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.

While nobody should try and condone the police actions, they are a gross abuse of individual human rights and freedoms and must be condemned; one can understand at one level the police's frustrations. All too often the suspected criminals they capture are released by the courts because of lack of resources, inefficiency or a failure to follow proper procedures and even if convicted many violent criminals simple walk out of jail and reoffend.

In addition, police are forced to work in terrible conditions. Our police stations are usually a disgrace, run down, dirty and unhygenic, and our police lack the most basic equipment. Worse, many police families are forced to live in squalor without water or electricity in barracks that are not fit for human habitation.

If I were a policeman or women I would be frustrated!

But by beating, raping and crippling the criminals they do arrest the police are taking out their frustrations on the wrong people

As Mr Nowak, has pointed out,  officers with the Royal Papua New Guinea Constabulary are often unable to enforce the law due to insufficient human and financial resources, high levels of corruption and a lack of political will.

It is the politicians and senior bureaucrats whole are steling millions of dollars from the public who should be the target of the police's frustrations.

It is not the police who are responsible for the "overcrowded, filthy cells, without proper ventilation, natural light or access to food and water for washing, drinking and for using the toilets" described by Mr Novak.

These things are the fault of our corrupt politicians and senior bureaucrats.

If the police want to vent their frustrations then they should read the Reports of the Finance Department Commission of Inquiry and take up their issues with the people implicated there.

It is these politicians and senior public servants who are responsible for the medical care that is lacking for inmates which leads "to avoidable amputations and the spread of disease among detainees".

Mr Nowak said he had met with high-ranking Papua New Guinea government officials and had been assured they took the issue seriously. "They haven't denied what I said," he said. But they have also not provided any solutions.

Until they do the right thing and stop the white-collar crime it is the high-ranking officials who should feel the heat of police frustrations.