PNG police station ignored directive

Transcript

The assistant commissioner of police in Papua New Guinea says a number of staff working at a police station now at the centre of a rape investigation were not meant to be on active duty.

An 18-year old girl claimed she was raped by a group of officers from Wewak police station during a raid on her village in early December.

Last week the police station commander was charged with assault against three people who tried to lay a complaint on behalf of the alleged rape-victim a few days later.

The assistant police commissioner Donald Yamasombi told Bridget Tunnicliffe that investigations into the rape complaint are still ongoing.

DONALD YAMASOMBI: We are yet to conduct an I.D parade, which is a normal investigation process. And the element of surprise is something that must be held back to our advantage and we are, I cannot disclose everything that we are yet to do.

BRIDGET TUNNICLIFFE: Wouldn't an identification parade be something urgent that you would have done early on though?

DY: We could have. But you know, you can't do everything that you need to do when you have a team that is actively on duty. You have to firstly disband it and then take the normal process.

BT: Do you hope to make some progress on this quite soon?

DY: We have a work plan on that, and we are working on it, we will get there. You have to dismantle the team before you get down to that.

BT: What do you mean dismantle the team, did you go in there in the early stages?

DY: Ok look. I can't, like I said, disclose everything to you. The police in that was here working at that time was not sanctioned by the police headquarters. They were already disbanded from the police headquarters. The police commissioner issued a direction, that shouldn't be any more police auxiliaries or reserves in the country. And it was only in this province that this unit was still working. That's the reason why we are here. And the first thing to do is to ensure that this police team is disbanded and then the normal course of justice will take its course.

BT: So you mean that you didn't officially recognise those police personnel in the first place? Were they operating illegally?

DY: Yes, the police commissioner issued a direction. It was issued in 2012 but in Wewak auxiliaries and reserves were still on duty, performing active duties, in defiance of the instruction that they all be stood down throughout the country except for those that were entered into under the memorandum or agreement of understanding with the police force. Except here there was no such arrangement and they have been operating you know without authority from the office of the police commissioner.

BT: So these were people that weren't fully trained or sworn in officers? They weren't fully qualified?

DY: No, that's correct. They only had some form of classroom training probably for a week or so, to assist the regular police. They were the ones that were actively involved in a lot of activities here, I mean they were doing things, apart from doing other jobs, that impacted very much negatively on the police force.