Razor wires removed in PNG capital

PORT MORESBY – Port Moresby is safer now than it ever was and its time for razor wires to come down, according to the National Capital District Governor Powes Parkop.

He said yesterday that it was time the city stopped looking like “a Gulag” of Russia.

Parkop told the Post-Courier that the removal of razor wires in the city was not only part of the clean up for the 15th Pacific Games, but a gradual move that he had developed to change the city.

He said many of the razor wire fences had been illegally put up and had not been approved by the building and planning board of the National Capital District Commission.

“The reason these razor wires are being taken off is not because of the Games, it is because I as the city manager want to change the mindset of every Papua New Guinean living in the city and to have a quality life in the long run.”

City residents and businesses have been angered by NCDC sending workmen to remove the razor wires around their homes and premises.

The workmen said they were enforcing city hall’s city beautification program ahead of the Pacific Games next month.

The residents however, claimed that they were at increased risk of break-ins since the removal of the wires.

But Parkop is standing by his decision that razor wire fencing must come down.

“We are also allowing people to change their mindset, the youths, yes, we have to have alternatives for them and that’s why we are giving young men scholarships or youths are being empowered,” he said.

“We are not pulling down their walls, we are removing the razor wires because we want change and confidence in our city as well as better condition and quality life for our residents,” he said.

Port Moresby’s population has now hit the one million mark and Parkop says he has a big task of trying to look for ways to rehabilitate city residents to accept and welcome changes.