A landowners group in Papua New Guinea's Enga province is calling for a comprehensive resettlement programme for communities living within the Porgera gold mine special mining lease area.
The Porgera Alliance says the mine, which is run by Canadian multi-national Barrick Gold, has ridden roughshod over the human rights of landowners, a view supported by international agencies such as Human Rights Watch.
The Alliance's Jethro Tulin says the company's practice of relocating some families within the zone is not acceptable and a comprehensive re-settlement away from the threats posed by the mine is needed.
"A lot of like food security and water problem and land shortage and food shortage. It's like all of the people living within the special mining lease area, after 20 years of mine life, we find that we are living like squatters, squatting settlers in our own land."
