Attempts to control violence against Chinese in PNG.
Updated
China has demanded that Papua New Guinea ensure the safety of its citizens and companies following a string of attacks on Asian-owned shops.
There are reports that two men have been shot and injured in the Pacific nation's Western Highlands province, as tear gas and live ammunition has been used to control the looting. It brings the total of shootings related to the looting to four, with two people expected to lose a leg as a result of their injuries.
China says it wants Papua New Guinea to take effective measures to bring the situation under control and safeguard the security and lawful rights and interests of Chinese people. Correspondent Sean Dorney is in Madang, where he's attended a community meeting involving local landowners, government officials, and the Ramu Mine's Chinese owners.
Presenter: Campbell Cooney
Speakers: Australia Network's Pacific editor Sean Dorney; Governor of PNG's Madang province, Sir Arnold Ahmet
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DORNEY: Yes, this is an extremely pertinent meeting in relation to this whole issue, because it's to do with the Ramu Nickel project, which is the largest investment in base metal exploration and mining by the Chinese outside of China. That Ramu project is under construction at the moment and just recently, there was a safety incident at where they are building the refinery down here on the coast and that led progressively to more and more trouble. Eventually there was rioting there and something like according to the Chinese company millions of US dollars of damage.
This meeting today is by the governor of Madang, Arnold Amet, who did what he's calling all the stakeholders together to meet with him and with the company, and with officials from government departments in Port Moresby to try and make sure that troubles like this don't happen again and so it's not directly related to these raids that have occurred around the country on Chinese trade stores, but it is a very similar situation. And the concern here is that they don't want this Ramu Nickel project to come to a halt and we've been listening to various landowners leaders who - in fact, are not blaming the company so much. Most of the criticism so far has been directed at the PNG National Government. Sir Arnold Ahmet, the governor, wants meetings like this now to be held every fortnight.
COONEY: One of the concerns I see from comments made by Sir Arnold Amet is to ensure the people in the region do get something out of these projects. You spoke to him yesterday. Let's here a little bit of what he said to you.
AHMET: The benefits of resource developments and businesses continually getting drained out and government and industry not providing the opportunities to bridge that gap remains a catastrophe in the making, a time bomb.
COONEY: That's the Governor of Madang, Arnold Amet, speaking yesterday to Sean Dorney. Sean Dorney is in Madang and that's where he joins us from.
Sean, the violence that we are hearing reports of, are we seeing it in Madang where you are at the moment?
DORNEY: About a week or so ago, there was an attack on Chinese trade stores. What I'm told by people here in Madang, that it is not the long term Chinese who have been here for several generations, but it's more recently arrived Chinese who have set up businesses all over the place, that they are the ones that were target.
Sunday, there were rumours running around that there was going to be further trouble, so first thing Monday morning, the police were out in force and there were roadblocks and things set up to ensure it wasn't a repetition of the looting that had gone in a few days previously. Nothing did happen. It was all kept under control and where we were at the Devine Wood University, which is where the conference was being held, there was no obvious sign of any trouble.
COONEY: You were there for the Australia-Papua New Guinea Business Forum that was held at the Devine Wood University in Madang. What was the big topic?
DORNEY: The most pertinent session to what we've been talking already is one yesterday when the Labour Department and other government departments were talking about issues like work permits and one of the questions asked was about the work permits and the regulations in work permits that did not seem to be applying to people that the Chinese were bringing into work on this Ramu Nickel project. The official who answered that question was quite direct in answering, saying that as a department, they have been told that this is an agreement between the both governments and when they have had issues over work permit matters, that they have been told by the government to fix it.
