25 Jan 2010

PNG police yet to link shooting of Chinese shopowner to anti-Asian sentiment

7:52 pm on 25 January 2010

The police in Papua New Guinea say they do not know if the fatal shooting of a Chinese shop owner is connected to an earlier attack on a businessman of Asian descent.

The police say Liu Zhang Chun was shot on Sunday when three suspects tried to hold him up after he drove home from his store in Port Moresby.

The murder follows the shooting of businessman Jason Tan earlier this month.

The police said that crime and the shooting of the Chief Ombudsman Chronox Manek last month suggested people were now being paid to carry out assasinations.

But Port Moresby Superintendent of Operations Andy Bawa says its not been established if Mr Liu's shooting is related, or if anti-Asian sentiment could have sparked the attacks.

"There was talk about the 31st where there was going to be a looting of stores and so forth, with all Asian-owned businesses. But that has all gone passed now, not to say that we have watered it down. But we do keep our fingers crossed for any possible uprise."

Chief Inspector Andy Bawa