Gun
violence rises in Papua New
Guinea By Catherine Wilson
BRISBANE - In Papua New Guinea, the
largest island nation in Melanesia in the
southwest Pacific, where more than 60% of major
crimes involve guns, a burgeoning illegal arms
trade is associated with lack of employment growth
and low human security, with vulnerable
communities suffering the consequences.
This is the case in the autonomous region
of Bougainville in the east of the country, where
disarmament remains elusive more than 10 years
after a civil war fought over resource
exploitation.
"Guns are now being used in
domestic violence and armed robberies, and to
settle land issues," said Helen Hakena, director
of the Leitana Nehan
Women's Development Agency in Bougainville.
"Recently there have also been armed
hold-ups and shoot-outs between gun owners and
police. Many people in Bougainville now accept
guns as a normal part of life."
Development and economic recovery in
Bougainville have been slow over the past decade,
and many issues from the civil war have not been
resolved.
"We also see that guns are being
traded between Bougainville and other parts of
Papua New Guinea and across borders. People from
the Highlands often come here to buy guns," Hakena
said.
Gun violence is no stranger to the
small Melanesian communities in this part of the
world, which over the past quarter century have
experienced the Bougainville independence struggle
(1989 - 1998), civil war in the Solomon Islands
(1999-2003), and four military coups in Fiji
between 1987 and 2006.
In Bougainville,
20,000 people were killed and more than 60,000
displaced, while a "lost generation" of children
were denied education and infrastructure was
decimated. In the Solomon Islands, communities
were ravaged by armed violence and arson,
development came to a halt, and the local economy
collapsed.
There has been no armed
conflict in Melanesia - which comprises Papua New
Guinea, Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, Fiji and New
Caledonia - or the wider Pacific Islands for
nearly a decade. But Gordon Nanau, a lecturer in
politics and international affairs at the
University of the South Pacific in Fiji, said that
was no reason for complacency.
"Whether
there are serious conflicts or not, arms
circulation should always be a big concern," he
emphasized. "Pacific Islanders are concerned about
the issue of illegal arms smuggling. With weapons
around, communities are less safe, and supplies of
arms passing through the Pacific must be
discouraged at all costs."
The Pacific
Islands account for a fraction of the global legal
trade in small arms and light weapons estimated to
be worth more than 8.5 billion dollars in 2012.
However, there are 3.1 million civilian-owned
firearms in the Pacific region, or one per ten
people, which is 50% above the world average. And
they outnumber those held by military and police
forces by a ratio of 14:1.
Papua New
Guinean civilians possess the largest number of
guns in Melanesia, with an estimated 72,000 or 1.2
guns per 100 people, while police and defense
forces hold approximately 19,000 firearms. New
Caledonia is second with up to 50,000
civilian-held guns. And in the Solomon Islands,
since disarmament, during which 90% of firearms
were surrendered, there are believed to be 1,775
privately owned guns, or 0.35 per 100 people.
Gun violence is a serious issue in Papua
New Guinea. The capital, Port Moresby, with a
population of 450,000, has a murder rate of
approximately 54 per 100,000 people, compared to
an average global rate of less than 7 per 100,000
people.
And in the Southern Highlands,
where an estimated 90% of firearms are illegally
owned, 23% of households have been victimized by
guns.
The Small Arms Survey, an
independent research project located at the
Graduate Institute of International and
Development Studies in Geneva, concludes that
crime is driven by the breakdown of traditional
values, limited employment opportunities,
inequality and disputes over resource ownership.
Incentives for acquiring guns include self-defense
and a sense of duty to defend tribal or clan
interests.
And according to Oxfam
International, "the impact of small arms is
especially damaging in the Pacific region because
of a lack of state capacity, corruption and the
illegal sale and diversion of ammunition to armed
groups and individuals."
The majority of
firearms used in conflicts and crime in Melanesia
have been leaked or stolen from legal police and
military sources. The Small Arms Survey estimates
up to 30% of guns in public holdings in Papua New
Guinea are siphoned or sold to civilians and armed
groups, with the illegal trade and smuggling of
guns financed by politicians and the educated
elite. Poverty and low wages have exacerbated
corruption.
In 2005, Papua New Guinea's
Guns Control Committee produced a report which
made numerous recommendations for gun reforms. But
these have never been acted upon.
There is
also a known link between the trade in guns and
drugs. In the Pacific Islands, the illicit
commercial cultivation of marijuana has been
identified in Fiji, Palau, Samoa, Tonga and Papua
New Guinea, where it is regularly traded for
firearms.
However, many law enforcement
agencies in the Pacific Islands are under-funded,
with limited capacity to implement existing gun
laws or monitor the extensive maritime traffic
between isolated and sparsely populated islands.
Today there are no regional agreements
regulating arms transfers or the activities of
arms brokers, while gun legislation varies across
Pacific Island states.
The Pacific Islands
Forum, an inter-governmental organization of 16
independent and self-governing island states,
which is concerned about the threat posed by
illegal guns and light weapons to stability and
socioeconomic well-being, has endorsed the United
Nations Programme of Action on small arms and
light weapons and initiated measures to address
arms circulation.
The Model Weapons
Control Bill was developed and accepted by member
states in 2003, and was further updated in 2010 to
include brokering provisions. The challenge is
consistent application across states.
"The
implementation of the Model Weapons Bill is a
matter for members of the Pacific Islands Forum to
consider based on their specific national
priorities," a spokesperson for the Pacific
Islands Forum Secretariat said.
"Some
countries face immense firearm and law and order
challenges and accordingly have undertaken
activities to assess the issues they face and are
working towards improving gun control and law and
order."
Another regional initiative is the
Pacific Transnational Crime Network, a
collaboration of law enforcement, customs and
immigration agencies across the Pacific, sponsored
by the Australian Federal Police, which is working
to build the capacity of island states to combat
transnational crime.
But ultimately,
reducing the quantities, circulation and misuse of
guns in Melanesia also entails diminishing their
demand through raising levels of development,
socioeconomic equality and human security, and
effectively tackling corruption.
Head
Office: Unit B, 16/F, Li Dong Building, No. 9 Li Yuen Street East,
Central, Hong Kong Thailand Bureau:
11/13 Petchkasem Road,
Hua Hin, Prachuab Kirikhan, Thailand 77110
