New Guinea Commerce

Having enough police is essential for a successful society

Sean Jacobs, Australian Security Magazine, December 2013

A series of horrific murders in Papua New Guinea (PNG) have catapulted the nation of seven million into newspapers across the world. Separate incidents involving the hacking to death of porters on PNG’s Kokoda Track, and reports from earlier this year of burnings and decapitations of women suspected of sorcery, have fanned the country’s international reputation as a resource-potent but largely unsettled chokepoint between South East Asia and the Pacific Islands.

Beneath these stories is the inadequate size of PNG’s police force – the Royal Papua New Guinea Constabulary (RPNGC) – whose remit is stopping this kind of violence and putting its perpetrators before trial.

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