Papua New Guinea: Crackdown on drug trafficking leads to arrests

Papua New Guinea’s national drug squad has spent the past four weeks conducting a special operation to clamp down on international drugs-for-guns trafficking.  On Monday, the drug squad, with the aid of local police, arrested nine suspects in Western Province and confiscated kilograms of marijuana packed for trading.  Five others were arrested last week in related operations.

The town of Daru, Western Province was the site of all the arrests.   Four people were arrested  at Daru airport with 2.5kg of marijuana on August 12th, and one woman was arrested on August 8 with 8kg of the drug.  Police believe that they are part of an organized ring that ships marijuana from the Highlands region to Western Province, where the drugs are traded with international dealers and local users.  The international trades are usually done at sea, near the Australian and Indonesian borders.

Drug trafficking is believed to be the source of many illegal firearms being brought into PNG.  The National reports that this theory is confirmed in an interview with Nebilyer Valley warriors, conducted for an ABC documentary.  One of the interviewees stated, “We carry bags of dried marijuana down to the Western Province and trade them for guns and walk back to the Highlands with the guns.”

The national drug squad is attempting to close the local drug routes and identify the international traffickers.  Superintendent of police Dominic Kakas told Radio New Zealand International that he believes that the trafficking in Daru is widespread enough to involve public servants and school children, in addition to villagers.  Constable Robert Wane agrees with this assessment, and preliminary investigations revealed that public servants have been involved.  Wane also said that people did not seem to be bothered, despite the police crackdown.  He mentioned that the jail and the courthouse in Daru were in disrepair, which created an environment of increased law and order problems, including increased drug trafficking.

Please see also:
“Daru going ‘potty'”  The National (15 August 2007)
“PNG police say drug trafficking in Western Province widespread”  Radio New Zealand International (15 August 2007)
“Drug trafficking said to be widespread in PNG after four more arrests”  Radio New Zealand International (16 August 2007)
“Western, the capital of drugs, arms deals”  PNG Post-Courier (20 August 2007)
“Nine arrested for drugs deal”  PNG Post-Courier (20 August 2007)

Kazakh President’s Party Sweeps Parliamentary Elections

President of Kazakhstan, Nursultan Nazarbayev’s governing party won every seat being contested in Kazakhstan’s weekend parliamentary elections.  The opposition has rejected the results, saying they were manipulated; international observers, including the US, have criticized the results and deemed the vote flawed.

Gonzalo Gallegos, a spokesman for the US State Department said Sunday’s election fell short of international standards.

President Nazarbayev’s Nur Otan (Light of the Fatherland) party received 88% of Saturday’s vote, and no other party cleared the 7% barrier needed to win a seat in the Parliament’s lower house.

Nazarbayev has ruled the oil-rich country since 1989, when it was still a Soviet republic.  He had pledged the elections would be free and fair.  These parliamentary elections were called two years early because of Nazarbayev’s intent to strengthen the Parliament and expand the country’s political spectrum.  This move was widely seen as a maneuver by him to try to improve Kazakhstan’s democratic image while maintaining his grip on power.  Critics say the 7% barrier for representation in Parliament is too high for a country where most political parties are in early stages.

Senator Consiglio Di Nino of Canada has said that notwithstanding the concerns, he believes that the elections continue to move Kazakhstan forward in its evolution towards a democratic country.

For more information, please see:

–http://www.boston.com/news/world/asia/articles/2007/08/20/kazakh_leaders_party_is_victorious/

–http://www.forbes.com/afxnewslimited/feeds/afx/2007/08/20/afx4034598.html

–http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/08/20/america/NA-GEN-US-Kazakhstan.php

–http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/20/world/asia/20kazakh.html

–http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1654203,00.html

Conflict Between Nations

By Myriam Clerge
Impunity Watch, Africa

The conflict between Ethiopia and Eritrea began with a bitter territorial war 1998. In 2000 a peace deal was signed in Algiers, marking an Ethiopia-Eritrea boundary, ceasing the war and not the tension. Since then there has been a continuance barrage of accusations from both nations.

On Wednesday, Ethiopian police release a statement through the state-run Ethiopian News Agency that they had prevented an Eritrea-backed plan to assassinate state officials and carry out bomb attacks. According to the police, the latest police was targeted at the president of Adama University. Several suspects were caught in Addis Ababa.

As Ethiopia investigate the assassination plots, Eritrea lawyers are preparing lawsuits against Ethiopia. During the territorial war, thousands of Eritea citizens living in Ethiopia were arrested, stripped of their possessions and deported to Eritrea. Since then they have not received compensation for the homes, businesses and money they lost. Eritrean lawyers claim that nearly 70,000 share the same story and the claims could exceed $500 million. However, several expellees are concerned that if Ethiopia has not complied with boundary commission, why would they reimburse expelled Eritreans.

As a side note, President of Eritrea Isaias Afwerki discussed relations between the US and his country. According to the President, the U.S. did not support Eritrea during its liberation and independence but instead employed acts of conspiracy. Allegations Zimbabwe President also invokes.

For more information please see:

AllAfrica – Eritrea: U.S. Attempt to Put Into Effect its Strategy of Monopoly and Dominance Leading the World to Dangerous Paths – 20 August 2007

Yahoo – Expelled Eritreans Seek Damages from Ethiopia – 19 August 2007

Yahoo – Ethiopia Blames Eritrea for ‘Assassination’ Plot – 15 August 2007

Iraqi refugee children attend school in Jordan

On August 19, many Iraqi children in Jordan began school for the first time.  In 2006, it is estimated that only 20,000 of the 200,000 Iraqi school-aged children in Jordan attended school and only 6,000 completed the school year.  These low numbers are attributed to Jordan’s policy of only allowing Iraqis with proper residency or who could pay, to attend school.  However, this year Jordan officials agreed to allow Iraqi children to attend school regardless of their legal status, allowing a greater number of children to go to school. 

Many of these children are refugees from Iraq, fleeing the violence of the war and sectarian fighting.  Since 2003, about 2 million Iraqis fled the country, with the majority going to Syria, Jordan and Egypt.  It is thought that 750,000 Iraqi refugees currently reside in Jordan, a country of 5 million people, making it the highest per capita ratio of refugees to citizens.  The large number of refugees and the number of services that Jordan provides puts a strain on the government.  One year of elementary or secondary education will cost $1400 per pupil.  UNHCR and UNICEF recently appealed for $129 million dollars to help several host countries, including Jordan, to finance the costs of these additional students.

Other obstacles include how to accommodate this influx in enrollment.  It is estimated that 50,000 Iraqis children will attend Jordan’s already crowded schools, resulting in classes of over 50 students.  Education Ministry official, Mohammed Okour, stated that if schools become too crowded that a shift-system of morning and afternoon classes will be introduced. 

For more information please see:

Reuters:  “UNHCR hails decision to let Iraqi children attend school in Jordan”  20 August 2007. 

BBC:  “Iraqis enrol in Jordan’s schools”  19 August 2007. 

France14:  “Back to school for Iraqi children… in Jordan”  19 August 2007. 

International Herald Tribune:  “Iraqi refugee children in Jordan finally have first day of school”  19 August 2007. 

Human Rights Watch:  “Jordan:  Government pledges to grant Iraqis education, health rights”  16 August 2007. 

UNICEF:  “UNICEF welcomes Jordan’s offer of education to Iraqi children”  10 August 2007.

Hijacked Turkish Hostages Escape

An Egyptian and a Turk hijacked a Turkish passenger plane.  The Atlas Jet airplane departed from Northern Cyprus and was headed to Istanbul, Turkey.  Fifteen minutes after takeoff, the hijackers approached the cockpit and threatened the crew with a knife and an alleged bomb.  In reality, the alleged bomb was only modeled clay with wires attached to it.  Upon the threat, the crew members responded immediately.  Also, the hijackers claimed to be affiliated with Al-Qaeda and tried to redirect the flight to Iran.  However, the plane did not have enough fuel to fly to Tehran.  Thus, the hijackers allowed the crew to make an emergency crash landing in Antalya, Turkey to refuel the plane.  Immediately after landing, many of the crew and passengers escaped through initial negotiations with Turkish security forces.  However, the hijackers kept six of the passengers as hostages in a four hour holdout.  Eventually these hostages were also freed.  All 136 passengers and six crew members escaped basically unharmed. 

The hijackers’ motives were unclear.  The Gulf Daily News reported that Turkish Cypriot authorities believed that the hijackers were Iranians protesting American polices.  The Egyptian, Mommen Abdul Aziz Talikh, was known to have contact with Al-Qaeda.  He was a Saudi Arabian prison mate of an organizer of the attacks on the United States on September 11, 2001.  Talikh also was trained at an Al-Qaeda camp.  Less is known about the Turkish kidnapper.  The hijackers gave themselves up and are in the custody of Turkish Security forces, along with another passenger who the police believe was involved in the hijacking.

People’s Daily Online.  Many of passengers manage to flee from hijacked plane in Turkey (2).  18 August 2007.

People’s Daily Online.  Turkish aircraft hijacked en route from northern Cyprus to Turkey: TV.  18 August 2007.

People’s Daily Online.  Some passengers injured as escaping from hijacked plane in Turkey.  19 August 2007.

People’s Daily Online.  Many of passengers manage to flee from hijacked plane in Turkey.  18 August 2007.

Gulf Daily News. Turkish plane hijack bomb ‘block of clay’.  20 August 2007.

Gulf Daily News. Hostages freed in hijack dilemma. 19 August 2007.

Reuters.  Turkish plane hijack hostages freed.  18 August 2007.