Prime Minister James Marape, this afternoon commended the hostage rescue effort by the joint team of police and defense personnel with the support of local and provincial leaders.
Shortly after 1.00 pm today, the Prime Minister was informed by the Police Commissioner that the remaining three hostages have been extracted by the security forces unharmed early today, Sunday, 26 February 2023. The hostages were kept at Kutubu, and later flown to Port Moresby late this afternoon.
The Police and Defense personnel with the support of Governor Undialu, the Minister for Internal Security, and the Prime Minister have been at the forefront of making sure the hostages are returned safely to their families. He said this is a result of collaborative efforts on the part of our security forces and communities and leaders at different levels over the past week.
“I want to thank the Police Commissioner, his men and women, the Defense Force Commander and all his men, Governor Undialu and all Hela Leaders in Komo, Southern Highlands and Western Province leaders, and a host of peoples, missionaries and community leaders who assisted in this operation.”
The Prime Minister expressed regrets that the rescue mission took a while longer than expected but acknowledged the successful release of the hostages by the security forces without any payment of the ransom demands that was posted by the kidnappers.
“It has been a stressful week for all involved and to finally have the hostages back safely in the custody of our security personnel is very important to us as a country, and as a people. We apologise to the families of those taken as hostage for ransom. It took us a while by the last three hostages are now secured and will join their families shortly.”
The remaining hostages who were released are Professor Bryce Barker, a New Zealand national, and Papua New Guineans Jemina Haro and Tipsy Beni. From preliminary reports, the hostages including the female researchers were kept unharmed and were not abused.
“I understand that the hostages including the foreign researcher and the female researchers were obviously traumatized but otherwise unharmed. We want to secure their privacy and ensure that they fully recover from this ordeal without further public scrutiny. I propose that following this welcome announcement, we all allow them the opportunity to deal with this privately until full recovery.”
In acknowledging the safe return of the hostages, the Prime Minister also said that there is no place for people who would go around our society terrorizing other people with guns. As a country, this action must rightly be condemned as it unnecessarily give our country a bad name.
“I want to counsel our young men. The law now prohibits anyone from holding illegal firearms. Crime does not pay. You cannot have your way with criminal activities in our country. We are empowering our security personnel to uphold the law and deal with people with criminal intents. We want to secure the safety of our people in order to secure our investment and development future.”
The research team was set upon by armed men and kidnapped at Fogomaíu village a few kilometers from Mt. Bosavi in the early hours of Sunday, 19 February 2023. The group claiming responsibility posted a demand of K3.5 million kina for the release of the hostages.
