PNG cops bash, strip robbers

By Jim Baynes in Papua New Guinea
March 13, 2003

A WILD police chase through Port Moresby ended with police bashing and stripping two robbery suspects.

Four men held up a woman outside a bank this morning and fled in a stolen car.

Police pursued them through four suburbs before the suspects abandoned their stolen vehicle and fled to a nearby property.

There bystanders watched in horror as more than 30 police surrounded the property and plainclothes police beat the suspects behind a fence.

Bystanders said they could hear the men's screams as they were beaten, and with each blow could see a blunt object being raised high above the fence.

It is increasingly common for police to assault suspects in Port Moresby.

More than two truckloads of uniformed and plain clothes police were at the scene, many carrying AR-15 military assault rifles.

A policeman then dragged each of the men out into the street, beating them with batons as they were put in a paddy wagon.

A woman, who emerged from the property, was seen pleading with police.

The suspects were stripped to their underwear and driven away. But just before things calmed down bystanders had another brief scare - a policeman accidentally dropped his automatic rifle on the road in front of them.

Police confirmed two men were charged with robbery, while two escaped. Police said they recovered a home-made gun.

Residents of the PNG capital are no strangers to crime, yet bystanders were shocked by the swift police response - the city's shoestring police force often claims not to have enough fuel to attend to crimes.

Last month police stood by as a nurse was pack-raped by more than 15 men next to a suburban police station.

Fellow nurses - who had fled the attackers after their bus broke down at night - were told by police they could "do nothing" for the victim.

Such incidents have led many residents to no longer report crime and even if convicted, many offenders break out of PNG's insecure jails, some returning to haunt, or even kill, their victims.

Last year a woman was stabbed to death on a bus when her de facto husband returned after six years behind bars for attempting to murder her.

The man boarded the bus in peak hour and stabbed his wife with a bushknife.

AAP