Fatal fighting in Port Moresby

PORT MORESBY – One person has died and four others have been injured in clashes between Papua New Guinea police and soldiers in the capital, Port Moresby, according to the ABC.

The violence began when police chased and shot at a car that ran a red light on Thursday night, wounding a soldier.

The driver of the car, a soldier, was killed, while another man was injured.

Two police officers were later beaten by a group of men at a shopping centre on Friday morning in a possible retaliatory attack.

Witness Rocky Issou said a crowd became agitated and began rioting and looting.

“An unmarked vehicle pulled out and two police officers were beaten,” he said.

“There were crowds of people selling buai on the side, they just came over and started attacking, helping those people in an unmarked vehicle beat those police officers up and after doing that, they started looting the shops in that area.”

Issou said women and children at the Manu shopping area were caught up in the violence.

“It was pretty scary. At that instant I didn’t know what was going on,” he said.

“But as soon as the bystanders and opportunists started coming in, that’s when the fear started to set in, because they were just attacking anyone at random.”

Three police vehicles were smashed with rocks during the incident, which led to a standoff between police and soldiers outside Port Moresby’s main police station.

It is the third major incident between the military and police in a year.

Senior police and defence force officials have met and agreed to work together to stop any future confrontations.

“When our people are afraid to go to work, when shops close, that’s the first indicator and it is wrong,” defence force chief of operations Siale Diro said.

“It is wrong and we will do everything we can to make sure it stops – through training, through continual mentoring and just the basic command and control. It is an ongoing issue we are dealing with and it is part of our transformation.”

Police said the latest violence, as well as previous clashes, were being investigated by a high-level team.

In December, soldiers broke into police cells to free their drunken comrades who had been detained for brawling. Four men were shot and wounded in that incident. - PNC