PNG police accused of torture, rape of women and children

SYDNEY - Police in Papua New Guinea regularly rape and torture women and children and are feared as much as the country's criminals, a human rights group said yesterday.

Human Rights Watch said violence against children held in custody was rampant despite recent attempts to reform the juvenile justice system.

The New York-based organisation reported a depressing lack of progress in cleaning up the PNG police force's conduct since a similarly damning investigation was released last year.

Law-enforcement officials were able to commit widespread abuses without fear of prosecution, Human Rights Watch said.

Recent incidents included prison officers beating and sexually abusing boys held at a jail in January this year, and police opening fire on unarmed schoolboys in October 2005.

Police were also accused of beating up and gang-raping a group of women and girls during a raid on a brothel in 2004. None of the officers allegedly involved in these incidents has been punished.

These brutal tactics had destroyed public confidence in the police, said Zama Coursen-Neff, senior researcher for HRWs children's rights division.

By choosing not to punish abusive police, Papua New Guinea's leaders left ordinary people as afraid of the police as they were of criminals. This problem would not diminish unless police perpetrators were prosecuted.

There were small signs of progress in reforming the system, HRW said in its 50-page report.

Police set up a two-person unit to monitor the treatment of children in custody and NGOs were trying to lift the lid on police brutality. These developments had yet to produce demonstrable change in police treatment of children, the report said.

Australia is the largest aid donor to PNG, but its ability to encourage reform has diminished since last year, when a contingent of 210 Australian federal police had to be withdrawn from the country because of an argument over immunity from prosecution. The officers had been deployed under Australia's A$1 billion Enhanced Co-operation Programme, which was aimed at reforming law enforcement, justice and government in PNG.

Sexual violence against women and children comes amid a rapidly escalating HIV-AIDS epidemic in PNG.

With an estimated 140,000 people living with HIV/AIDS, the country has the highest infection rate in the South Pacific.

Police are accused of spreading the disease by not only sexually abusing young girls and prostitutes but also by beating those who carry condoms, including health workers promoting safe sex.