Mr. Ken Fairweather, a member of the People's National Congress and a senior minister in the Somare-led government, has resigned from the government in protest over the amendments to the Environment Act 2000. The amendments strip away rights of landowners to seek redress from the courts over environmental permits. The amendments were purposely made to defeat the current litigation by landowners, against Deep Sea Tailings Disposal System by a Chinese-Government owned Nickle Mine, MCC in Ramu, Madang Province, Papua New Guinea.
Post Courier, Page 12, 15 June 2010 - Dr John Nonggorr, Mt Hagen.
The right thing for Sir Michael Somare to do to promote and uphold good and ethical government, protect the good name of the Office of Prime Minister and set a better example for leadership in PNG, is to step aside as Prime Minister now; and allow investigations to be conducted by relevant law enforcement agencies into serious allegations that he broke a number of laws in the Moti Affair.
ACT NOW has produced a briefing paper with the full analysis of the Environment (Amendment) Act 2010 that explains in detail the changes that have been made and their impacts.
Last Friday, May 28th, was an extraordinary day in PNG's history as the government rushed through amendments to the Environment Act . These amendments:
By passing amendments to the Environment Act, the government has put foreign companies above the law; allowed their commercial interests to trample all over the rights of Papua New Guinea’s traditional landowners; and undermined our democracy by removing the fundamental protection of the separation of powers.
The United Nations has reported that Papua New Guinea police systematically beat detainees, cripple those suspected of serious crimes and sexually assault female prisoners. These were the conclusions from a two week tour of the country by the UN's special rapporteur on torture, Manfred Nowak, who said police often brutally beat detainees with car fan belts, gun butts, iron rods and stones.
