‘The police started it; we were ambushed & then they opened fire’
11 June 2016
KEITH JACKSON
PEOPLE'S Power Movement leader Noel Anjo has given news agency AAP a first-hand account of the circumstances around police opening fire on university students last Wednesday.
Describing the shooting as “an ambush”, Mr Anjo, said “they were assaulting and firing at them."
Mr Anjo, who was a member of the student organisers, rejected reports that students were preparing to march on parliament.
He said they were about to board buses which would take them to parliament to present a petition.
"There was no march," he said Mr Anjo. "There were flags and maybe one or two banners, and the students were in the bus.
"The police ordered them to move out of the bus, pulled them down and then they said `you're not going to Parliament' and then it was like ambush," Mr Ambo told AAP.
There is still no reliable and independent information on casualties from the shooting. The PNG government says there were no deaths but other sources report that one student died and at least 20 were wounded, some seriously, when police using high powered weapons fired indiscriminately into a group of unarmed students.
Johnny Blades of Radio New Zealand International reports that around 40 people, mostly students, were reported to have been hospitalised with injuries, including four who are in a critical but stable condition.
In a stunning revelation which indicates a total breakdown of police discipline, two of those hospitalised appear to have been chased and shot by police several kilometres from the campus.
Mr Anjo told AAP “the police started everything:.
"We're mourning, we're mourning for our country because our country is sinking," he added.
"We are fed up with the government, we are fed up with the police."
The PNG government has blamed Wednesday's violence on student "thuggery".
While the situation in Port Moresby is now described as stable, political unrest is sweeping the Highlands and Mr O'Neill faces continuing calls to resign as prime minister.
He's refusing to do this, describing the corruption allegations as being "of questionable political intent".
Daniel Kumbon, I am truly saddened by this news of this road accident involving secondary students from Enga.
It seems the call for Peter O' Neill to step aside is having a huge toll on the education and life of young PNGeans. And this animosity between students and Peter O'Neill is likely to prolong.
This impasse is between O'Neill and students with the support of some sections of civil groups and professional organisations, that is what everyone must understand. The boycott was for O'Neill to step aside and it does involve any other agenda.
What does it imply to us when politicians do not express remorse or admit failures and take responsibility when young PNGeans risk their lives for a cause they feel in their heart is right.
Something is definitely in our country's political leadership because young brave proud PNGeans who are genuinely calling for O'Neill to step aside because of corruption charges were being shot at, beaten and injured by state agents like the police at UPNG.
This impasse is also creating a air of division within our student populace in our universities and colleges.
Students are fighting amongst themselves because they have been systematically suppressed, the autonomous status of higher learning institutions like our universities is now a mockery.
University and college students are being treated like secondary students. Young PNGeans from Enga involve in a tragic road accident and believe in their heart they believed in something in their heart when they made that decision to support the UPNG students.
After all these suppressed democratic right to express themselves, students are blamed for being injured, beaten and shot at.
This is truly sick. I personally cannot understand this, truly speaking. Something is definitely wrong. When politicians are heartless during this time of political strife involving young PNGeans, it is a red flag already. Right thinking people should start waking up from their slumber. We are heading on a very, very dangerous path.
And I personally feel strongly that if the current politicians do not express any form of empathy and regret in what is happening now to young PNGeans. They are not worthy to be called leaders, that's why I used the term politicians. They are not leaders in my books.
I also believe that from the media release from politicians and others who cordoned the brutal treatment and suppression of our students' voice are showing psychopathic tendencies which is not an healthy attribute of someone who wants to lead.
I express my regret again.
Posted by: Raymond Sigimet | 11 June 2016 at 11:34 AM
I suppose we in Australia are used to seeing an opposition point of view articulately expressed in media that exposes weakness in government policy. This allows sentiment to rise and fall according to the public perception.
There appears not to such a safety valve in the PNG experience.
Without warning, and with militaristic precision, forces were activated against students who would not be muzzled by politically correct dictation from Institutional authourity figures: themselves, cowed by cultural subservience to Bikman philosophy.
Whether by design or default, the hallmarks of tyranny and despotism are manifest in recent events.
Posted by: `Robin Lillicrapp | 11 June 2016 at 09:30 AM
Nobody died in a horrific road accident when a dump truck carrying 37 protesting students smashed into a gorge yesterday afternoon. They were supporting their UNG and Unitech students.
Twelve students from Foursquare Secondary School and one student from St Paul Paul’s Lutheran High School in Wapenamanda are nursing serious wounds at the Wabag General Hospital. One student is fighting for his life with a head injury.
They were among hundreds of students from Wapenamanda who came up to Wabag in four loaded trucks to join students from Sir Tei Secondary School to call upon prime minister Peter O’Neill to resign.
Students from Sir Tei Secondary School wept openly on 8 June when they heard of the UPNG shootings and saw injured Engan students being carried to hospital by their comrades.
They mobilised themselves and marched into Wabag town seeking help. But they were chased away by police.
The Sir Tei Secondary students then went to seek support from other students in the province and yesterday 10 June there was bound to be a big rally in Wabag town. Only the accident prevented the open forum organised by the students.
But the anti-O’Neill sentiment is building.
Blood of innocent, unarmed young leaders of tomorrow has been spilled. They were exercising their democratic rights.
It appears blood will continue to flow into the 2017 national elections.
Posted by: Daniel Kumbon | 11 June 2016 at 07:38 AM
O'Neill has gone out of sound mind and is now a mad person who would do anything under the sun including ordering police to shoot to kill unarmed citizens to protect himself.
People's National Congress must be ridded from the political scene come the 2017 general elections.
Posted by: Francis Nii | 11 June 2016 at 07:22 AM