Unitech death signals rising tensions at PNG universities

Transcript

A student was killed at Lae's University of Technology at the weekend in a sign that tensions at Papua New Guinea's universities have spiralled out of control.

Saturday's unrest came after a series of clashes at PNG's three main universities this month, including police shooting on students at the UPNG in Port Moresby three weeks ago, hospitalising dozens.

Johnny Blades has more.

The Unitech community is in shock after Saturday night's attack.

A mob armed with bush knives came onto the campus and entered a dormitory, leaving a first-year student, who had been sleeping, dead in an apparent targetted attack.

They then set fire to various buildings on campus.

By early Sunday, police restored control.

Local EM TV journalist Scott Waide says that according to Lae Metropolitan commander Anthony Wagambie, when police arrived on the scene, they were outnumbered.

SCOTT WAIDE: Police tried as much as possible not to fire live rounds. So they used teargas instead to disperse the crowd. It was pitch black. The power had been off for a few minutes when the attack began and it was raining very heavily so visibility for police was quite difficult. So those were the conditions at the time.

Unitech's vice chancellor, Albert Schram says it's unclear what motivated the attack.

ALBERT SCHRAM: What seems possible is that this is some type of revenge for the student who was wounded on the 13th of June in a short brawl here on campus.

That brawl had exposed differences among students about whether to continue boycotting classes as they and students from the University of Goroka and UPNG have done since May in their demand for the prime minister Peter O'Neill to step aside to face fraud allegations.

In contrast to the lack of trust between the UPNG and its students in the capital, the Unitech administration has maintained constructive dialogue with the students since the boycott started.

ALBERT SCHRAM: All the issues had nothing to do with the university council or the management. They were all outside issues, and there is only so much we can influence, in that sense. But of course we are very sorry that it came to this point where a life was lost and the university buildings were destroyed.

The Governor of Oro province, Gary Juffa, is helping withdraw Oro students from all three universities in consideration of their welfare.

He has warned about hostilities intensifying over the emerging divisions among students, especially with tribal grievance comin in to play

GARY JUFFA: He (the victim) is from a family, he's from a clan, he's from a tribe. They grieving, they're weeping, they want justice. So during a time like this, this is when the police really need to step up and identify the perpetrators and have them immediately dealt with. At the same time, there should be an effort by the leaders to broker peace. They need to come together and say look, we need to find a way to find a peaceful solution to this situation, and parliament - which was abruptly adjourned (earlier this month) - should be recalled. 

The vast majority of Unitech students left the campus yesterday.

Albert Schram indicated that three weeks time would be the earliest he would expect the semester to resume, and that this is dependent on whether promised government support materialises.

Meanwhile, the prime minister has condemned the Unitech attack, and says his cabinet will meet to discuss ways to ease tensions at the universities.