The recent escape from the Bomana jail, has brought to the spotlight, the issue of inefficient prison security and possible collaboration of warders helping prisoners escape.

Minister Jim Simatab told Parliament today, that broad daylight escapes, show a breakdown in command and management of prisons.

His comments form part of a report to the Prime Minister regarding prison security in the country.

"The first conclusion, it appears there is a total break down in command and management of prisons and prison cells.

"Other reports have confirmed that the situation is common in jails throughout the country.

"Number two is the lack of allegiance by Correctinal Service officers of their duty in ensuring safety and security of prisons.

"This indicates a serious decline in the management of the Correctional Service.

"Number three there is a widespread complicity between well-to-do inmates and the corrupt CS officers.

"This has weakened prison securities.

"The report concludes that if this culture continues will no doubt lead to future escapes," Minister Simatab said.

The Correctional Service has recorded its highest prison escape in years, this year.

Forty-four prisoners escaped from Madang's Beon Jail in March, while another fifty-nine fled the bars in Lae's Buimo Jail last month.

From the total of ninety-three escapees, only nine have been recaptured while two others were shot.


NBC

The Director General of the Melanesian Spearhead Group Secretariat, Peter Forau and the Commissioner of Police of the Royal Papua New Guinea Constabulary, Tom Kulunga today signed a Memorandum of Understanding to formalize the recruitment of a Police Liaison Officer - PLO - from the RPNGC to be seconded to the MSG Secretariat.

The signing ceremony will enable the secondment of the PLO to work with the Secretariat on Police Cooperation arrangements between member countries of the MSG, a key work program of the Police Commissioners Conference. This is the second secondment by member countries to the MSG Secretariat. 

The first secondment last year was by Vanuatu.

The officer to be seconded is Chief Superintendent Donald Yamasombi, Director of the Criminal Investigation Division of the RPNGC. 

The signing ceremony which was conducted at the MSG headquarters in Port Vila, witnessed by police heads of MSG member countries.
NBC

Residents in Port Moresby and surrounding communities are urged to assist police recapture the remaining two prison escapees as a massive manhunt continues.

The remaining duo are notorious bank robber William Kapris and Raphael Walimini.

The third escapee Michael Warangu was gunned down near Laloki this afternoon.

Warangu, together with Kapris and Walimini allegedly walked out of the prison cells at Bomana yesterday in what is described as ''Hollywood Style''.

NCD Metropolitan Superintendent Andy Bawa told NBC News Kapris and Walimini are both armed and dangerous and sounded a warning to those abetting and harbouring them that they will face the same consequence if caught.

"Anyone habouring these two criminals will be seen as criminals themselves.

"They are a danger to the community.

"So I ask you to help police provide information that will help us move in quickly and bring them back into custody," Mr. Bawa said.

Mr Bawa says circumstances surrounding the escape will be part of an independent investigations to be conducted by police.

NBC

The minister of police in Papua New Guinea, Nixon Duban, says the government aims to add 2,500 police officers on top of the current 5,000 by 2015.

Last year, Mr Duban promised to double the size of the force by that date as part of a commitment to addressing law and order issues.

He admits the growing tension surrounding the LNG project in Hela province could require police involvement and says if there is a need for additional deployments he will act.

He says with a population of about seven million the current ratio is about one police officer to 1,600 people - the UN has asked PNG to reach a target of 1 to 450.

“That can be achieved if we have recruitments in thousands, we need to open up a couple more training academies for the police and that is a priority at the moment. We are targetting to have at least two thousand more on top of the current 5,000 so by 2015 hopefully we’ll go up to 7,000.”Nixon Duban says the government is working on problems that have accumulated over the last few governments who paid little attention to boosting police numbers. RNZI

The four suspects involved in the rape of an American scientist on Karkar Island in Madang, a fortnight ago, have been charged.

The suspects were apprehended this week during a joint police-correction services dawn raid earlier this week.

They were to have appeared in court yesterday for mention, but did not because there were no magistrates to preside over their cases.

NBC News was informed by a staff at the Madang District Court yesterday that all three magistrates including the senior provincial magistrate Malcolm Samala are out of the province attending a meeting in Port Moresby. 

The officer says their cases have been put off until next week when the magistrates return from their meeting. 

The four suspects have been charged with one count of unlawful sexual penetration, three counts each of kidnapping, deprivation of liberty, armed robbery and assault under the criminal code.

NBC

Papua New Guinea wants Australia to treat its citizens the same as New Zealanders.

PNG's prime minister Peter O'Neill has called for a reduction in the mountain of paperwork his people have to climb to visit Australia.

Mr O'Neill has flagged easier visa access will be on the agenda when Prime Minister Julia Gillard visits Port Moresby later this month.

He says there are a lot of unnecessary questions in the visa process and he wants Australia to offer the same visa arrangements as it does to New Zealand citizens.

He says it's a pity increasing numbers of people from PNG are turning to Asia for medical and education needs rather than Australia which is just two hours away. AAP

Prime Minister Peter O'Neill on Wednesday laid down a mid-May deadline for a series of laws toughening sentences for violent crimes, such as murder and rape, to be debated in parliament.

The government has seized on a series of brutal murders and rapes across the country to justify applying the death penalty, which has not been used in the Pacific Island nation since 1954.

"In essence it's state-sanctioned violence," Amnesty International spokeswoman Kate Schuetze told Radio Australia.

"Is this a deterrent to these people? It isn't, because it doesn't address the underlying causes, it doesn't address the fear that is prevailing about sorcery itself."

Belief in sorcery is widespread in PNG and has taken on the form of horrific public show-trials where the accused, usually women, are murdered following hours of torture.

In early February, the murder of 20-year-old mother of one Kepari Leniata - who was stripped, tortured and burned alive on the outskirts of Mt Hagen - attracted international attention.

In that murder, and in the beheading murder of former teacher Helen Rumbali in Bougainville two months later, PNG's police force was incapable of helping despite witnessing the lead-up to the murder.

"The problem with the violence we're seeing in Papua New Guinea is, time and time again the police are failing to intervene," Ms Schuetze said.

"They do not have the resources, or the proper judicial process is not carried through right to the end."

In the murder of Rumbali, and the kidnapping and torture of her sister Nikono and Nikono's two teenage daughters, a lone police officer was left to negotiate for the women's release.

PNG's former attorney-general, Sir Arnold Amet, also publicly opposed the application of the death penalty and called for more education to stamp out belief in sorcery.

The death penalty is part of PNG law, although it has not been carried out since 1954, when PNG was a colonial territory of Australia.

The government said this week it was considering instituting death by firing squad as a more humane method than the legally prescribed death by hanging.

The legal package to be presented before PNG's single house of parliament in mid-May also includes lifting the penalty for rape to life without parole.

Shortly after the murder of Ms Rumbali, Australian Robert Purdy was murdered in the Western Highlands and his Filipina friend was gang raped.

In a separate attack shortly after, an American academic was also gang raped, and her boyfriend and a guide tied up and beaten.

Mr O'Neill's legal package also includes a minimum 10-year sentence for drug possession and tougher penalties for home-brewed alcohol.

Liquor licensing laws will be taken out of the hands of the provincial government and handed to the national government.

There will also be shorter trading times for liquor retailers.

PORT MORESBY, PNG --- Fijian company Flour Mills Fiji (FMF) Ltd is looking at increasing the size of its products in the PNG market after the two governments have agreed to strengthen trade relations.


Group chief executive officer Ram Bajekal told The National from Fiji that FMF products including biscuits, noodles and potato chips had been in the PNG market for more than six years.

“At the moment, we have an ongoing agreement with Pacific Industries Ltd as our product distributor and are in the process of identifying more for different zones of PNG.

“FMF products are doing well, they are growing in the PNG market,” Bajekal said.

“The PNG market is certainly very exciting with huge potential.


“We currently perceive it to be a bit over-heated at the moment with products selling at prices far higher than what could be termed reasonable.


“In the case of some staple commodities such as rice, we see prices nearly four times the prices in Fiji and it is difficult to fathom what makes them that high.

“At such high prices, it looks as though the real consuming population would not be more than 20% to 25% of the total population,” he said.


“I feel the real potential of PNG as a market will truly come alive only when participants start getting used to normal costs and normal profits.


“At the moment everything seems to be hyper-inflated: costs, profit expectations and as a consequence, prices.

Police in Papua New Guinea have charged four men with the murder of an Australian man in the country's highlands.

Last month, 62-year-old Robert Purdy was shot and killed by a group of men who broke into the house he was staying in on the outskirts of Mount Hagen.

The intruders also gang-raped a Filipino woman.

According to local reports, police have arrested four men and charged them with wilful murder and rape.

Two were arrested last week and were denied bail and the others were apprehended over the weekend while travelling to a neighbouring province.

They are due in court later today.

Police believe at least six other men were involved in the attack.


ABC

Papua New Guinea's Government has approved a series of tough penalties for crimes such as rape, in a move described by Prime Minister Peter O'Neill as "draconian".

PNG's National Executive Council, a cabinet-like body, approved a raft of legislation on Wednesday to increase the penalties for violent crimes such as murder and rape, as well as activating the Pacific nation's long-dormant death penalty.

"These proposed legislations will carry real maximum sentences we have never before seen in this country," O'Neill said.


"We will regulate and pass laws that some people in our community may find draconian but I think the majority of people are demanding it.


"We as a responsible government will deliver it."


Opposition Leader Belden Namah said he would support the laws, which will go to Parliament for debate in mid-May.


The penalty for rape would be increased to life without parole.


O'Neill also proposed a "high-risk", maximum-security prison for violent offenders, to be built on an as-yet-unnamed isolated island.


The laws also include tougher penalties for alcohol and drug offences.They include a maximum 50-year jail term for selling or cultivating marijuana and a maximum of 20 years for people found to be making home-brewed alcohol.


Institute of National Affairs director Paul Barker said the laws need to be handled carefully.


"When your judicial and police are weak, there's always the possibility you have got the wrong person," he said.


There are currently 10 inmates in PNG who have been sentenced to death, but the nation hasn't carried out an execution since before independence from Australia in 1975.


Attorney General Kerenga Kua told the Post Courier newspaper PNG's criminal code currently only allows hanging as a method for capital punishment.


He said he wasn't keen to reintroduce that method of punishment.


"Work is progressing ... to amend the criminal code to accommodate the options considered painless and non-violent to those on death row when executed," he said.


Church groups have spoken out in recent weeks against the reintroduction of the death penalty.


PNG's international reputation has taken a beating in recent months after a series of unrelated brutal murders and rapes across the country.


In early February 20-year-old Kepari Leniata was tortured, stripped and burned alive in front of a crowd who accused her of witchcraft on the outskirts of Mt Hagen, PNG's third largest city.


In the same area, Australian expat Robert Purdy was shot and killed in a home invasion carried out by 10 men, who then pack raped a woman staying in the house.


An American academic travelling in Madang on the nation's east coast was also pack raped earlier this month, and a woman was beheaded for sorcery in Bougainville.


AAP