Aust Police Deployment Put On Hold

Australia's plan to send a police contingent to Papua New Guinea will be delayed for five months after the PNG Parliament was suspended without passing laws granting legal immunity to the more than 200 Australian police who were to have arrived in PNG by June.

PNG parliament has been adjourned until June to avoid a vote of no confidence.

The controversial adjournment means appropriate laws and treaties will not be in place as early as expected.

The PNG government has just started working on the immunity legislation through its central agencies co-ordinating committee (CACC), headed by Chief Secretary Joshua Kalinoe.

Internal Securities Minister Bire Kimisopa said the legislation would be ready soon. But with the adjournment of Parliament to June 29, the Australian police personnel will not be in PNG until after Parliament has passed laws to protect them.

It is understood certain government officers are concerned about the granting of immunity to a foreign police force. "Why should they come in and operate in our country and not be held accountable under our laws for any wrong conduct they might be involved in."

"Whose rights are we suppose to protect?" asked one government official in a report in The National newspaper.

"If Australian police come in and operate above the laws of this country, then we will lose our sovereignty as an independent country," the government official said.

The CACC has taken on the task of identifying and preparing legislative changes that are necessary to formalise the implementation of the more than K2.5 billion five-year aid package for policing in PNG.

The Australian police will be involved in specialist hands-on operations like investigating corruption, fraud and criminal activities.

They will also help in criminal prosecutions of suspects, engaged with the Highlands Highway Patrol and be stationed in regional and sub-urban police stations.

Lae, Mt Hagen, Mendi and Bougainville are some of the centres they would be engaged in as soon as the PNG Police Act is amended to give effect to the engagement of foreign police personnel with special immunity status.

Foreign Minister Sir Rabbie Namaliu told Parliament that a committee chaired by the deputy Prime Minister Moses Maladina will monitor programmes in the police, law and justice sectors, while Treasurer Bart Philemon will monitor the ministerial Economic and Budget Committee on the implementation of the macro-economic, financial management and public sector reform areas.

"This indicates the commitment by the Prime Minister and ministers to maximise the benefit from the enhanced co-operation package and to ensure its implementation is consistent with the government's policy priorities and goals, and is achieved with maximum efficiency and competence," said Namaliu.

You will find an underlying belief that it is in Australia's national interest for Papua New Guinea, its closest neighbour, to be politically stable, socially harmonious and economically strong.

There is nothing 'interventionist' or 'big brother' about that. We live in a troubled, insecure world, one in which stability within nations is rightly the concern of neighbours and friends.

"The programmes that we have agreed to, and agreed to constructively and harmoniously, will enhance our capacity to deliver good government through a stronger more committed and effective police force to achieve reduced crime and safer communities, through an improved legal and judicial system, through a public sector with better capacity and resources to deliver basic community services and manage vital areas such as migration, customs and transport safety."

The police deployment is part of a five-year $2.5 billion assistance package at the centre of Australia's new interventionist policy in the Pacific. While Australia is keen to begin the deployment as soon as possible, it is also well aware of the unpredictable machinations of PNG's political system.