1999 Scores

Status: Free
Freedom Rating: 2.5
Civil Liberties: 3
Political Rights: 2

Overview

Prime Minister Sir Mekere Morauta took office in July 1999 following a no-confidence vote against his predecessor, and pledged to curb the corruption and economic mismanagement that have contributed to declining economic and social conditions in this resource-rich country.

This South Pacific country, consisting of the eastern half of New Guinea and some 600 smaller islands, achieved independence from Australia in 1975 under Prime Minister Michael Somare. The 1975 constitution vests executive power in a prime minister and cabinet. Parliament has 89 at-large members and 20 members representing the 19 provinces and Port Moresby, all elected for a five-year term. A governor-general serves as head of state and represents the British monarchy.

In late 1988 miners and landowners on Bougainville Island, 560 miles northeast of the capital, began guerrilla attacks against an Australian-owned mine to demand compensation and profit-sharing. Within months the rebels transformed their long-standing grievances into a low-grade secessionist struggle under the newly formed Bougainville Revolutionary Army (BRA).

In 1995, Prime Minister Julius Chan's government took advantage of a ceasefire to swear in a Bougainville Transitional Government (BTG) on the island. The ceasefire broke down in 1996, and in October gunmen assassinated Theodore Miriung, the head of the BTG.

The February 1997 revelation that Chan's government had signed a $27 million contract with London-based Sandline International to provide mercenaries to aid the army on Bougainville attracted widespread anger. In March, Chan sacked Brigadier General Jerry Singirok after the armed forces chief called for the prime minister's resignation. Chan resigned after several days of antigovernment demonstrations during which many soldiers and ordinary citizens expressed support for Singirok.

The June 1997 elections swept Chan and several other senior politicians out of parliament. Many voters complained that official corruption and rising crime were keeping the country impoverished despite its considerable mineral wealth. In July Bill Skate, a former opposition leader, formed a coalition government that included his Papua New Guinea First Party and the incumbent parties.

In April 1998, a ceasefire brokered by Australia and New Zealand and buttressed by an Australian-led Peace Monitoring Group took effect on Bougainville. In November, Skate reinstated Singirok as armed forces chief even though a commission of inquiry into the Sandline affair had accused Singirok of accepting bribes from a military contractor.

Skate's government, like its predecessors, faced widespread allegations of corruption, bribery, sex scandals, mismanagement, and nepotism. In early July 1999, Skate resigned two weeks before an expected no-confidence vote. On July 14 an unprecedented 99 of the 105 members of parliament elected Sir Mekere Morauta, the head of the People's Democratic Movement and a former governor of the reserve bank, as prime minister. Morauta formed a multiparty government and pledged to stabilize the kina, review the outgoing government's decision to grant diplomatic recognition to Taiwan, and restore relations with the International Monetary Fund and World Bank, which had collapsed in 1998.

In October, the government made an unprecedented offer of autonomy to Bougainville. In December, authorities swore in John Momis, the member of parliament for Bougainville, as provincial governor in the first step toward establishing a Bougainville provincial government as a confidence-building measure. However, the government and several rival Bougainville factions still faced hard bargaining over outstanding issues including disarmament and the actual details of any autonomy plan.

Political Rights and Civil Liberties

Citizens of Papua New Guinea can change their government democratically. Elections are generally marred by some irregularities and sporadic violence. The parliamentary system is characterized by chronic instability and unstable, shifting coalitions, and since independence no prime minister has served a full five-year term. Parties are centered around personalities rather than issues.

Democratic consolidation has also been hampered by fiscal pressures, rampant official corruption, a severe violent crime problem, and the challenge of nation-building in a country with extreme socioeconomic disparities between the cities and isolated highlands, where some 700 tribes speak hundreds of languages. The judiciary is independent. However, boundaries between tribal law and the formal legal system are still being defined.

The army, army-backed paramilitary groups, and the BRA committed torture, disappearances, arbitrary detentions, and extrajudicial executions against civilians and combatants during the Bougainville conflict. By some estimates, the war killed at least 20,000 combatants and civilians, with most of the deaths reportedly due to a lack of medical treatment and supplies.

A 1998 Australian National University survey reported that Papua New Guinea's crime problem is among the most severe in the world. In urban areas, violent gang members known as "rascals" have caused a severe law and order crisis. The 1993 Internal Security Act gave police expanded powers to conduct searches without warrants. Police frequently use excessive force against suspects, causing several deaths in recent years, and continue to abuse detainees and prisoners. In the highlands, police occasionally burn homes to punish communities suspected of harboring criminals or of participating in tribal warfare, which has killed dozens of people in recent years, or to punish crimes committed by individuals.

The private press vigorously reports on corruption and other sensitive matters. The state-run radio's news coverage is generally balanced. There is a private television station. Nongovernmental organizations are active and outspoken.

In rural areas foreign logging companies frequently swindle villagers and often renege on promises to build schools and hospitals. Women face significant, unofficial discrimination in education and employment opportunities. Rape and domestic violence are serious problems. In the mid-1980s, some 4,000 refugees from West Papua (Irian Jaya) settled at a camp at East Awin. Many refugees have accepted a 1998 government offer of permanent residency.

Unions are independent, and workers can and do bargain collectively and stage strikes. The International Labor Organization has criticized a law allowing the government to invalidate arbitration agreements or wage awards not considered in the national interest.

This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States.