The students were marching from their campus towards parliament, where Prime Minister Peter O’Neill was due to face a no-confidence vote.
Advertisement
The prime Minister meanwhile has blamed the parliamentary opposition and who he calls agitators outside the student body for the unrest and the protests of recent weeks.
Humanitarian groups have long called out Papua New Guinea’s record of police brutality and government corruption.
Five people were treated at the hospital and were in stable condition, with the circumstances that led to their injuries still being investigated, O’Neill said. There are also reports of unrest related to student protest in other parts of the country.
Several students are reportedly dead after protesters clashed with police.
“This is our country”.
“We were determined to go to parliament”, he said.
“Police were chasing us everywhere, into our dormitories”.
“Two were shot, the boys were shot, so we know that we have two casualties been shot by police”.
PNG Police Minister Robert Atiyafa warned that “opportunists who are intent on burning buildings, smashing cars and assaulting students who do not want to protest, will be arrested and charged”. A hospital official told Reuters that after the injured were brought in, clashes erupted between police and members of the public outside. “All the shops are shut, all the schools are shut”.
Several students were injured and there are unconfirmed reports of at least one death.
“If people have been shot in this incident, it is a tragedy and we urge for calm, to de-escalate tensions between the students and the police”.
Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop said the situation in Port Moresby remained volatile on Thursday, and that Australia had offered Papua New Guinea help to stem further unrest.
A spokesman for Newcrest Mining, which operates two remote gold mines in PNG, said trouble had been “brewing for a while” but its operations had not been affected.
O’Neill, who came to power in 2011 promising to reign in corruption, denies allegations he authorised millions of dollars in fraudulent payments to a leading law firm. Hospital officials have said that they heard shooting outside the hospital.
Amnesty International said it had information that 38 people were injured and blasted the shootings as “disgraceful”.
“The police ordered them to move out of the bus, pulled them down and then they said “you’re not going to Parliament” and then it was like ambush”.
Police in vehicles began chasing after the protesters, with officers firing from their cars at fleeing students, Yalo said.
Student Gerald Peni told the ABC police fired shots directly into the crowd when students would not let them arrest the president of the student council.
Advertisement
“It was tough, and credit to New Caledonia – I thought they were very good tonight”, he said.
