POLITICS AND VIOLENCE IN PAPUA NEW GUINEA

Intertribal conflict in the Highlands of Papua New Guinea has reached new heights during the run-up to the political elections.

 
Asaro Mudmen preparing for a performance in a small village outside Goroka, Papua New Guinea
Vegu, a member of the Nagamiufa tribe, in the eastern highlands of Papua New Guinea wearing traditional 'bilas'. Her grandfather receives a small living allowance from the government for his work preserving traditional clothing of tribal groups in th
The highlands of Papua New Guinea are fertile, resource rich and volatile. Tribal warfare has always been a fixture here but with population pressures causing migration and multinationals suddenly investing billions in mining, oil and gas projects, v
Thomson Harokaqveh takes us on a pre election visit to a village in the mountains around Goroka. During his current term as MP he has built a new road in order that the villagers can get their coffee to market. The road still needs some work, however
Thomson Harokaqzeh, the minister for environment and conservation in Papua New Guinea, is given a traditional reception in Gamusi Village, Goroka District, Papua New Guinea.
Thomson Harokaqveh, Goroka MP and Minister for Environment, addresses a group of villagers in his constituency. Thomson is believed to be half Australian but he sells himself as PNG born and bred. The intense sweat on his head is the result of chewin
The official rally takes place in Gamusi village, but villagers from throughout the valley will have come in order to pledge their support in return for money, beer, marijuana and and policy promises which may or may not be fulfilled during election
Inhabitants of Kimayao Village remove pumpkin and sweet potato from their Mumu (earth oven). A fire is first built in a pit; stones are then superheated on the embers before the food is placed in banana leaves on top, followed by a pig. The whole thi
Young boys from Gamusi Village in Papua New Guinea shave their heads and glue the hair to their faces in order to look like dwarves. Dwarfes are considered good luck in PNG and can only be seen by children.
Huli wigmen in attendance at the rally in Gamusi Village
Inhabitants of Kimayao Village address Thomson and thank him for visiting their village. In return he pledges to help their village should he be reelected.
Politics and Violence in Papua New Guinea-12.jpg
One of the major problems facing the highlands is the drug and arms trade. Marijuana, which grows in copious quantities around Goroka, is smuggled out aboard ships operated by logging companies. The marijuana is then traded for Ak47s, M16s and RPGs f
There is just one police officer for every 500 citizens in Goroka and recruitment levels continues to fall. The police are not only outnumbered but outgunned, as illegal arms continue to proliferate.
Acting Provincial Police Commander for Goroka district, David Seine, is deeply concerned about the presence of ever increasing illegal arms caches in villages building up to the 2012 election. The Australian government have echoed these conerns and h
Michael, a vigilante, in Papua New Guinea.
Private security firms do a roaring trade throughout PNG as a result of the high stakes corporate investment and the prevalence of criminal activity.
Crime is increasingly endemic in many parts of the highlands. Here a young man is put in a police van after stealing a missionary's bag, narrowly escaping the violent wrath of the angry mob.
A few days before we began shooting this story, a long standing tribal conflict in neighbouring Kainantu resulted in 16 people from the settler Kamono tribe being brutally murdered. Kainantu, eastern highlands, png.
The problems are exacerbated as foreign nationals are also moving up into the highlands. Most shops in Goroka are run by Malaysian and Chinese immigrants, who have arrived in waves since the sixties. Simmering local resentments at this monopoly and p
Goroka is the capital of the Eastern Highlands, it is a veritable melting pot of cultures. Settlers come from all over the highlands hoping to find work. It is home to both some of the most spectacular cultural exchnages on the planet and some of the
There is a very large missionary presence in the highlands, missionaries often live in large enclaves outside town. They play an active role in the elections and their aviation divisions hold the keys to some of the easy votes from remote communities
Mama Kinanoh is a traditional healer, her skills have been passed down through generations. She is able to heal broken collarbones in one week, legs and arms take two. She is often called in to work in Goroka hospital.
Michael Manove in the traditional bilas of his tribe, the Nagamiufa tribe. Michael dresses in bilas for political rallies, weddings and a ceremony called 'brideprice' during which a man's family take money and pigs and hold a celebration in his wife'
 
 

In the Highlands of Papua New Guinea, the contest for the 2012 national election is underway. No expenses- and no lives- will be spared as ambitious individuals from all over the highlands lead the voting public in a two-month festival that takes in traditional clothing, machine guns, ancestral belief, copious amounts of marijuana and some of the most palpably optimistic and overtly corrupt political shenanigans on the planet.

Politics in Papua New Guinea adheres to the Westminster system – the exact same system used in the UK. But that’s about as far as the similarities go. “A lot of candidates are stockpiling arms,” says Thompson Harokaqveh, the country’s Minister for Environment & Conservation. “I could do this too, but it will just make things worse.”

As more and more villagers get hold of automatic weapons, tribal warfare is becoming increasingly violent. Last month, 16 people were slaughtered in the small town of Kainantu due to a long-standing tribal feud. None of this bodes well for the 2012 elections and the Australian government has already laid out plans to evacuate 15,000 expatriates if things get out of control.

As this spectacular performance unravels, multinationals continue to throw money into the country. A cooperative led by Exxon Mobil has already invested $15 billion into tapping Papua’s reserve of natural gas, most of which has already been presold to China. PNG is expensive, its economy catering mainly to the corporate interests that sustain it. Meanwhile, a poor and under-educated population is short-term and partisan in its expectations, happy with handouts and less concerned with long-term policy. “We’re trying to cram 300 years of development into 25,” says 26-year-old Kenneth Manove. “But we’re actually three generations from the stone age.”