failed due to lack of support and the islands office in Kavieng closed down following a dispute with the local authorities. The Momase office was well run, however, lacked support from the Madang Provincial Government. In fact, the provincial tourist office in Madang closed several months earlier due to lack of money.

Last year, the TPA Board wanted to set up their regional offices under the Regional Secretariats, which were established by the Provincial Governments in the four regions of the country. The Board had written to the Secretariats offering that TPA would share the costs of establishing tourist offices in each region under the Secretariats however, there has been no response so far. Officers from the Port Moresby TPA office will now look after the regions.

Outgoing Momase Regional Manager for TPA, Ms Singin however said TPA can not effectively promote tourism from Port Moresby because it is too far away from the major tourists’ destinations.

“I see such offices in the provinces as good investment in tourism industry and the right direction to go.

“The industry has to develop and make money. Closing down regional office does not help,” she said.

“It is the little people who will suffer. They are directly being hit as developers of culture, nature based, community or eco-tourism.

Ms Singin said hotels and bigger operators would survive because they have the resources and contacts with tourists and the system is suitable for them.

For the small guesthouse operators in Madang, the closure of the TPA Regional office in Madang adds to the hardships they have been facing.

Moyang Okira owns Kekki guesthouse in the cool mountains of Madang some 200 kilometres from the town and represents resource owners like him.

“It’s time that the government of this province with its concerned authorities should really get the small people of this province off the ground and let them enjoy the maximum benefit,” Mr. Okira told a recent tourism conference in Madang. Mr. Okira and other small operators face problems such as poor road and transport access to their sites, and lack of communications facilities.

“We small resource owners with much help from the concerned authorities like TPA and MV&CB (Madang Visitors & Cultural Bureau) can be able to raise the level of quality customer services to meet the demand.

 However, the tourism industry in PNG has not been doing well. Acting TPA Chairman Sir Peter Barter said there is a general decline in tourist arrivals.

“It is essential that PNG attract sufficient tourists to support village lodges, guest houses as well as existing hotels and other facilities. The single biggest problem we face today in tourism is that we do not have any tourists!”

Sir Peter said the TPA Board, Air Niugini and a number of operators were working under very difficult circumstances to address this problem. He said the new direct Air Niugini Sydney service and the recently announced air services to Osaka and Narita may help reverse this situation.

However, he said this is not enough to restore the tourist arrivals we have lost as a perception of a bad image real or otherwise.

He said TPA and Air Niugini have embarked on a program to bring more journalists, film units, travel agents, and tour operators to PNG.

“Even this effort will not immediately bring results, it will take many years of constant promotion to make tourism a meaningful industry and an industry that will filter right down into the grass root areas,” Mr. Barter said.

“You can’t help if you don’t have tourists,” Mr. Barter said. “We must have steady flow of tourists before we can send them to the lodge and guests houses.”

Meanwhile, Madang province’s newly established Provincial Tourism Planning Committee is regretful that the regional office has been closed. The committee was established following a tourism forum co-ordinated by the outgoing TPA Regional Manager, Ms Singin last year.

The Committee Chairman, Mr. Peter Muriki said Ms Singin’s involvement was to the advantage of the province.

One of the committee major tasks was to develop a tourism plan for Madang.

“Madang Government does not have a tourism policy in place,” said Mr. Muriki who is also the General Manager of the Madang Development Corporation, the business arm of the Madang Government. He said the provincial government is aware of the need to have a policy in place but so far has not done so. This year the Madang Provincial Government has budgeted money to get consultants to draw up a tourism policy for the province.

“With a tourism plan, then the industry can be developed to benefit everyone from five star hotels down to tiny guests houses,” he said.

“We want all operators to be involved.”

He said with Madang as a tourism spot, the TPA regional office should be established in Madang.

High up in the mountains surrounding the Kekki guesthouse, the mist seeped in amongst the leaves and tree trunks of the pristine rainforests that shrouded the steep mountainsides. The birds of paradise split the silent air with their sharp calls. They were visible high on the treetops yet isolated from the rest of the world only kilometres away. Bird watching was a main feature at Kekki apart from hard trekking or just enjoying the beauty of the wilderness. For now though, it seems this enchanting place will remain locked away from tourists and visitors for some time until a proper tourism industry can be developed to attract more visitors to Madang and PNG.

Wds 1,274