Youths arrested for stopping logging on conservation area

By Grace Tiden, Post Courier

Twelve youths from Bairaman in the Ralopal Concession area under the Sigete/Mukus Special Agriculture and Business Lease (SABL) Project Site in East New Britain have been arrested and charged for allegedly threatening logging company workers.

The 12 men have appeared for mention at the Kokopo District and were supposed to appear again yesterday for hearing to commence but the case was deferred to a later date.

Papua New Guinea (PNG) is the latest known victim in a modern era of land grabs orchestrated by foreign corporations according to an investigative report and a film, On Our Land, released today by the Oakland Institute and the Pacific Network on Globalisation (PANG) on behalf of PNG partners Act Now! and Birmarck Ramu Group.

Source: Joel Simo* writing in the Sydney Morning Herald

To visiting Australians, my home, the island nation of Vanuatu, is either paradise or a Third World backwater. Holidaymakers prize our beaches and clear waters. But workers from aid organisations such as AusAID see limited employment opportunities and poverty.

Both groups have ideas for "improving" Vanuatu through holiday homes, tourism and a commercial track to "development", including the establishment of Western-style property rights.

Source: Islands Business

Papua New Guinea Prime Minister Peter O’Neill has told Parliament that constitutional changes would be made to establish the Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC).

The body is likely to be in place by the middle of next year. It is expected to take over the functions of the Task Force Sweep and the police fraud squad.

O’Neill announced an amendment to the Organic Law on Provincial Government and Local Level Government to establish the district development authority.

By Laurel Sutherlin / Rainforest Action Network

The Indigenous communities of Collingwood Bay, Papua New Guinea are engaged in a high stakes battle to defend their land and culture from the threat of Conflict Palm Oil expansion and they have a quick and easy request for help right now.

Midweek Chronicle

By Martyn Namorong (Namorong Report)

“I want to be free like you, with my people,” says West Papuan Independence Leader, Benny Wenda. Dressed in his trademark tribal headdress, Wenda addressed journalists at a press conference held in Port Mort Moresby. He is in PNG to set up the PNG Chapter of the global Free West Papua Movement.

International Federation of Red Cross Societies

Twelve Red Cross National Societies from the Pacific Islands convened today in Sydney, Australia. The discussions focused on developing resilient National Societies and local communities, as well as a Pacific Islands viewpoint for the post-2015 Millennium Development Goals.

By Grace Auka Salmang (Post Courier)

THE National Research Institute (NRI) held an interactive forum on the proposed Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) Bill in Port Moresby yesterday before it is tabled in Parliament next week.

The Ombudsman Commission, being a stakeholder and team member of the forum, commented and agreed on the proposed establishment of ICAC, emphasising what roles and functions the ICAC should have.

Community advocacy group ACT NOW! says the Prime Minister's response to the huge illegal SABL grab is weak and inadequate.

The government has announced a ministerial committee to review the recommendations and findings of a Commission of Inquiry into Special Agriculture and Business Leases but has done nothing to cancel the fraudulent leases or stop the illegal logging in leases areas.

The government says the review will be executed by the Department of Lands, National Forest Authority and Department of Agriculture.