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Recommendations to control gun violence made in 2005

PORT MORESBY, Papua New Guinea (The National, June 2, 2009) – The guns committee report was never meant to see the light of day, former internal security minister Bire Kimisopa said yesterday.

Mr. Kimisopa said despite the hard fact that 90 percent of the violent crimes committed in Papua New Guinea involved the use of guns, his efforts as minister responsible for police to table the guns committee report in Parliament, did not get any support from his cabinet colleagues.

"I tried to table the report in Parliament but was never given any opportunity," Mr Kimisopa said.

The report was commissioned by the Government and prepared by the National Guns Control Committee headed by former defence force commander Major Gen (retired) Jerry Singirok.

Kimisopa questioned why the Somare Government had still not seen fit to table the report despite the fact that it had a bipartisan report.

He said...

Says political interference hinders public service

HONIARA, Solomon Islands (Solomon Times, June 2, 2009) -Spokesman for the former Malaita combatants, Andrew Nori, has said institutional failure has led to the social unrest and the eventual intervention by the Regional Assistance Mission to Solomon Islands, RAMSI.

Speaking last week before the Parliamentary Foreign Relations Committee on RAMSI, Mr. Nori said when the British left the country in 1978; they left behind the Westminster system of government and well structured systems and institutions in government.

Nori said the regulations they developed in finance, public service management and other guidelines like the use of government property are among the best in the world.

He said over the years the problem was the gradual moving away from observing the requirement of those rules and regulations.

Nori said during that period, he witnessed the growth of political interference into the affairs...

Emergency room incapable of handling injured

PORT MORESBY, Papua New Guinea (PNG Post-Courier, June 2, 2009) – The death toll from the weekend’s horrific PMV collusion on the Hiritano Highway has climbed to 21 as the Port Moresby General Hospital faces a frantic battle to save the lives of the rest of the people who were admitted with serious injuries. This is because the premier hospital in Papua New Guinea did not have the capacity to handle the large number of injured people admitted to its emergency wards, all at one time.

Sources at the hospital yesterday put the death toll as of 5.30pm at 21 - taking the number of deaths up from 15 when the accident happened at about 3pm on Saturday outside of Bereina in the Central Province.

He said 15 victims died on the scene of the accident and two more died while they were transported down from Bereina Health Centre on the same day and the next four died from the POMGH Emergency Ward while under-going resuscitation...

Facility under partial lockdown for investigation

By Dionesis Tamondong

HAGÅTÑA, Guam (Pacific Daily News, June 3, 2009) - Corrections officials continue to investigate how contraband was able to get into the most restrictive area of Guam's prison and whether corrections staff played a role in a thwarted jailbreak.

The Department of Corrections on Monday foiled an alleged plan for prisoners to break out of the Mangilao compound after officials received a tip. DOC officials also confiscated cellular phones, a sharpened piece of metal, a Swiss Army knife and a makeshift knife because of the tip, said DOC Director J.B. Palacios.

The corrections facility remains on partial lockdown, which means family visits, library privileges, classes and phone calls are more strictly limited. The maximum security unit, from where at least two prisoners planned to escape, remains on total lockdown, Palacios said.

Palacios on Monday said inmate Frank Pangelinan, a...