Vehicles set on fire in clash with security guards

PAPUA NEW GUINEA – Students at Papua New Guinea’s main university have clashed with security guards, damaging buildings, and burning vehicles as tensions over a prolonged student boycott of classes flared into anger again this week.

Police entered the campus but said they only negotiated with the students and did not use any violence to control the situation.

The reported chaos at the University of Papua New Guinea in Port Moresby comes just as normalcy was being restored after weeks of class boycotts.

It is not clear what triggered the violence, but there has been growing tension between students who want to return to class and those who want to maintain a complete boycott.

However, the PNG government says the events were not related to the political protests.

“The incident at the UPNG campus was an issue between groups of young men, several from outside the campus, that involved the consumption of alcohol that got out of hand,” a government spokesperson said.

“The matter is being investigated by campus officials and relevant authorities.”

The students began boycotting classes in April in protest at Prime Minister Peter O’Neill’s handling of corruption allegations.

The government and the university administration have been urging them to return to class and attempting to salvage the academic year.

The clash at the Port Moresby campus comes as students this week requested a formal reconciliation process with the university administration before returning to class.

A spokesperson for the Student Council, Gerald Tulu Manu Peni, said students were prepared to apologise if the administration said sorry to students and condemned the actions of police on July 8.

Another of the student leaders, Samuel Apa, said many students wanted the university administration to apologise and guarantee their safety before they were willing to go back to studies.

“The administration is saying you people have to go back to class,” he said. “Why should we go back to class when you treated us like this?

“You brought the police into the campus and they shot us.”

The university administration is currently meeting with police and student leaders to discuss resolving tension and allowing students to resume their studies.

One group of students on the campus has been accused of intimidating those who want to return to class.

Some students suggested they were behind the violence, but others said it was a mixed group of students.

The clash at the UPNG Port Moresby campus resulted in injuries to security guards, four vehicles burned and damage caused to the library and other buildings, the Post-Courier has reported.

In Lae, Unitech management have called in police to beef up security at the Taraka campus where tension is also running high between students who want to return to classes and the pro-boycott lobby which continues to harass the university security personnel.

The Port Moresby campus fight started when security guards put up a notice from the administration calling for the resumption of classes.

Reports say that angry student protestors, presumably intoxicated, reacted by attacking the guards.

The fight escalated into a riot that included three security guard vehicles and one administration vehicle burned by students.

Student leaders on campus said most staff members and students who returned to classes ran out of the campus gates for safety.

Higher Education, Research, Science and Technology Secretary Professor David Kavanamur and the university acting chancellor Dr Nicholas Mann will meet students would still meet to initiate a reconciliation process. - ABC/PNC

Uniforce chased off the grounds

PAPUA NEW GUINEA – Following the police shooting of protesting students on June

8, this week’s violence involved students and university security personnel known as Uniforce.

One of the student leaders, Henry Norrie-Maim, said the violence broke out after Uniforce tried to force a group of students to end their boycott and return to class.

“There were some students at the campus and Uniforce came and told them to go back to class,” he said.

“The students explained that they were waiting for the peace mediation team to come and conduct the reconciliation ceremony, and then we might go back to classes next week, Monday.”

“But Uniforce said they must go to class today, and that’s when the students got frustrated and the violence broke out,” said Norrie-Maim.

“Uniforce tried to use force, using flares to chase the students out, but that brought back the frustration from two weeks ago.”

“They, the students, chased Uniforce out, they blocked every road into the campus. They burned at least four Uniforce cars,” he said.

Loop PNG reported that the violence might have broken out after Uniforce intervened to stop one group of students from intimidating another who wanted to go to class.

A Uniforce guard was alleged to have been injured in the clash, but Norrie-Maim said no students had been hurt.

Meanwhile, police in Lae are patrolling the University of Technology’s main campus upon request of the Unitech managemen.

Lae Metropolitant Commander Chief Superintendant Anthony Wagambie Junior confirmed that his men have been requested to provide security at the campus after recieving reports claiming a certain number of students had harassed the campus security guards.

“Police are not on campus to harass, intimidate or investigate anyone.

“Police are on campus to protect government property and also there are reports from the administration that some students who want to attend classes are feeling intimidated by some other students,” Wagambie said.

He called on students wanting to attend classes to do so and those staying away as a sign of protest to do as well.

“Let me make it clear that police are not on campus to force anyone to attend classes, this is an individual’s free choice,” he added.

- RNZI/PNC