Public support for PNG students waning

Transcript

A Church leader and a Member of Parliament in Papua New Guinea say student protesters risk losing public support if they don't resume their studies.

Violence at the three main universities in Lae, Goroka and Port Moresby has marred the two-month class boycott by students, who are demanding the Prime Minister step down.

Ben Robinson-Drawbridge has more.

After the police shooting of student protesters in Port Moresby on June the 8th, brawls broke out between students in Goroka over suspicion some had taken bribes. Violence erupted again in Port Moresby last week, where vehicles and the university printery were attacked by arsonists, and then at the weekend at the University of Technology in Lae a student was killed and several buildings burned to the ground. The boycott started peacefully in May, when the public flocked to student awareness rallies to learn about their grievance with the Prime Minister. Now with the boycott in it's 9th week, the General secretary of Papua New Guinea's Conference of Catholic Bishops, Father Victor Roche, says the violence has caused the public to lose heart.

VICTOR ROCHE: But now I don't think the students have the support of the public, at least the majority of the public. We from the Catholic Bishops Conference, we call on the student body, they have to re-think the direction they have to take. Especially now it is their academic year at stake.

Police have imposed a curfew at the campuses in Lae and Port Moresby, where University administrators say students are divided between those who want to continue the boycott and those who wish to return to class. The Member of Parliament for Goroka, Bire (bee-ray) Kimisopa, says about 80 students from his province, who want to return to class, have been forced off their Port Moresby campus by leaders of the boycott.

BIRE KIMISOPA: The protest or its intention has been a noble one, but if it's going to be rolled on simply because some members of the SRC (Student Representative Council) felt that it's appropriate that they continue to strike, then public goodwill and empathy for the university will dissipate. They will lose support form the public and it's important that the SRC reconvene and allow students to get back into the campus now.

In Moresby, the UPNG remains in disarray after the police shootings. A student leader, Henry Norrie-Maim, says the student body has been scattered by the police occupation of their campuses, making it difficult for a consensus to be reached.

HENRY NORRIE-MAIM: We just waiting for the full student body to come back. We don't know how we are going to reach them, but maybe we're planning our next move is to put it on the media, or the newspapers, or something, or radio, or TV. but right now we cannot do that given that some of our friends are still the hospital and the tension. And given the rumours, like you said, there might be, I'm not saying there is but I believe there might be a division.

Henry Norrie-Maim says a reconciliation ceremony between students and the UPNG administration could bring the student body back together.

HENRY NORRIE-MAIM: We are waiting for the class to resume, we are waiting. Now the only people that we are waiting for is our administration to at least come and face the students physically and do the reconciliation, the peace ceremony. But right now we are still waiting.

Students in the capital have asked Father Victor Roche, to mediate the reconciliation process, but he says students must first resolve their internal differences.

VICTOR ROCHE: That's very obvious now. So there are misunderstandings and clashes among the students, especially the latest ones in Lae and in Port Moresby. So they have to sort it out first before they sort out the differences between the student body and the administration of the university.

The administration at UPNG could not be reached for comment, but Bire Kimisopa says a reconciliation ceremony between student factions, and the administration at the University of Goroka is in the pipeline.