By CLIFFORD FAIPARIK
THE Mt Bosavi area that borders the Western, Hela and Southern Highlands provinces is a mini-Somalia where hostage taking and ransom demanding crime trend is becoming common.
There have been hostages taking of foreigners and local staff in logging camps on the Western province side of the Mt Bosavi area since 2019.
All those reports have been brushed aside till the kidnapping of the Australian Professor on the Southern Highlands side of the Border two weeks ago.
And it is reported that it was the same gang that attempted to take hostages at Kamusi logging camp on the Western province side of the border.
On the 2nd February, 2023, they attempted to kidnap foreigners at Kamusi Logging camp. However, four Police officers from the Balimo Rural Police station foiled their plan by intercepting them and exchanging gun fire with them.
And so, the gang retreated back across the Border into Southern Highlands and ended up taking out their frustration by kidnapping these seven researchers and guides for a cash ransom at Fogomaiyu village near Mt Bosavi on the border of Southern Highlands, Western and Hela.
According to Police officers in Western province, this gang from Komo in Hela province and Nipa-Kutubu in Southern Highlands is notorious in that area. They are guns and drugs smugglers along the PNG- Australian Border. They have been terrorizing and taking hostages of foreigners at the Kamusi and Sesereme logging camps.
They first took hostages of Asian workers and demanded K1.5million in December last year (2022), which the company paid them and they release the hostages.
“We then picked up intelligence report that they will kidnap foreigners again at Kawalasi logging camp. And so, we went and set up camp there. And on the 9th February 2023, they attempted to attack the camp without knowing we were there and we exchanged gun fire with them and they left. They then made another attempt but we already heard intelligence report earlier and went first to Musula. So, when they attacked, we again foiled their plan and exchanged gun fire with them and that was on the 10th February 2023. This time we followed them and continued exchanging gun fire with them and that’s how they become frustrated, went across the border into the SHP and kidnaped these seven hostages.”
However, even before this, there have been continuous kidnapping and hostage taking cases happening within the confines of the same area.
In June 2022, two kidnappers were killed and another four wounded in a deadly gun fight that saw a Port Moresby-based chief sergeant and a logging company worker abducted near the Kamusi logging camp. The kidnappers have demanded a substantial amount of ransom for the safe release of their hostages.
Then South Fly Commander Snr Insp Ewai Segi said the chief sergeant was abducted by the armed kidnappers in a predawn raid at 1.30am on the same month.
“The chief sergeant and a local staff of the logging company were captured during the gun fight near the logging camp,” he said.
“During the gun battle, two of the criminals were killed and another four wounded. The hostages were held in a secret hideout near Lake Campbell and Wawoi Falls at the Western-Hela and Southern Highlands’s border. A 10-men team from the Port Moresby-based mobile squad went searching for the hostages.”
Snr Insp Segi said “the armed men infiltrated the camp and captured the policeman and the staff during a struggle that alerted camp residents”.
“Policemen responded and exchanged gunfire with the armed raiders in an attempt to rescue the chief sergeant and the local staff. The armed raiders managed to escape with their injured accomplices,” Snr Insp Segi said.
“We believe two of them may have died because their injuries were severe.”
He said he was concerned over the continuous risk of hostage-taking at the Kamusi logging camp. “These are usual threats made by local thugs whenever the management of the logging companies brings in the police to arrest them for instigating violence against the logging operations,” he said.
“A kidnapper was killed by his own villagers during a police operation along the Western-Southern Highlands-Hela borders in the manhunt for kidnappers.”
Mr Seki said that the policeman was later rescued a week later.
Also, Segi said in August 2020 armed men kidnaped 10 people including three girls at a remote logging camp and demanded a K1.6 million as ransom from the logging company.
“These hostages (seven men and three girls) are local employees at the Kamusi logging camp in the Bamu local level government,” he said.
“This is the second kidnapping within two months. The same suspects mostly from Hela and Southern Highlands kidnapped six Asian workers and were paid K300, 000 before releasing the expatriates.”
Snr Insp Segi said the suspects were armed with guns and knives when they raided the camp.
“They then forced their hostages into a vehicle and headed towards Wawoi Falls at the border of Western, Southern Highlands and Hela. They kept these hostages there and demanded ransom money before releasing them,” Snr Insp Segi said.
The hostages were later released after the company paid a ransom.
Moreover, in June 2020, a group of settlers armed with guns, took over Sesereme logging camp demanding a K200, 000 compensation for the wounding of a tribesman by officers.
Mr Seki said the settlers were from the Komo-Margarima electorate in Hela and Nipa-Kutubu electorate in Southern Highlands.
He said they also used a bulldozer to knock down a store then ransacked it at the Kamusi logging camp.
They wanted the company to compensate them for the wounding of their tribesman during a previous police operation.
Seki sent a police team to the camp to secure the company properties and workers.
“We are treating this incident as extortion,” he said.
The tribesman was wounded during a police operation in Kamusi in 2019.
In May 2020, Mt Hagen-based mobile squad conducted an operation and arrested suspects responsible for taking a 16 local and expatriate staff from logging camps as hostages.
“They were released after the company management paid some ransom.”
