World Report 2011 - Human Rights Watch

WORLD REPORT 2011projects in court. At this writing the amendments have been passed by parliamentbut not signed into law. Supporters of the Ramu mine also reportedly intimidatedand harassed the plaintiffs in the case.Torture, Rape, and Other Police AbusesHuman Rights Watch has previously documented widespread patterns of abuseby Papua New Guinea’s police force, including use of excessive force, torture, andsexual violence, against children as well as adults. These abuses remain rampantand almost all of those responsible continue to enjoy impunity. In the face ofwidespread violent crime, such tactics have deeply eroded the public trust andcooperation crucial to effective policing.In May the UN special rapporteur on torture visited the country and documentedroutine beatings of criminal suspects that often rise to the level of torture, extortionof sex from female detainees, corruption, and other abuses. Police sometimesdeliberately disable suspects of serious crimes and escapees by cuttingtheir tendons with bush knives and axes. The UN special rapporteur found thatconditions in correctional institutions were “poor” and in police lockups“appalling.” Children are regularly detained with adults in police lockups.In July mobile police squads housed and fed by Barrick Gold at the company’sPorgera gold mine allegedly kidnapped and raped three teenage girls. In anunusual and positive move, the police suspended the alleged culprits from dutyand opened a criminal investigation into the incident. More than five years afterthe police beat and sexually assaulted several dozen women and girls (and gangraped at least four in detention) in a raid on the Three-Mile Guest House in PortMoresby in March 2004, the Ombudsman Commission issued a report findingthat police had unlawfully arrested and detained the victims, used excessiveforce, and raped and humiliated them. The Commission also found that seniorofficials failed to supervise or control the officers under their command.Violence against WomenViolence against women and girls is epidemic in Papua New Guinea, with studiesindicating that more than half of all women in Papua New Guinea have suffered356