Police in Papua New Guinea fired gunshots Wednesday to quell a student protest demanding the prime minister’s resignation, the government said.
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“They fired shots, they fired shots directly at the crowd”, student Gerald Peni told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.
Five of them were critically injured, according to the Port Moresby General Hospital and the Gerehu St John’s Hospital.
Students and officials said police fired on the public and used tear gas to disperse crowds during a protest at the University of PNG’s Waigani campus in Port Moresby.
Opposition figures told parliament that four people had died, while some reports said one person was dead.
Students at the university have held a weeks-long class boycott calling for Prime Minister Peter O’Neill to be removed over allegations of corruption and economic mismanagement. Most of the students were eventually chased back on to the campus late in the morning, she said.
“Outside the university grounds, they were confronted by dozens of armed police”.
Papua New Guinea, off Australia’s north coast, remains largely undeveloped and many of its seven million tribal people still adhere to traditional customs. They’re shooting at them.
“Informed that several were shot”, Juffa said, adding that the incident started with an argument between a metropolitan police superintendent and a student.
Police say 23 people were hurt.
And while police say they have restored calm in Port Moresby, public outrage about police firing on students means the chances of more unrest remain very real. The police demanded they hand over the student president.
Prime Minister O’Neill refused to comply with a warrant for his arrest over corruption charges.
The US embassy in Port Moresby told its citizens to avoid areas hit by violence.
Since May, Prime Minister O’Neill’s government has been the focus of sustained student protests over allegations of corruption. “The factors that led to students being injured are yet to be ascertained”.
Papua New Guinea, previously provided by Australia, has problem with endemic violence and poverty in spite of a wealth of mineral resources.
Students retaliated later yesterday by setting on fire a dormitory and damaging other university properties.
Basil said he spoke to one of the students at UNITECH who reported that the nine Vanuatu students studying there are safe and the campus is locked with the security guarding the main entrance.
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O’Neill is accused by PNG police’s Taskforce Sweep of acting corruptly in allegedly authorised the payment of $30m of fraudulent legal bills to law firm Paul Paraka.
