Kiwi survivor of PNG ambush to help local porters

Nick Bennett

A New Zealander who survived a deadly ambush while trekking in the Papua New Guinea highlands says he is committed to supporting the local porters hurt in the attack.

Nick Bennett, 55, a former Rotorua policeman who is now a prominent businessman in Queensland, was among a group of Australian trekkers and local porters attacked by bandits on the Black Cat trail in PNG's northern Morobe province on Tuesday last week.

Two porters were hacked to death with machetes and knives, while some of the surviving porters suffered gruesome injuries.

Mr Bennett told Radio New Zealand the attack had hit the locals the hardest.

"Our commitment is to supporting the porters. We will be fine eventually and we will go back.

"There's a commitment from several of the trek members to go back, and that is as a means of supporting of the villagers and showing that we believe that there is much more to it than this event."

Mr Bennett said he and other trekkers had established the Black Cat Porters Trust Fund to support the porters and their families.

"The injuries that they've received are horrendous. They've been hacked around the calves and across the leg, which means they won't be able to do what they've been doing - they won't be able to work.

"And the fact is that they've been waiting so long for treatment that the potential for septicaemia is very high."

PNG police officers and villagers detained four suspects in Morobe over the weekend and police are reportedly looking for two more.

Relatives of one dead porter killed a man they believed to be harbouring the attackers, police confirmed.