Massive riots in Papua New Guinea: 15 people were killed and dozens of businesses looted by an impassioned mob after a general strike by police in the capital Port Moresby.
The riots began after police declared a strike following an across-the-board and unannounced cut of 50 percent of the salaries of police officers and other civil servants. While civil servants demonstrated near the parliament building, poor suburban residents went on a looting spree in the capital's commercial centers.
Looting in Papua New Guinea. Photo: AFP,
The looters set fire to several large supermarkets and burned the cars of people trying to prevent the looting. After an evening of riots, the army intervened and order was restored in most parts of the capital. James Marfa, the country's prime minister, declared a two-week state of emergency and called on citizens to stop rioting. "Breaking the law will not achieve any change," the prime minister said in an address to the nation.
Fires in the capital. Photo: AFP,
Port Moresby Governor Powe Perkop said in a special radio broadcast: "We have seen an unprecedented level of violence in our city, something that has never happened before in the history of our country." Perkop said the violence was mainly perpetrated by "opportunists" who took advantage of a very difficult situation of public anger to "loot whatever comes to hand."
Papua New Guinea suffers from poverty and rising crime, but such manifestations of mass violence are very rare in the country in general and in the capital in particular. Cutting the salaries of civil servants has caused real anger among parts of the public that already suffers from soaring inflation.
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