Papua New Guinea police have arrested five men in Goroka over their alleged involvement in the killing of PNG Ports managing director Fego Kiniafa.
Provincial Police Commander Chief Superintendent Michael Welly said the men were in police custody and were now being questioned over the slaying of Kiniafa on the morning of September 17 — last Saturday — near Nagamiufa village outside Goroka town.
Kiniafa and his driver were reportedly slashed with machetes after the CEO shot a Nagamiufa villager.
Welly said investigations were continuing into the killing which sparked a tribal fight.
In the early hours of last Saturday between 1am and 4am, it was alleged that Kiniafa, who had turned 43 on September 16 — PNG Independence Day — was with a few men near Nagamiufa village when a confrontation occurred.
Kiniafa, from Korofeigu village in Lower Bena, is alleged to have discharged a weapon.
The bullet hit another man.
Several tribesmen incited
The shooting incited several tribesmen of the injured man to attack Kiniafa, slashing him several times before leaving him.
Details about what happened next has not been mentioned by police. However, it is believed Kiniafa was rushed to Goroka General Hospital where he was pronounced dead on arrival.
Two days later on Monday, a 4am dawn raid was conducted at Nagamiufa village by men allegedly from Korofeigu village, Lower Bena.
The raid on Nagamiufa caused about 400 plus women, girls and the elderly to seek refuge within the gates of the Bihute Correctional Services prison.
Goroka Airport also shut its gates, causing several 100 passengers made up of tourists and locals to be stranded inside the terminal.
Throughout Goroka town, businesses closed their doors, the hospital tightened its security, and schools were shut for the day as police tried to calm the situation.
Assistant Commissioner of Police (Northern Command) Peter Guinness has confirmed with the PNG Post-Courier that two mobile squads from Mt Hagen, Western Highlands and a mobile squad from Lae, Morobe province, had been deployed in Goroka, Eastern Highlands province.
Since Monday the situation has returned to some sort of normalcy with police continuing to keep watch.
Investigations were ongoing.
Miriam Zarriga is a PNG Post-Courier reporter. Republished with permission.
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While Papua New Guinean policing continues to be an issue in Porgera, Enga Province, the killings continue in the mining township.
And the latest killing of a village court magistrate has added to the 70 deaths within a period of six months.
Police Commissioner David Manning has recently announced the establishment of a specific unit to “have the sole task and responsibility of securing our major resource projects around the country”.
“We will be taking steps to establish the unit by this week,” he said.
In the latest killing, a village court magistrate from the Lukal area who had been actively involved in facilitating peace efforts for the ongoing tribal disputes was killed on September 17 while he was out in the garden gathering food with his wife and a female in-law.
Unconfirmed reports state that the two women had been taken hostage and were yet to be located.
Nine days earlier, the now deceased Lopan Wake had led the Paiam community in a staged protest calling on the government to declare a state of emergency after a man from the same Lukal village was killed.
Haus krai blocked highway
Frustrated family members, relatives and the Paiam community expressed their frustrations by blocking the highway and staged a haus krai for the deceased on the open road.
They urged the government and relevant authorities to intervene and put an end to the spillover of killings of innocent people in the valley.
Immediate family and relatives of the late magistrate Wake said they want the law and government to deal with the matter.
Family spokesperson Kelly Yambi said there have been many spillover conflicts in Porgera that there was confusion over how to establish what tribal groups were responsible for the Lukal killings.
“I am not sure who is really responsible for the initial tribal conflicts but all I know is that the spillover of the conflict is affecting my people and we are falling victims.
“We signed a covenant with God and we do not want to take revenge.
“We have buried two men already and now I will bury my brother,” Yambi said.
Change to ‘how we do things’
Commissioner Manning said: “As part of our restructure we now see that we need to restructure how we do things and how the police force and other agency partners secure major resource areas.
“While the bulk of our resources are taken up in securing the projects its often for the detriment of the livelihoods of the communities that have been subjected to violent criminal activities.
“So by setting up this new unit, it will elevate demands on the resources so that we not only adequately secure projects but continue to progress our efforts in securing our community.”
“As soon as we establish the unit, our focus will be on reopening Porgera.
“Without a safe and secure environment to do so the reopening of Porgera can be challenging.
“And we are up to the task of providing the necessary support in securing not only the project but the surrounding communities before the project recommences.”
Miriam Zarrigais a PNG Post-Courier reporter. Republished with permission.
Karl Patrick Suyat, 19, has no personal experience of the tyrannical rule of late dictator Ferdinand E. Marcos. But memories of the atrocities and human rights violations committed during those dark moments have transcended time.
Despite efforts of Martial Law survivors, human rights groups, and even academics to remind the Filipino people of the abuses of the Marcos family, Marcos Jr was still able to clinch the country’s top post.
Fueled by outrage and anguish, Suyat thought of a way to channel his energy and still fight back despite the Marcoses’ victory — he founded “Project Gunita” (remember) along with Josiah Quising and Sarah Gomez.
Project Gunita is a network of volunteers and members of various civil society organisations that aim to defend historical truth. They particularly push back against historical denialism and protect truths about the Martial Law years.
Through the project, the three founders and their members created a digital archive of all materials that contain information about Marcos’ Martial Law to preserve them.
Archiving is not new since other government offices and groups like the Bantayog ng mga Bayani Foundation and the Human Rights Violations Victims’ Memorial Commission, under the Commission on Human Rights, have made efforts to preserve Martial Law materials.
But Project Gunita is born out of the spirit of volunteerism and nationalism among young Filipinos.
From old newspapers, magazines, and books — Project Gunita members seek and buy materials, and then scan them to be preserved in the archives. The project’s archiving started right after Marcos Jr’s victory.
Dictator Ferdinand Marcos … declared Martial Law in the Philippines on 21 September 1972 as reported in the Phlippine Daily Express three days later. Image: Wikipedia
“Having read through the history of dictatorships, from Benito Mussolini to Adolf Hitler to Ferdinand Marcos himself, lagi’t-laging ang unang hinahabol, ang unang-unang tinatarget ng mga diktador ay ‘yong mga silid-aklatan, libraries, at ‘yong mga arkibo – the archives (always, the ones being targeted first by dictators are libraries and archives),” Suyat told Rappler.
Suyat believes that the Marcoses won’t be content with just distorting and whitewashing the atrocities of the Marcos administration. They would eventually go after the archives to erase the truth, Suyat added.
“The only question is when, it’s not a question of if, it’s a question of when. And I don’t want to wait until that time happens before we start to scramble around to save the archives.
“Habang may panahon pa (while we still have time), while we can still do it, ‘di ba? (right?)Bakit hindi natin gagawin? (Why don’t we do it?).”
Even before Marcos Jr’s victory, journalists have pointed out that his family not only revises history, but also introduces an alternative history that favours them. The Marcoses also rode on various disinformation networks to disseminate falsehoods.
A two-part investigative story by Rappler showed how the Marcoses used social media to reclaim power and rewrite history to hide their wrongdoings.
Passing the torch The personal experiences of Project Gunita founders fanned their desire to continue the fight of the generation who came before them. Suyat, who grew up in a family of Martial Law survivors, feels it is his responsibility to protect their stories.
“I cannot allow their stories, as well as the stories of people I had gotten acquainted with later in life who are Martial Law survivors to be erased by historical denialism, that we all know is being perpetrated by the Marcos family,” Suyat told Rappler in a mix of English and Filipino.
Josiah Quising, a co-founder of Project Gunita and a lawyer, believes that these stories should be preserved because true justice for Martial Law victims has yet to be attained.
“It’s very frustrating ‘yong justice system sa Pilipinas and how, for decades, ay wala pa ring totoong hustisya sa mga nangyari during the Martial Law era,” Quising told Rappler.(It’s very frustrating, the justice system in the Philippines, and how, for decades, there has been no true justice for everything that happened during the Martial Law era.)
On the inauguration of Marcos Jr, Martial Law survivors led by playwright Boni Ilagan pledged to continue guarding against tyranny.
In the same event, they had a ceremonial passing of the torch, which symbolized the passing of hope and responsibility from Martial Law survivors to the younger generation.
Suyat and Quising believe that their generation is equally responsible for guarding the country’s freedom — at least in their own way. They strongly believe that since the government is now being led by the dictator’s son, they cannot expect it to preserve the memories of Martial Law, so they have to step in.
Preserving truths from generation to generation
“Wala ka namang naririnig. ‘Di ka naman nakikinig Parang kuliling sa pandinig Kayong nagtataka Ha? Inosente lang ang nagtataka,” Inosente lang ang nagtataka by Bobby Balingit
(You hear nothing. But you are not listening. Like a chime to the ear. You who wonder. What? Only the innocent wonder.)
This song comes to Kris Lanot Lacaba’s mind whenever he hears people deny the atrocities of Martial Law. His father, Pete Lacaba, a poet and journalist, was tortured and arrested under the Marcos regime.
As a son of a Martial Law survivor, Lacaba has heard stories of torture and violence straight from the victims themselves. He recalled that it was on the pavements of Camp Crame, where his father was imprisoned, that he learned how to walk.
Even though decades have passed since those dark periods, he still vividly remembers how his father became a victim of Marcos’ oppressive rule.
“Ang ginagawa ro’n, may dalawang kama tapos pinapahiga ‘yong tatay ko, ‘yong ulo niya sa isang kama, ‘yong paa niya sa isang kama. At ‘pag nahulog ‘yong kama niya ro’n eh gugulpihin pa siya lalo (What they did to my father was, there were two beds and they would tell my father to lie down, his head on one bed, and the other, on the other bed. If he fell, he would be beaten further),” Lacaba told Rappler.
Aside from his father, his uncles Eman Lacaba and Leo Alto were both killed during Martial Law. It is extremely hard for Lacaba to respond to people who deny that human rights violations happened under Martial Law.
Now that he has his own children, Lacaba passes on the stories of Martial Law to them so the memories would be preserved.
“Mahirap eh, bilang magulang. Paano ba natin ikukuwento ito? Pa’no ba natin ipapamahagi ‘yong karanasan ng magulang nila at ng mga lolo’t lola nila?” Lacaba said. (It’s hard as a parent. How do we tell this story to the kids? How do we tell the kids about the experiences of their parents and grandparents?)
He even thinks of ways to make the stories appropriate to his children.
“So kinukuwento namin sa mga bata, ‘no? Hinahanapan namin ng paraan na maging appropriate sa age din nila ‘yong mga kuwento.” (So we tell the stories to my children. We find ways to make the stories appropriate to their age.)
Aside from his kids, Lacaba says he would always accept invitations by schools and universities to share the Martial Law story of his family. He believes that in this way, he will not only share the truths he learned from his father, but get to listen to other stories, too.
After all, Lacaba believes, conversation about Martial Law should reach everyone.
Goroka town is under lockdown and remains tense as Papua New Guinea police mount a heavy presence following the brutal slaying of the PNG Ports chief executive Fego Kiniafa outside the Eastern Highlands provincial capital.
Kiniafa was slashed to death at Nagamiufa on Saturday after he allegedly shot a Nagamiufa man.
Four men who were with Kiniafa are alleged to have been taken hostage by Nagamiufa villagers.
His relatives from Korofeigu, Lower Bena, are reported to have mobilised and attacked Nagamiufa village, sparking a tribal conflict that shut down businesses in Goroka and sent people scattering.
Highway travellers were left stranded as vehicles deserted the roads between Lower Bena and Goroka, and international visitors to the just ended Goroka Show were also stranded at the new airport.
Police reported the Lower Benas wiped out Nagamiufa village in a 4am dawn raid yesterday.
Most people had fled in fear of the attack to neighbouring villages.
Raid because of no arrest
The raid allegedly occurred because there has not been any arrest made in relation to the death of Kiniafa two days after he was slashed to death near Nagamiufa village.
PNG Ports chief Fego Kiniafa … Goroka reported to be tense after his killing. Image: PNG Investment Conference
Spears, guns and other weapons were used as Goroka town was deserted with businesses shut down and the Goroka General Hospital also on lockdown as security was tightened.
Travellers wishing to travel out of the province after the EHP show were left stranded and locked inside the terminal as the airport closed its gates.
On Saturday morning, Police Commissioner David Manning confirmed the death of Kiniafa, 43, from a confrontation near Nagamiufa village.
EHP Police Commander Chief Superintendent Michael Welly said that the killing occurred between midnight and 6am on September 17.
According to police reports, Kiniafa was allegedly involved in a confrontation with several suspects from the surrounding settlements around Nagamiufa village in Goroka.
Kiniafa allegedly shot another man, and in retaliation the relatives of the man ambushed Kiniafa and his driver with bush-knives, killing them.
Four men allegedly kidnapped
Superintendent Welly said: “It is alleged that four men who were with Mr Kiniafa are said to have been kidnapped as well with police investigating the allegations and as well as investigating the incident on Saturday.”
Kiniafa was found at the scene and rushed to the hospital before being pronounced dead on arrival.
PNG Ports on Saturday afternoon released a short statement confirming Kiniafa’s death and announcing that chief operations officer Rodney Begley would manage and oversee the office of the CEO.
Kimiafa, who turned 43 on PNG’s Independence Day — Friday, September 16 — was one of the youngest chief executives of a government entity.
State-owned PNG Ports chief executive officer Fego Kiniafa has been killed at Nagamiufa in Goroka of Eastern Highlands Province, says Papua New Guinea’s Police Commissioner David Manning.
A police report said he had died in a fight after an argument was started over a few bottles of beer.
It said Kiniafa had allegedly shot and wounded the aggressor on his neck.
Kiniafa was then killed by members of the community who retaliated.
The situation in Goroka is reported to be tense.
Manning told news media his officers had started an investigation into the killing.
Board chairman Kepas Wali announced in a circular that Rodney Begley had been appointed acting CEO for the state-owned enterprise.
Wali expressed grief and sorrow at Kiniafa’s death.
Goroka town, Eastern Highlands, Papua New Guinea … an argument over “a few bottles of beer” led to the killing. Image: RNZ
Seven weeks ago the Philippines truth-telling martial law film Katips was basking in the limelight in the country’s national FAMAS academy movie awards, winning best picture and a total of six other awards.
Last week it began a four month “world tour” of 10 countries starting in the Middle East followed by Aotearoa New Zealand today – hosted simultaneously at AUT South campus and in Wellington and Christchurch.
The screening of Vincent Tañada’s harrowing – especially the graphic torture scenes – yet also joyful and poignant musical drama touched a raw nerve among many in the audience who shared tears and their experiences of living in fear, or in hiding, during the hate-filled Marcos dictatorship.
The martial law denunciations, arbitrary arrests, desaparecidos (“disappeared”), brutal tortures and murders by state assassins in the 1970s made the McCarthy era red-baiting witchhunts in the US seem like Sunday School picnics.
Tañada has brushed off claims that the film has a political objective in an attempt to sabotage the leadership of the dictator’s son, Ferdinand Bongbong Marcos Jr, who won the presidency in a landslide victory in the May elections to return the Marcos family to the Malacañang.
He has insisted in many interviews — and he repeated this in a live exchange with the audiences in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch — that the film is educational and his intention is to counter disinformation and to ensure history is remembered.
Telling youth about atrocities Tañada, from one of the Philippines’ great political and legal families and grandson of former Senator Lorenzo Tañada, a celebrated human rights lawyer, says he wanted to tell the youth about the atrocities that happened during the imposition of martial law under Marcos.
He wanted to tell history to those who had forgotten and those who aren’t yet aware.
The Katips movie trailer.
“You know, as an artist it is also our objective not just to entertain people but more important than that, we are here to educate,” he says.
“We also want to educate the young people about the atrocities – the reality of martial law.
“History is slowly being forgotten. We have forgotten it during the last elections and I guess we also have the responsibility to educate and let the youth know what happened during those times.”
Katips film director and writer Vince Tañada talking by video to New Zealand audiences in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch today. Image: David Robie/APR
It is rare that such brutal torture scenes are seen on the big screen, and before the main screening at AUT the organisers — Banyuhay Aotearoa, Migrante Aotearoa and Auckland Philippine Solidarity — showed two shorts made by the University of the Philippines and Santo Tomas University of Manila featuring martial law survivors describing their horrifying treatment during the Marcos years to contemporary students.
Some of the students broke down in tears while others, surprisingly, remained impassive, sometimes with an air of disbelief.
The film evolved from the 2016 stage musical Katips: Mga Bagong Katipunero – Katips: The New Freedom Fighters, which won Aliw Awards for best musical performance that year.
Freedom fighter love story
In a nutshell, Katips tells the love story of Greg, a medical student and leader of the National Unions of Students in the Philippines (NUSP), who with other freedom fighting protesters stage a demonstration against martial law on a mountainside called Mendiola.
His professor is abducted by the state Metropol police, murdered and his body dumped in a remote location.
The protesters begin a vigil and the police brutally suppress the protest and arrest and kidnap other freedom fighters. They are subjected to atrocious torture and their bodies dumped.
A safehouse branded “Katips House” takes in Lara, a New York actress and the daughter of the murdered professor who is visiting Manila but doesn’t yet know about the fate of her father. Lara and Greg form an unlikely relationship and their lives are thrown into upheaval when the safehouse “mother” Alet is abducted and tortured to death.
Greg and another protester, Ka Panyong, a writer for the underground newspaper Ang Bayan, are forced to flee into the jungle for the safety and become rebels. Both get shot while on the run, but manage to survive.
When Greg returns to Lara at the “Katips House” during the Edsa Revolution in 1986, he finds he has a son.
The film has a stirring end featuring the Bantayog ng mga Bayani, a memorial wall to the fallen heroes struggling against martial law– a fitting antidote to the Marcoses and their crass attempts to rewrite Philippine history.
Ironically, the same month that Katips was released in public cinemas, another film, the self-serving Maid of Malaçanang, was launched in a bid to perpetuate the Marcos myths.
Donald Trump’s legal problems seem to be getting worse by the day, and now he’s facing an investigation in the Senate over possible abuses of power by politicizing his Department of Justice to go after his enemies. Heather Digby Parton from Salon.com joins Ring of Fire’s Farron Cousins to discuss what’s happening.
The son of Fijian Prime Minister Voreqe Bainimarama is facing criminal charges in Australia over domestic violence-related allegations.
Meli Bainimarama, 36, was charged in the Windsor Court in Sydney with 17 offences related to domestic violence, including five charges of assault resulting in bodily harm, stalking, common assault, and destroying or damaging property.
The offences alleged happened between February and May of 2022 in Sydney.
Meli Bainimarama was arrested in Queensland last week and extradited to New South Wales the next day.
He was granted bail.
An interim suppression order, granted last Saturday, was lifted today.
Meli Bainimarama did not appear in person and his lawyer appeared via audio link.
This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.
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A woman has been arrested for the alleged murder of two young children whose remains were discovered in suitcases in Manurewa, South Auckland, last month.
New Zealand police can now confirm that a 42-year-old woman has been arrested in South Korea.
Counties Manukau CIB detective inspector Tofilau Fa’ amanuia Vaaelua said South Korean authorities arrested the woman today on a Korean arrest warrant on two charges of murder relating to the two young victims.
The arrest warrant was issued by the Korean courts as a result of a request by NZ police for an arrest warrant under the extradition treaty between New Zealand and the Republic of Korea.
He said NZ police had applied to have her extradited back to New Zealand to face the charges and had requested she remain in custody while awaiting the completion of the extradition process.
“To have someone in custody overseas within such a short period of time has all been down to the assistance of the Korean authorities and the coordination by our NZ Police Interpol staff,” he said.
There were a number of enquiries to be completed both in New Zealand and overseas, he added.
Police said the children, believed to be aged between five and 10 years old, may have been hidden in the suitcases in an Auckland storage yard for several years.
The bodies were discovered on 11 August 2022 after a Clendon Park family won an auction for abandoned goods in a storage unit, without realising what was inside.
This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.
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The lawyer of the families of the victims of the Mimika murder case has criticised the military reconstruction of the killings and mutilation of the four Nduga residents, describing it as “odd” and calling for an independent investigation.
“The reconstruction of the murder by the security forces is very odd,” lawyer Gustaf R Kawer said in Jayapura yesterday.
“It is mostly the version of the perpetrators and less from the witnesses.”
According to Kawer, the reconstruction that took place last Saturday demonstrated 40 scenes. Of these, only 10 showed the role of the Raider/20 Ima Jaya Keramo Infantry Brigade soldiers accused over the murder and mutilation.
Kawer questioned how the reenactment of the crime emphasised the role of Roy or RMH — a fugitive still at large who did not participate in the reconstruction.
“The story that was built in the reenactment from the beginning to the end revolved around Roy. But the person was not even there.
“It was as if Roy was made the sole perpetrator even though there were Indonesian military [TNI] members named as suspects,” Kawer said.
‘Finding it strange’
The murder and mutilation of four civilians from Nduga Regency occurred at Settlement Unit 1, Mimika Baru District, Mimika Regency on August 22, 2022.
The four victims were Arnold Lokbere, Leman Nirigi, Irian Nirigi and Atis Tini.
Kawer said the reenactment showed one of the victims, Arnold Lokbere, in front of a mosque at 10pm local time.
“We find it strange that people around the location who are mentioned in the reenactment do not know about the murder,” he said.
Kawer called for an independent team to fully investigate the chronology and reconstruction of the Mimika murder and mutilation.
“The case has now been handed over to the military police and the police, and will be tried in the general court and military court as a general criminal case,” Kawer said.
Meanwhile, Papua Legislative Council member Namantus Gwijangge said the victims’ families considered the reenactment of the murder scene as “rushed”.
Call for ‘death sentence’
“The family asked the Papua Legislative Council to have the case investigated by an independent team, and the perpetrators be sentenced to death,” Gwijangge said.
On Monday, the Papua Office of the National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM Papua) said the reconstruction had not fully revealed the murder and mutilation.
Komnas HAM Papua head Frits Ramandey noted that several accused refused to act out certain scenes so some roles were replaced by other people.
Komnas HAM Papua also said that the reconstruction raised suspicion that there were two more soldiers of the Raider/20 Ima Jaya Keramo Infantry Brigade involved in the murder and mutilation but they had not been named as suspects.
However, Komnas HAM Papua did not mention the names or ranks of the two other soldiers allegedly involved.
Republished from Tabloid Jubi/West Papua Daily with permission.
One of the survivors of a horrifying sorcery accusation-related violence (SARV) attack and torture of nine women in Papua New Guinea falsely accused last month of using sorcery to kill a leading businessman tells her story of survival. She does not want to be named as the situation is still tense and she is still in hiding and fears for her life. (Translated into English).
On July 22, about 200 women from Enga’s Lakolam village were rounded up by a mob of machete-wielding men following the death of prominent businessman Jacob Luke.
The mob suspected an old woman from the village had used sorcery to “eat Luke’s heart” and causing his death.
She was dragged out of her house, beaten and thrown on top of a tyre and tortured as we all watched, including her family, her children, her sons, who could do nothing to save her.
“They tortured her and told her to name the other women who had helped her. After being beaten and tortured — maybe she got tired — maybe she just wanted to be free from it all, but named us, falsely accusing us as they had accused her.
“Once they got our names, nine of us, they poured kerosene on her and set her on fire.
“Her screams pierced our hearts, I knew I was going to die that day as well.
“All I thought of was my children, my sons, and I prayed.
‘I prayed that they do nothing’
“I prayed that they will do nothing, that the Lord would hold them back from trying to defend me, because I knew, they would be killed too, if they tried to defend me.
“I looked in my son’s eyes, begging him to understand that he must do nothing,” she said.
The survivor said that the nine of them were rounded up by the mob. They were beaten, stripped naked and tortured.
“The pain drowned out the humiliation, as they burnt my nipples and opened my legs and shoved hot iron rods into me.”
“They wanted us, to admit that yes, we had killed him using sorcery so that they could have a reason to pour kerosene on us and burn us as they had the other woman.
“Among us, the nine of us, there was one of our daughters.
“She is in her 30s, mother of two and was four months pregnant.
‘Everyone watched … was happy’
“They didn’t care, they tortured her as well — everyone watched, everyone was happy, as to them, they were only getting justice over the death of Luke, but God is good, she survived,” she said.
She said their houses were all burnt down by the angry mob.
“We saw our homes go up in flames as we were torture.
“I thought of my children, wondering if the little ones were okay, praying that they are safe.
“I must have passed out because when I looked up again, I saw my two elder sons …” she said as she started to sob.
She said husbands, sons, brothers could only watch and do nothing, as Luke was a well-respected man, a leader.
“One man stood there and watched as two of his wives were tortured — one of the wives died during the torture and one survived.
Five women died
“Five women died that morning, the one who falsely accused us of helping her to eat the heart, and another four who died during the torture.
“But five of us made it out of ‘hell’ alive.”
When asked, if she would be willing to testify against the perpetrators and have them prosecuted to get justice for what they did to her and other women, she said, all that mattered was her life.
“I do not think we will ever get justice. What is justice anyway?”
“Luke was a leader — to the mob, we had killed him, and they will kill us.
“I do not care if they get prosecuted, I just want to live.
“Be with my children and hold my grandchildren,” she said.
Situation still tense
The woman said that things were still tense and they were still afraid for her life.
“I do not know what is going to happen now. I do not know where I am going to go to.
“Four of us are old, Lakolam has been our home, and we raised our children and our grandchildren here.
“Only the pregnant mother of two is young, but we are here, they are taking care of us, taking us to the hospital, most of us are still healing.
“I do not know what will happen tomorrow, I do not know if I will still be alive next week, but today I am alive and I thank my God for today.”
Rebecca Kuku is a reporter for the National daily newspaper in Port Moresby. Republished with permission.
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It was at the end of a long day of walking back and forth over the dusty roads of Goroka town in the Highlands of Papua New Guinea that I first met Evelyn.
I’d spent the morning interviewing three inmates in the regional penitentiary, Bihute Prison, about their participation in the murder of three people who they believed had killed a relative.
That afternoon I interviewed a policeman and a government official about the increasing impact of sanguma — sorcery violence — on the people of the region.
Everyone I talked with agreed that sanguma was a serious issue. I ended each interview by asking the men, what can be done to quell the violence and halt the spread of this growing problem.
Not one of them was able to provide an answer. “The problem was simply too big” and “there are no resources to help”, they said. As I climbed into the back of a rust-filled Econovan, the wife of one of the officials who had lingered in the background during the last interview, rushed to hand me a piece of paper.
She handed over the torn note, saying: “You must find her.”
The note contained the hastily written name “Evelyn Kunda” and a phone number. By the time I climbed out of the Econovan, back in the centre of Goroka, I’d made contact and walked directly to the Catholic mission.
There I found Evelyn Kunda. She looked like many other women in Goroka, dressed in a Meri blouse –- a Mother Hubbard style dress. Her hair was deep back and densely curled.
Warmth and intelligence
She looked to be in her early 50s but life in the Highlands towns and villages can make it hard to tell. What struck me the most about her appearance was the warmth of her smile and the intelligence in her eyes.
I didn’t know why the official’s wife had to told me to find her, I struggled to find a place to start. I told Evelyn, that I was researching sanguma in the Highlands, and asked what she might know.
Kunda explained that she, along with other volunteers of the Catholic Church, worked to hide, rehabilitate, and eventually — where possible — relocate the survivors of sorcery accusation-related violence (SARV).
As trucks expelled oily exhaust fumes, pushing dust down the road behind us, she described how difficult and dangerous the work had become for her and other volunteers in Goroka.
“In one instance we were looking after a woman whose husband had beaten her. He wanted to kill her. I took her to my house. Then her husband wanted to kill us as well,” Kunda said.
For a time, the Catholic church provided Kunda with a house in their compound but that soon became problematic, and the women were asked to leave. Now Kunda runs an unofficial safe house hidden among the shanties on the outskirts of the town.
‘They’re traumatised’
Kunda does her best to provide for them, but she explains: “They often can’t talk with us, they find it very difficult to talk about what has happened, they’re traumatised”.
She provides them with a place to sleep, food from her tiny garden, and whatever she can afford from the markets and trade stores.
At the end of our interview, I posed the same question to Evelyn Kunda that I’d asked the officials earlier that day.
“What can we do to stop sorcery violence?” Kunda’s response was immediate and practical, “We do all we can with whatever we have. Solutions can’t be found by sitting on our hands.”
Her work is proof that she’s a woman of action.
The following year, in 2019, I visited Evelyn Kunda’s safe house. A small two-room dirt floored hut that she’d built with offcuts of timber, bush materials, and sheets of old corrugated iron.
At the time she had two women living with her. One had escaped a violent partner and the other had been beaten as an accused witch. Kunda is desperate for support.
On the streets of Goroka town 2019 … hard hit as covid-19 swept through communities in Papua New Guinea the following year. Image: Paul Wolffram
Working on a film
We began working together on a film, with the aim of showing the extent of the impact of sanguma in the Highlands. I also wanted to show the world the incredible work Kunda is doing to resist the violence, rescue survivors, and educate others against gender and sorcery-based violence.
I was to return to Goroka in 2020 to complete the filming and to bring Evelyn Kunda back to New Zealand to work with us on the post-production but, like so many other plans, co covid-19 interrupted them.
The last two years have been more difficult than usual in the dusty frontier towns in the Highlands. As covid-19 swept through communities in Papua New Guinea and the morgue at Goroka hospital filled to overflowing, the amount of sorcery accusation-related violence rose too.
Local researcher Fiona Hukula said that there was a lack of clear communication about covid-19 available in PNG and significant amounts of disinformation. The National newspaper reported about a 45-year old woman and her daughter who were accused of sorcery and tortured by their relatives after her husband died of covid-19 in April last year.
Emma Dawson, Caritas Australia’s Pacific manager, described increasing domestic violence reports and sorcery accusation-related violence in July last year.
The violence occurs when a community blames a death or illness on sorcery. They identify a local man or woman as a witch and torture and kill them in shocking scenes of mob violence.
Earlier in 2021 a young boy died suddenly in the Highlands province of Hela. Within a few days a woman’s body was left by the side of the road. She’d been lynched and killed by her own community.
No cultural background
Ruth Kissam who works for a local NGO, the Tribal Foundation, told the ABC that violence like this didn’t have a cultural background, even in areas where belief in sorcery was traditional.
“Sorcery accusation-related violence picked up about 10 to 15 years ago. Culturally, there is a deep belief in sorcery in many parts of PNG but it was never violent.” Kissam said that this was a law-and-order problem.
Back in Goroka there were other instances where people were known to have died from covid-19 but the community and family refused to accept the diagnosis and in one case a woman was burnt with hot irons and thrown from a bridge. She survived, but her daughter and other family members were also targeted.
For Evelyn Kunda at the grasruts, running a safe house in a community where her presence and work are not always supported by landowners, life has become even more tenuous. Over the last two years I’ve maintained constant contact with her. At one time she had eight adults and children living in her tiny house.
Last week, Kunda was accosted by a group of women who beat her because of the work she does with the community’s most vulnerable.
Evelyn Kunda has no government support; she is not linked with any national or international NGO or aid organisation. She volunteers for this work out of compassion. Despite these difficulties, she is making a real difference to the lives of the women, men and children she houses and supports.
How long she will be able to continue this work is unknown.
Dr Paul Wolffram is a film maker and associate professor in the Film Programme at Te Herenga Waka. He has been working with communities in Papua New Guinea for more than 20 years.
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