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Re: fuagf post# 8985

Saturday, 11/12/2011 3:34:13 AM

Saturday, November 12, 2011 3:34:13 AM

Post# of 9333
PNG crisis: police told to arrest Deputy PM
November 12, 2011


Kevin Rudd ... said the order for the arrest of two senior members of the
Papua New Guinean government was "concerning". Photo: Alex Ellinghausen

PORT MORESBY: A constitutional crisis has erupted in Papua New Guinea after the Supreme Court ordered the arrest of the Deputy Prime Minister, Belden Namah, and the Attorney-General, Allan Marat, a day after the government attempted to suspend the Chief Justice.

The arrest warrants were issued after the announcement by Mr Namah on Thursday that the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, Sir Salamo Injia, had been suspended pending an investigation of charges that included mismanagement of court funds.

The court has now ordered that Mr Namah and Dr Marat be arrested and brought before the court on Monday morning.

A police spokesman said yesterday the two men were not in Port Moresby. He said Mr Namah was in Kimbe Bay, in the province of West New Britain, and Dr Marat was in Kokopo, in East New Britain province.

The acting Police Commissioner, Tom Kulunga, confirmed in a statement police had received yesterday's order to arrest the pair for contempt of court charges and confirmed they were prepared to carry out the orders.

''The orders, signed and issued by the Supreme Court justice Bernard Sakora, were delivered to the office of the commissioner this morning,'' he said. ''Police are acting on the court orders.''

The order also restrains the government from implementing its decision, made on Thursday, to suspend Sir Salamo.

The chief justice has been presiding over a case that reviews the constitutional legitimacy of the O'Neill government, which took power on August 2 in a 70-to-24 vote on the floor of Parliament. That decision, by a panel of five judges, is due on December 9.

The then prime minister Sir Michael Somare had his 43-year career ended in dramatic fashion in August when he was disqualified from Parliament.

Sir Michael had been convalescing in Singapore after three heart operations.

The Australian Minister for Foreign Affairs, Kevin Rudd, said the order for the arrest of two senior members of the Papua New Guinean government was ''concerning''.

Speaking from Hawaii, where the PNG Prime Minister, Peter O'Neill, is also attending the Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation forum, Mr Rudd said of the arrest: ''It strikes us as an unusual act. There are a range of political sensitivities in Papua New Guinea which go back to the decision concerning the replacement of Sir Michael Somare with Prime Minister O'Neill.''

A spokesman for the Prime Minister's office declined to comment, as did a spokesman for Mr Namah, who is acting in the prime minister's role.

The executive director of the Institute of National Affairs, Paul Barker, said the order to arrest a sitting deputy prime minister was a first in PNG's 36-year history as an independent nation.

There has not been such a constitutional impasse ''since [the early 1980s] when a chief justice went and locked up the then justice minister. [The] then prime minister Sir Michael Somare used his discretion to release her. The Supreme Court resigned.''

Mr Barker said the next few days would be difficult to interpret because of Mr O'Neill's absence from PNG, although he said any sort of military intervention was unlikely.

''I can't really see everyone rushing out to follow Mr Namah,'' he said.

AAP

http://www.smh.com.au/world/png-crisis-police-told-to-arrest-deputy-pm-20111111-1nbm6.html

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