Papua New Guinea - IFC

There is an ongoing war between the female betel nut traders who set up illegally on the streets of Port Moresby and
NCDC’s City Rangers, who frequently clear betel nut sellers off the streets, often using undue violence and appropriating
the seller’s wares (see Box 4.12 below). NCDC has designated nine areas outside the city centre for betel nut sales but these
areas are unused.
44
4.12. Box Newspaper Report: the lawless streets of Papua New Guinea 122 . 123
Saturday night, late January. The incident is, by Port Moresby standards, neither here nor there. We come off an
overpass and notice people scattering in light rain. Blocking traffic is an urban response-style light police truck, with a
two-sided troop seat in the back. A woman is running, followed by two police. One of the officers punches her hard
in the face, then she doubles over from what appears to be a truncheon in the guts.
We go through a roundabout and come back. The woman is running now, arms crazy above her head as the police
truck pursues her over gutters. Soon after we find the woman and a group of her friends standing by the roadside
panting and bleeding heavily. One man has a deep gash running across his left cheek. The bashed woman is halflaughing,
half-crying. They are drunk on ‘steam’, the local metho-rated liquor cooked in secret stills, flavored with
orange cordial and sold dirt cheap in the markets.
The man with the cut face is leaning through the window, spraying bloody protestations of innocence. I ask why they
didn’t just run away. All they can repeat is: “It wasn’t our fault; we didn’t do anything.”
Papua New Guineans will stand before they fall. “The trouble is,” says my friend as we drive off, “they are Goilala,
which means they probably did do something, anything from holding up a car to illegally selling betel nut by the side
of the road.”
122 The Australian, The Lawless Streets of Papua New Guinea, 1 April 2009, accessed on 22 Oct, 2009 at http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/
story/0,25197,25270884-16953,00.html.
123
Activity 2.5.1: a review of NCDC’s policy on betel nut selling (exploring ways
to enable it to be a legitimate business, while balancing health and public order
concerns) will assist in improving the situation for women involved in this industry
in PNG.