Malaysia and Papua New Guinea foreign ministers to take stock of existing bilateral ties

Malaysia and Papua New Guinea foreign ministers are to take stock of the progress of the existing bilateral relations as they meet in Malaysia.

Papua New Guinea Foreign Minister, Rimbink Pato, is currently on a five-day working visit to Malaysia from Tuesday (Aug 16) to attend the International Conference on Blue Ocean Strategy (ICBOS) here and is scheduled to meet his Malaysian counterpart, Datuk Seri Anifah Aman.

Wisma Putra, in a statement, said both ministers were expected to take stock of the progress of the existing bilateral relations, including the progress of a Memorandum of Understanding on tourism, higher education as well small and medium sized enterprise (SME) cooperation.

Malaysia and Papua New Guinea have enjoyed wide ranging relations, including in the area of technical assistance.

"This visit will provide a new impetus to the bilateral cooperation that will cement and elevate the Malaysia and Papua New Guinea relations to a greater height," said Wisma Putra.

PNG's Foreign Minisrer Rimbink Pato

-- Source: BERNAMA / 2016

Manus Island: photos show aftermath of violent attack on Afghan refugees - there are more cases of violence unreported

Exclusive (The Guardian Australia): Two men were attacked by locals armed with an iron bar amid rising tension over the refugees’ presence on the island.

Graphic evidence has emerged of two refugee men being attacked on Manus Island by local men who beat them with an iron bar.

The men, Afghan Hazaras who are being held in the Australian-run detention centre on the island, were attacked as they walked for a bus from the beach in Manus’s main city of Lorengau.

The refugees were surrounded by seven local men, one of whom was carrying an iron bar. The men were abused, robbed, and then attacked, hit in the body, arms and head with the iron bar, even after they had fallen to the ground.

The refugees were rescued by another local man who intervened in the assault and helped the men walk to the police station.

“This was at 5pm, it was broad daylight, so there were a lot of people around, and we just saw these men walking towards the police station, followed by a very large crowd,” a witness told Guardian Australia. “The men were clearly in a very bad way, there was a lot of blood. One of the men was holding up his arms as he walked, and blood was running off his arms.”

Upon reaching the police station, one of the refugees collapsed unconscious, prompting one officer to attempt CPR. The refugee was then carried into a police 4WD and taken to Lorengau hospital.

Later, he was transferred back to the detention centre.

Freelance photojournalist Matthew Abbott, who was on the island working for GetUp, and Daniel Webb, director of legal advocacy with the Human Rights Law Centre, witnessed the aftermath of the assault.

Abbott shot photos of the men, but was accosted by police and others as he tried to take more pictures of the incident.

“One policeman kept trying to put his hand in front of the camera, and outside another man kept shoving me. He told me I should stop taking photos then he told me he was going to shoot me. He said ‘I’m going to get my gun and I’m going to shoot you’.”

Police then called PNG’s immigration and citizenship services authority, which had held Webb and Abbott at the police station for more than two hours, demanding the photos be erased. Abbott retained the photos.

“It was very tense, they were very angry, but we tried to be respectful, while explaining that I was doing my job taking photos. They actually said to us at one point ‘what you do now will determine whether you are ever allowed to visit PNG again’,” Abbott said.

After being questioned for more than two hours, and forced to supply their passport details, Abbott and Webb were released, but were made to return to the police station the next morning, before they were able to leave Manus Island.

Guardian Australia understands that three refugees, all Afghan Hazaras who have been granted refugee status after fleeing the Taliban in their home country, had been on the beach at Lorengau on Wednesday afternoon.

One of the men had bought multivitamins at the Lorengau pharmacy but knew the tablets would be confiscated back at the detention centre. According to several sources on the island, the refugees had reportedly gone to the beach to bury the tablets in the sand.

Manus Island asylum seekers protest continuing detention

When the three were returning from the beach, they were confronted by the seven local men, who are said to have been drinking.

One refugee managed to escape and hide in nearby bushes, while the other two were surrounded. The attackers demanded cigarettes and the refugees’ money, clothes and shoes, before they began assaulting them, one man hitting them repeatedly with the iron bar, even after they had fallen to the ground.

Webb told The Guardian he had travelled to Manus to meet with the men detained there for three years. He said he had heard stories of violent attacks on refugees – inside the detention centre and out – but was shocked to witness it first-hand.

“These guys have been on Manus for three years. They have seen their friend,Reza Barati, beaten to death in front of them. One refugee has been shot. Another has had his throat slashed. They’ve been bashed by guards. They’ve been attacked by locals. They are genuinely fearful,” Webb said.

“These men are in our care and they are not safe. The Australian government can’t keep sticking its head in the sand and pretending everything is fine. The only viable and humane way forward is to bring them here.”

Matthew Phillips, human rights director with GetUp, said the violence Abbott and Webb witnessed was “the grave danger the Turnbull government’s abusive policy of offshore detention places people in on a daily basis”.

“Peter Dutton must take responsibility, acknowledge this clear danger, stop blaming other people and end the detention of the men, women and children detained on Manus Island and Nauru.”

Calls to PNG police by the Guardian on Saturday were not answered.

The assault is reflective of a growing tension on Manus over the refugees’ continued presence on the island, and the government’s faltering efforts to resettle people elsewhere in the country.

Following the PNG supreme court judgment in April that the men’s detention on Manus Island was illegal and unconstitutional, the 854 men held there have been given limited rights to leave the detention centre.

They cannot leave of their own volition (the detention centre is housed within a military base), but are allowed to catch daily buses to Lorengau, the main town, a 45-minute drive away.

However, many of the men refuse to leave the detention centre because they fear being attacked.

While many Manussians are accepting and welcoming of the refugees, there remains significant hostility, often violent, towards the refugees from some locals. Incidents are most common after dark when people have been drinking.

There is also a broader hostility to the detention centre and its staff, with repeated transgressions of PNG law by staff, without punishment.

How to contact the Nauru files reporters securely and confidentially

Here are two options for people who want to contact Guardian Australia using more secure forms of electronic communication to avoid most common forms of online tracking
 
Last year, three expatriate staff allegedly drugged and gang-raped a local woman inside the accommodation block of the detention. All three were spirited off the island before PNG police could interview them.

Other detention centre workers have robbed hotels, started fights, and crashed cars, all with impunity.

Manussians are also angry that promised benefits to their communities have not materialised. Many have not won employment or expected lucrative contracts, and promised improvements to infrastructure on the island have not occurred.

Photographs by Mathew Abbott for the Guardian Australia /2016.

Source: www.theguardian.com

Student calls on the Government to establish a Food Quality Control Laboratory: To test food imports and exports

A PNG Master’s student studying Food Technology abroad has called on the PNG Government to be more affluent and well versed with its inspection of food quality control in importing and exporting.

Ms. Esther Paiela studying food technology (engineering) at Sardar Patel University in India has said PNG does not have a national food quality control laboratory that can test to standard foods to import and export.

“PNG is rich with natural food products. We can make new food products out of them and we can export them overseas. Its one main source of boosting our country's falling economy and a better way of creating a lot of job opportunities,” she said. It's better for the government to sit back and emphasize on such tangible development strategies to bring to fruition the vision 2050.

“The government should decide now to build a National Food Quality Control laboratory, a lot of food engineering students are stuck in those food manufacturing companies. Make use of them and they can help achieve the country's productivity goals in terms of food products,” Ms Paiela said.

“From a simple food engineer's view point, I would like to propose to the Government of the day if PNG can establish a National Food Quality Control Laboratory to work along with other existing statutory bodies to conduct quality check of imports and exports,” he said.

 She said latest speculations about Fiji's restrictions on PNG made goods especially food products is simply because PNG does not have a proper quality control by the Government. Most of the manufacturing companies operating in PNG are profit-oriented and they can at times cheat. They only do tests on very good products and keep records for later as evidences for auditing purposes.

“Countries like Fiji and other Western countries are very strict with food rules and laws. If our food products fail to meet the ISO standards, soon our food products will be rejected and we will become an unproductive country. These countries have very strict quarantine system to stringently screen goods and food products. If they find bacterial or physical or chemical contamination while doing quality analysis in their own country, they will put an end from buying PNG made food products,” she added.

Esther hails from Aipus village in Enga Province and she went to study in Anand Gujarat, India on an Indian Council of Cultural Relations Scholarship (ICCR).  

Esther Paiela

Esther Paiela

Esther Paiela

Photos: Esther Paiela/Supplied/2016.

PNG-Fiji trade impasse need close dialogues: PNG on politics while Fiji looks at standards - who is right?

PNG’s Trade, Commerce and Industry Minister Richard Maru has accused Fiji for not keeping the Melanesian Spearhead Group (MSG) free trade agreement between the two countries. Mr. Maru said Fiji has been refusing to allow imports such as Ox & Palm, Trukai Rice and other PNG products into Fiji for over a decade.

 “We have allowed Fiji to have a trade surplus with PNG for a long time and trade volumes are increasing,” he added.

However, he said there have been many occasions for Fiji to cooperate and provide satisfactory explanation but Fiji has not done so, compelling PNG to take action.

Following Minister Maru’s talks with PNG’s Agriculture Minister, Tommy Tomscoll, PNG will not allow the entry of Fiji poultry products into PNG.

Maru said if countries like Australia and Singapore with higher biosecurity measures can allow the entry of PNG’s tinned product Ox & Palm, Minister Maru cannot see why Fiji has an issue with it.

PNG has given Fiji 14 days to respond favourably, before resorting to further action.

Meanwhile, Fijian Attorney General and Minister for Economy Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum said trade in certain goods between Fiji and PNG has temporarily ceased.

“If we are serious about promoting trade between Pacific island countries, then we need competent agencies to look at issues when they arise and this should not be done in a tit-for-tat manner,” he said.


“At the moment, we have a bit of an issue with PNG regarding the export of our chicken and, they (PNG), regarding the export of their corned beef to us.”


While Sayed-Khaiyum didn't elaborate on the issues that led to the trade impasse, he said Fiji had never engaged in a retaliatory manner when such issues arose with other countries.


“For example, when New Zealand had issues with some of the vegetable exports from Fiji, we did not turn around and place a ban on their potato exports into the country,” he said.

He said the temporary ban is based on trade standards, not politics. “I think in order to have a free flow of goods and services, it should not be seen from a retaliatory perspective. It needs to be based on standards. So if you have various quarantine standards, the exporting countries must meet those standards.


“Similarly, if you are importing, you need to be able to know standards that you have placed on them are being met, so there's free flow of goods and services within the region.”

Questions sent to the PNG government regarding the trade impasse remain unanswered.


“With respect to the PNG’s corned beef, our biosecurity authority sent recommendations to PNG and they were supposed to follow those recommendations,” Fiji Minister for Industry and Trade Faiyaz Koya said. “We have been declining the importation of that particular product of corned beef to Fiji,” he said.

While PNG’s Maru said his ministry has send a letter to his Fiji counterparts to uplift the temporary ban on Ox & Palm and other PNG goods, Fiji’s Sayed-Khaiyum says Fiji has send a set of recommendations to PNG by its Biosecurity Authority for standard checks. Sayed-Khaiyum denied any political impasse saying it’s all about standard requirements.     

Both countries seem to be waiting for each other to respond on each of their subjects of communication. PNG issued a 14-day ultimatum with a threat to ban Fiji’s dairy products into PNG if the temporary ban is not uplifted.

Who is saying the truth and who is to listen to who?  

On a mutual basis, both countries need a closer dialogue to see where they are and what need to be done on a win-win basis. It is unhealthy to pull strings at this stage; rather it requires a round-table discussion and to amicably reach what need to be done next. The fear is that it might have spread-over ramifications on the MSG tree trade agreements and that can also affect other Melanesian Spearhead brothers.
 

PNG's Trade Minister Richard Maru. Image: Supplied/2016.

Fijian Attorney General and Minister for Economy Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum. Image: Supplied/2016.