P.N.G. package on crime

Press, 22 October 1984, Page 4

P.N.G. package on crime

NZPA-AAP Port Moresby The "rascal” gangs of Papua New Guinea will soon face checkpoints on roads leading from the capital, Port Moresby, troops backing up an enlarged police force, and a flogging if they commit rape. The Prime Minister, Mr Michael Somare, in an address to the nation on Saturday evening reversed his decision to reintroduce the death penalty for gang rape. "It might make criminals kill their victims to escape identification and the hangman’s noose,” Mr Somare said on national radio.

“Capital punishment is an option we may consider in the future, if the situation deteriorates.” Mr Somare was announcing a package of measures to combat crime but said this would mean cuts in some services and development projects. Government sources said the Finance Department was costing the measures and making ' last-minute

changes to the Budget due to be released early next month.

Mr Somare said his Cabinet had discussed the death penalty but many Ministers felt their humanitarian and Christian beliefs would not allow them to support it. “Corporal punishment received much more support and, provided there are no Constitutional difficulties, we will introduce legislation for it in the next sitting of Parliament,” he said.

There would be heavier sentences for especially vicious crimes.

“These will include flogging of rapists and longer mandatory sentences for violence,” Mr Somare said. There has been a public outcry for a crackdown on crime since two New Zealand women and a girl, aged nine, were pack-raped at a Port Moresby house in a compound patrolled by security guards. Mr Somare said Papua New Guinea would examine

Tongan and Fijian laws on corporal punishment as a guide for the legislation. The 4000-member police force would increase in size by 200 immediately and by an extra 100 in a year. More expatriates would be recruited to specialise in training, prosecutions and middle management. To take off the pressure of routine duties, a police reserve of citizen volunteers will be formed. The police can now also call in Defence Force personnel as a back up. Police mobile or “riot” squads will be used by a new squad to deal with organised crime during urban patrolling. Movement in and out of Port Moresby will be controlled by boom gates set up on the main roads and a criminal intelligence unit will be established. “This increased strength will allow police to patrol more intensely, especially at night,” Mr Somare said. “This expansion will be ac-

companied by a determined effort to improve police efficiency.” Courts and prisons will also be strengthened. A parole system to relieve overcrowding will be introduced as will a jail on a remote island for those who vyill not reform. The vagrancy laws will be reviewed to hasten the movement of people in squatter settlements, said to be recruiting grounds for rascai gangs, to more established areas.

The youth of Papua New Guinea will be able to join a group to be called Youth Pioneers.

“They will be organised into groups to gain discipline, learn skills and positive values and to do basic work for their country,” Mr Somare said. More details on the anticrime measures would be released within a week.

“Inevitably all these measures — for police, the courts, the prisons and for youth — will cost a great

deal of money,” Mr Somare said. ’

“Our funds are limited. This money will have to come from other areas. Some services and some projects will have to be cut”

The Papua New Guinea Government this year budgeted 57 million kina (about $l3O million) for law enforcement.

Mr Somare did not give a total figure but Government officials said that the new measures would probably cost more than 20 million kina ($45 million).