Showing posts with label Daru. Show all posts
Australia PNG joint border patrol
Sean was invited to be part of a joint patrol to Sigabaduru village involving Australian Customs, Australian Federal Police (AFP), Queensland Police, Papua New Guinea Customs, PNG Immigration and PNG Police.
Here's his account of the journey:
The village of Sigabaduru is on the southern coast of Papua New Guinea's Western (or Fly River) Province and is less than three kilometres from the Australian island of Saibai. We went there in quite speedy tenders launched from a patrol boat, the Australian Customs Vessel Holdfast Bay. Unlike Saibai which has a wharf, electricity and running water, Sigabaduru - a village of 850 to 1,000 people - has no electricity, no running water and no wharf. That meant wading ashore.
Once on the beach Grant Smith, the Australian Federal Police officer who was in the team, handed over his gun to his PNG counterpart, a policewoman who held it until he was ready to return to Australian territory.
Sigabaduru is one of the villages covered by the Australia PNG Treaty whereby PNG citizens are allowed traditional entry into a number of Australian islands in the Torres Strait, free from the need for visas.
About 50,000 visits are made to Australian islands like Saibai each year by Papua New Guineans covered by the Treaty. In fact, the day before we crossed over to Sigabaduru I ran into one of the men from that village, Nope Nama, who was on a shopping trip to the supermarket at another Australian island just off the PNG mainland, Dauan. He bought some rice, flour, sugar and fruit juice. He was back on the PNG mainland before nightfall.
The idea of the joint cross border patrols is to maintain relationships with the communities and the trips provide the authorities in both Australia and PNG with invaluable intelligence. The local people on both sides of the border know each other extremely well and so the Torres Strait is not the easy access route to Australia by potential asylum seekers or others that one might assume.
Liam Daly, the Australian Customs and Border Security team leader for the Torres Strait, told a village meeting in Sigabaduru that the Australian agencies involved in the patrol had a variety of interests.
"We're interested into [sic] the movement of people into Australia, the movement of people out of Australia," he said. "Things like drugs, guns, money movement - that kind of stuff."
The AFP's Grant Smith told the people how much Australia had appreciated information Papua New Guineans had provided in the past.
"I just want to say we really value the relationship we've established with your village here," he said.
"And because we're so close. PNG and Australia are so close here these Cross Border Patrols which are led by Customs, it's really about us working together across that border so that both communities are safe."
There was one complaint from the other side. Koeget Salee, a retired school teacher from Sigabaduru, said that his people had assisted in reporting people trying to illegally enter Australia - but it was expensive for people in PNG to do so. He said that if he was reporting some suspicious movement to Saibai, he had to make an international phone call on his mobile even though Saibai was in full view just there across the water.
One issue that I reported on quite extensively when I was the ABC's Port Moresby correspondent in the 1990s was the trade of guns from Australian to the Torres Strait and marijuana from the PNG side. Although there was mention of it during the Sigabaduru village meeting, it appears the trade has declined somewhat. One of the reasons, I was told, is that hydroponic marijuana grown in Australia has taken market share off the PNG Highlands grown variety.
I asked the Queensland Police officer in charge in the Torres Strait Patrol Group about the trade.
"I wouldn't say that it doesn't occur," Inspector David Lacey said.
"Certainly our intelligence indicates that it is not as prevalent as perhaps it was in the past. I think one of the reasons is our continued cross border patrols with our federal counterparts.
"We have a very good connection of networks on the islands these days with the Movement Monitoring Officers employed by the Federal Government attached to each of the outer islands.
"Also we have Torres Strait Islands Police Support Officers currently on the islands so that network of contacts, I think, significantly reduces the amount of activity that goes on, specifically with regards to large-scale importations."
Inspector Lacey said a big part of the Queensland Police job in the Torres Strait these days is to do with search and rescue operations because the waters on both sides of the border can be quite treacherous.
A Papua New Guinean man whose daughter died in a
Queensland hospital has been told by bureaucrats he will have to use a
dinghy to get himself and his daughter's body home.
Petru Aniba
made a mercy dash from his home village to the Torres Strait in February
in the hope of saving his 14-year-old daughter Marthi, who was
suffering tuberculosis.She eventually died in Cairns Base Hospital. Her father too had tuberculosis and has only been released from quarantine.
Queensland Health officials said they would only fly the man and his dead daughter as far as the Torres Strait.
His friend Robert Slade says Mr Aniba travelled from his village to the Papua New Guinean township of Daru, and from there canoed to Saibai Island in the Torres Strait.
"Then from Saibai he was choppered to Thursday Island, then from Thursday Island he was flown down to the Cairns Base Hospital," Mr Slade said.
"Unfortunately, his daughter Marthi passed away on February 24 and then Aniba was put into isolation for a few months because of tuberculosis.
"He came out of isolation about, roughly, five weeks ago and has been waiting for him and his daughter to be able to be repatriated back home so he can bury his daughter.
"Queensland Health were prepared to send him and his daughter back to Saibai, but unfortunately from Saibai he would have to organise for his brother-in-law to bring a dinghy over from Daru to Saibai, which is an eight-hour journey in a dinghy and uses approximately 80 litres of fuel."
Mr Slade says Mr Aniba would have to take his daughter's body on board the dinghy without any refrigeration.
Outrage
The situation has outraged Warren Entsch, the Liberal MP for Leichhardt."How could we do this in this country?" he said.
"When this fellow basically takes a huge risk, he's seriously ill himself, comes across to our borders looking to try and save his 14-year-old daughter, as any parent would do, we say 'right, we'll dump him on Saibai and he can find his own way home and he can take the body of his daughter with him'.
"It is just heartless."
A Queensland Health spokeswoman says the department does have a policy of returning people to their point of entry.
Mr Entsch described that policy as "bloody bullshit".
"They know where he came from. That's a bit like saying 'all of these that are coming in illegally in the boats, well, we've only got to take them out and dump them back on Ashmore Reef'," he said.
Mr Entsch has launched an appeal to raise $15,000 in airfares for Mr Aniba.
But late Friday, Queensland Health released a statement saying it was prepared to provide whatever assistance was required to ensure Mr Aniba and his daughter's body were safely repatriated to their home village and that cost was not an issue.
Cairns District chief executive Julie Hartley-Jones said staff had met Mr Aniba on Thursday to discuss the best way to get him and his daughter home.
She said he asked to be flown to Saibai and for Queensland Health to provide fuel for the boat trip back to his home, which the department agreed to pay for.
However, she said Mr Aniba had since indicated he was reconsidering his options.
"Regardless of this, Queensland Health stands ready and willing to do everything possible to ensure Mr Petru and his daughter's body can be safely returned to their home village in PNG," she said.
Widespread dilemma
The case raises a more widespread dilemma in the Torres Strait.Many PNG citizens are making the desperate trip to Australia for medical treatment, suffering from conditions such as tuberculosis, cholera and meningitis.
The tuberculosis clinic of Saibai is the only one in the Torres Strait but has run out of federal funding.
That has prompted an appeal from medical professionals like Professor Ian Wronski, James Cook University's head of medicine, who says tuberculosis is a re-emerging disease.
"Bit by bit it will re-establish in the Torres, it may well be there now," he said.
"Naturally people from PNG move it into the Torres Strait and people from the Torres Strait move it into the Cape, and we'll see tuberculosis re-establish itself in Australia."
Queensland Health Minister Geoff Wilson was not available to talk about the Aniba case but earlier addressed the issue of the tuberculosis clinics.
"Health services to PNG nationals are the responsibility of the Federal Government, but rest assured the Queensland Government's made its views well known to the Commonwealth," he said.
"Only as of yesterday, I spoke with Nicola Roxon about that at the conclusion of the Health Ministers Council there in Melbourne."
The District of South Fly shares its borders with Australia and Indonesia. The obvious need not be mentioned; transport links in the South Fly are pretty primitive. Women carrying babies and cargo negotiate precarious single-log bridges in the jungle. Patients have to be stretchered to aid posts and sub health centers that do not have proper equipment and drugs.
Many die and are never taken back home for burial due to the distance and risk of decomposition. Such has been the case for villagers from Dimisisi village who succumbed to illness at Upiara sub-health-center and have been buried at the nearby villages of Kondobol and Bok.
Of course, Western Province is home to a major Public Health catastrophe where in 2010 around 300 lives were lost to cholera. Most of the victims were children and the elderly from South Fly. Public Health woes continue to give a nasty headache to Queensland health Authorities who have to cope with the patients who flock to Saibai Island, in search of better Health services. Multi-drug resistant Tuberculosis (TB) continues to pose a major threat to the population.
Despite its rich natural resources and the existence of the Ok Tedi mine that has bankrolled Papua New Guinea, Western Province continues to lag behind in most aspects of development. The largest shareholder of Ok Tedi, the PNG Sustainable Development Company Program, has failed in its fiduciary duty towards the people of South Fly.
Tuberculosis (TB) services in the Torres Strait
Dr Jeannette Young, Chief Health Officer, Queensland Health :
"The work that the Australian Government has done through AusAID in Papua New Guinea, specifically in the South Fly Province, has now reduced the risk to Queenslanders and indeed all Australians of contracting extremely drug-resistant TB.
A number of years ago, the Queensland Government made the decision to wind back the clinics that were being held in Saibai and Boigu, two small islands in the Torres Strait very close to Papua New Guinea.
"Those clinics were set up to provide services to Papua New Guinean nationals who had TB. They would come across the short gap of ocean, across to Australia to access these services. Unfortunately, we know that those types of services are not the best services to put in place for people with TB.
The best service you can offer someone with TB, particularly in a third world country, is the World Health Organization auspice service of DOTS -- direct observed treatment. The reason that is the best service is that then you can make sure that the patients are receiving their treatment every single day for the full course that is required. If that doesn't occur we know that there is a real risk that drug resistance can emerge. And indeed extremely drug resistant TB could emerge.
"So by putting in place a DOTS auspice program into PNG itself, you can reduce that risk. And that's the work that the Commonwealth Government has been doing through AusAID now for the last year.
They have been setting up treatment services within the villages and they've also enhanced the service that's available at Daru -- the referral hospital for that part of Papua New Guinea.
"They've put in place a sea ambulance to take patients to Daru if they've needed, but more importantly they have got services available in the actual villages where the people live. So they don't need to travel across the Strait, through to the Torres Strait to obtain services. In the past those services, although very well intentioned of course, meant that at some times people wouldn't be able to make the trip and would miss out on their drugs for that period and there would be issues with it.
"So now with the new process in place I am confident that we are reducing the risk to Australians from obtaining TB.
We have had very, very few cases over the years of TB within the Torres Strait itself. Torres Strait people, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders who live in those communities, of course can continue to access TB services as can any Queenslander. So I am confident all of these changes will actually reduce the risk to those people and to all Queenslanders.
Benefits of the Direct Observed Treatment Short-course (DOTS) for treating TB
"The World Health Organization recommends that wherever possible the DOTS program should be utilised -- direct observed treatment. That is where health workers actually monitor people taking their drugs every day during the treatment. Most sensitive TB regimes last around six months, so it's important that the people take the drugs every day for that six-month period and DOTS ensures that happens.
It's always much more difficult if you ask people to come to a clinic every six weeks or so, to pick up their medication because they mightn't be able to make the trip for whatever reason. Indeed we had some times when the border was closed and it was difficult for people to access the drugs. Also that they mightn't be aware of the importance of taking the drugs every single day if there isn't someone there to remind them. Which is why WHO recommends DOTS for all third world countries.
Rise of the Superbugs
The nightmare is here. Rampant use of antibiotics coupled with an explosion in global travel has led to superbugs spreading worldwide. Join us as we step into the lab with leading experts on antibiotic resistance, and listen to shocking stories of the health implications. Let’s face up to the horror of antibiotic resistance before it’s too late…Joel Beclu got a superbug following routine treatment for prostate cancer. “I lost touch with reality because of the painkillers,” he recalls. Joel’s life was only saved by rare antibiotics imported from overseas. With the discovery of antibiotics In the 1930s and 40s we became superhuman - able to survive chemotherapy, transplant surgery and intensive care. The loss of effective antibiotics would jeopardise all of that, since as Molecular Bioscientist Professor Matt Cooper tells us “infectious disease kills more people than cancer.”
Without antibiotics surgery used to be the last line of defence against infection. Now the use of radical surgery is on the rise again. Nick Komilionis picked up a superbug in his home country of Greece. In the end all drugs failed him and his life was only saved by having his bowel surgically removed. “We had to take a pre-1940s approach to cure him,” admits his doctor Professor Lindsay Grayson.
David Ricci was volunteering in a Calcutta slum when he was hit by a train, his leg badly mangled. He picked up superbug New Delhi metallo-beta-lactamase or NDM1. Somehow David finally made it home to America where a toxic drug killed off the infection just before it killed him. “They had to pull me off right before most of my organs were unretainable.” Now he walks on a prosthetic leg, treating every day as though it was his last.
“Every time we take an antibiotic we're giving the bug a chance to become a superbug” explains Matt Cooper. Countries like India are the “perfect petri-dish” for superbugs. Antibiotics are manufactured cheaply here and available over the counter. Waterways and even the soil are contaminated by waste from antibiotic manufacture. India's superbug researchers have been shunned for threatening a multi-billion dollar medical tourism industry. Dr Abdul Ghafur is one of the few Indian doctors prepared to speak out: “We can't wait and watch. We need urgent wartime measures to ration antibiotics.”
TB was once thought a disease of the past. Australia used to hold TB originating in Papua New Guinea at bay by isolating it in island hospitals. Cathrina is currently Australia's only known case of Extensively Drug Resistant Tuberculosis or XDR-TB. She made her way here from PNG after running out of TB drugs. Already five months in isolation in negative air pressure, her treatment could cost up to a million dollars. And she may not even survive. In remote PNG villages like Sigabaduru we track down other TB sufferers who have run out of drugs, just as Cathrina did. They are cases of superbug TB waiting to happen.
Sadly antibiotics are not cost-effective for drug companies. Those prepared to research new antibiotics are dwindling. And once a superbug gets out into the community, there may be no stopping it. As Thoracic Specialist Dr Stephen Vincent warns: “If it gets into the population, that's the disaster.”
An authoritative, timely film, on an issue we ignore at our peril.
West Papua Film
This film shows; the extremely brutal history the native population of West Papua have endured for many decades under the oppressive Indonesian Military.How, to this day they continue to struggle for independence from Indonesia, with historical pieces showing the UN Shame vote: Act of 'NO' Choice which lead to their colonisation and the continued thief, of the West Papuan's natural resources.
Filmed undercover in West Papua 2000/1 with historical footage obtained from various sources.
A film made by fPcN interCultural: www.fPcN-global.org/
Tuberculosis Threat On Our Border
The report said findings in 2006 discovered a rising incidence of TB in the Torres Strait and changing TB patterns in Far North Queensland.
"Evidence of rising incidence of TB in the Torres Strait and primary transmission of MDR-TB within the Western Province of PNG suggests the potential for a major public health crisis, with the possibility of MDR-TB spreading to northern Queensland.
"Urgent efforts are needed to scale-up resources to find further cases and provide appropriate treatment and follow-up for all visitors and residents living in the Torres Strait Protected Zone."
The journal says Australia is fortunate to have one of the lowest incident rates of tuberculosis (TB) in the world, with rates remaining stable at 5–6 cases per 100,000 population since the mid 1980s.
However, Australia’s close proximity to many countries in the Asia–Pacific region with a high or intermediate TB burden necessitates an evaluation of policies and strategies for TB control for Australian.
"The health status of Papua New Guineans is one of the lowest in the Pacific region, and TB is one of the three leading infectious diseases causing death in PNG, with an estimated mortality rate of 42 deaths per 100,000 population. The estimated annual incidence of all forms of TB in PNG is 233 cases per 100,000 population."
The report says the Treaty presents an important challenge to Australia to ensure that the unique lifestyle of the region’s traditional inhabitants is protected while advancing Australia’s public health interests.
Because of limited access to health care in the Western Province, PNG nationals from the coastal areas are travelling to the nearby islands of Boigu and Saibai to seek treatment. During a study of the region, TB cases originated from the coastal village of Mabadauan, Sigabaduru, Buzi and Dimiri.
"With the close proximity of PNG to Australian territory, efforts to upscale control of TB in the Torres Strait are essential to ensure that MDR-TB does not become an emerging problem in Queensland.
In the past two years, 30 MDR-TB strains have been identified in Australia, with a third of these originating from the Western Province of PNG. Continued, Page 2.
Drugs, guns a way of life in Daru
By Barnabas Orere
“ILLICIT trade in guns and drugs is active on Daru island,” says a government official. “Ask anyone on the street and they will tell you the same story. Everyone knows what goes on, it’s become a way of life”.
Despite its strategic importance, Daru has been neglected for so long the island has been claimed by criminals. Although there is a slight decline in gun-running, mainly due to the ban on cartridges slapped on by the Government, it is too little too late; the illicit trade has taken a firm foothold.
One faithful public servant who has been on the island for nearly 30 years lamented: “Daru has gone to the dogs.”
Moves to relocate the Western Province capital to the mainland at Wipim, a fair distance away can only bring smiles to the lips of criminals. Plans to declare the province a free-trade zone next year will be a celebration.
Daru has been a free port for a decade and a quarter. The airstrip does not have a terminal building which means people and cargo come and go at will. There are no checks on people arriving on the island by air from Port Moresby. If you are travelling to Daru from Port Moresby, there will be electronic scanning of your luggage but can concealed drugs among clothing be detected?
Sniffer dogs might be more effective.
When returning to Port Moresby, you do not go through the same checks. The guards simply get your baggage tags and wave you on.
The criminals love this and word is that clever people in high places are investing in the niche to get rich overnight. The extent of the illicit trade suggests there is a syndicate.
The more people who are involved, the more money comes into play. And every time they respond to threats to their illegal activities, the number of corrupt people increases, severely undermining the rule of law and making the perpetrators more determined and powerful.
For instance, it has been suggested that guns can be dismantled and transported inside large
barramundi fish.
Air Niugini does not land at Daru because the airstrip is not big enough for its aircraft, leaving it to third level airlines, including light planes with Australian registration which have been sighted during the wee small hours of the morning.
The guns-for-drugs or drugs-for-cash trade has its nerve centre in the Torres Strait and because of its proximity, Daru is the staging point.
“The biggest hurdle in moving drugs is getting it into Western Province. Once it hits any corner of Western Province, its gone. We only get to hear of the transaction a week or two later”, said a government officer.
Mabudawan to Saibai Island in the Torres Strait is a 20-minute dinghy ride. From Sigabaduru it is five minutes. From the extreme western village of Buzi, it is five minutes to Boigu island. Many villagers go shopping in the Torres Strait because Daru is too far.
Marijuana, which is cultivated in the cool Highlands climate, either find their way to Port Moresby and try to reach Daru, or they come down to Balimo through a bush track from the Southern Highlands.
The Fly River is also a highway for drugs. The officer said although Highlanders were not the only people taking drugs to Daru in search of guns, their numbers on the island had increased dramatically.
Many fail their mission and stay in Daru rather than go back and face those who sent them in the first place. There were cases he knew of where Highlanders had stayed for up to four years when they lost their drugs.
In many cases, only two or three succeeded while a failure meant a string of people waiting for their cut. Highlanders cannot get to the Torres Strait. So they depend on traditional border crossers.
The Westerners have seen their vulnerability and prey on the Highlanders, cheating them of their drugs. Many Highlanders wait up to two weeks and leave — or if they cannot go back, they just live on Daru.
A source from one of the beach villages on the mainland said his village was once the main staging point for the movement of drugs. Village youth had told him of their links with the island police who, in turn, claimed had ties with Australian Customs.
Another source, a councillor, said since the Australian surveillance was stepped up, PNG drug traffickers had become more crafty. They had faster boats and moved under cover of darkness to reach the Torres Strait using stars, reefs, islands and mountains to navigate.
“On Daru you can get a roll for K2. Boy, girl, woman, man — everybody does it, nobody cares. Where I live, I see in the house next door, people smoking pipes and sniffing into tubes. It is a distribution centre. I can point out to you people who work for a top health official. I can point out the so-called pastors who are into this also — and a few policemen. Court exhibits have disappeared, stolen from police custody.”
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The guns were not from Indonesia because of the brands. They included shotguns, .303, (rifle) M16 or the more powerful SKS and the canon which fired bullets “the size of your middle finger”.
A long-time public servant said police took drugs from people under the pretext of doing their work.
When it came time for the court hearing, the exhibits tendered were far smaller than the “tonnes” they stockpiled.
“If they are not publicly destroyed, the question is where do they go?” the public servant asked.
“There is a link with Federal Police so drug changes hands during joint border patrols. The cash comes through the bank. There was a case where $A85,000 coming through was intercepted by police from Port Moresby.
“The rogue policeman was a member of the drug squad based in Daru. Fifteen other policemen, drug section members and other section men were suspended. Everyone in Daru knows this story.
“The wife of the senior officer was arrested with drug in her possession, about to board a Daru flight. The police here have lost all credibility and respect. The police from the top to bottom here stinks; they stink badly.”
The public servant said the second-hand business by Highlanders on Daru was increasing.
“Why are they suddenly interested in coming to Daru; there must be something here to attract them. We have log ships that anchor some distance from the shore. They may get checked once and given clearance. And that’s it, they are free. We don’t have the logistics to keep an eye. Many people fish 1km into Australian waters because of the treaty arrangement that recognises traditional border crossers.”
He said he had never before seen humans talk and act like animals. In the last five years in Daru town, a strange behaviour had started to become the norm.
“Young people here have plain gone mad. They use obscene language that makes reference to the female genitals as a daily vocabulary,” he said. “There is no respect whatsoever for mothers and sisters or the sanctity of marriage and motherhood. People steal here to survive. Vandalism and theft is common but police are powerless.
“This is a small island yet no arrests have been made of reported cases. You can’t get any help at night, no-one answers the phone. If you are lucky to talk to someone, the excuse is, ‘sorry, we don’t have a vehicle’. That’s amazing because Daru is so small you can walk around the town.”
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