On September 15 a PNG police riot squad detained, interrogated and severely beat Gewai Dusty Zamunu, a village leader and project manager working for a joint Rainforest Information Centre and Village Development Trust community development and rainforest conservation project site in Morobe Province of Papua New Guinea.
He was brought to the holding cells at Lae by civil police, also based at the Sowara village logging site, on September 17, said RIC director John Seed. Logging and road construction are being carried out in the area by Yema Gewai Logging, a subsidiary of the Malaysian logging company Rimbunan Hijau.
Zamunu was released and given medical attention, and was to appear in court on September 20. RIC has received a report that he was released by the court.
Sasa Zibe, director of the VDT, stated that during Zamunu's interrogation the police said to him, "The logging operation could have started years ago, but because of your awareness campaign activity in the area, you have held back the operation. Why have you been campaigning against large logging company operations for the last eight years?"
John Seed said, "We are calling on PNG Prime Minister Paias Wingti to launch an urgent inquiry into police intimidation and harassment of traditional landowners throughout PNG, and to direct his minister of police to order riot squads stationed at logging sites throughout the country to immediately cease any such activities.
"There is a consistent pattern throughout the country of police supporting logging companies and repressing traditional landowners opposed to the exploitation of their forests by foreign multinationals for paltry and short-term benefits to local people.
"Riot Squads are currently stationed all over the country, for instance at the Warongoi timber lease in East New Britain, and the Hawaian Local Forest Area outside Wewak in East Sepik. They are consistently being brought in at the behest of Rimbunan Hijau and its subsidiaries to defend their interests over the legitimate concerns of local people."
Seed added, "Gordon Bilney, the minister for development cooperation and Pacific island affairs, should also launch an immediate investigation into whether police forces trained by Australian taxpayers' money are being used in this way, and take all steps to bring this to a halt.
"Yema Gaipa Logging, a subsidiary of Rimbunan Hijau, have managed to bribe their way into Sowara village. They have now brought in a police riot squad to frustrate the efforts of neighbouring villages to prevent incursion of the logging into other Zia tribal areas", said Seed
"Yema Gaipa is logging illegally in this area. A court case has been brought against the company by a traditional owner from Sowara, and the required environmental plan for the operation has not been submitted."