3 Dead in Papua New Guinea Protests
Tuesday June 26, 2001 10:40 am


PORT MORESBY, Papua New Guinea (AP) - Riot police opened fire with automatic weapons on a crowd of students protesting economic reform, killing three people and wounding 13 others Tuesday.

Police refused to say how many people died, but Dr. Bob Danaya at Port Moresby General Hospital confirmed the three deaths and other casualties.

Students had been blockading traffic and government buildings for five days, keeping many people from getting to jobs in the capital. It was not immediately why police began firing tear gas and automatic weapons Tuesday.

Protesters later burned several government vehicles, torched a store and looted other shops in violent clashes that followed.

Police Commissioner Sam Inguba appealed on radio for calm. ``There is no assurance of security at the moment,'' he told FM-100 radio.

Prime Minister Sir Mekere Morauta's government is unpopular because of austerity policies aimed at reforming the economy, crippled by years of mismanagement and corruption.

Plans to sell off state-owned companies have angered many people, who say they will give foreign companies control of the Pacific nation's economy.

The World Bank, the World Trade Organization and other foreign donors have frozen loans because of delays in privatizing state companies.

The students, who have broad public support, claim privatization will place large parts of the economy under foreign control. They are demanding that the World Bank and other aid bodies pull out of the country.

Trade union groups said they were considering calling strikes to halt transport services and power supplies if the government did not drop its economic reform drive.

Morauta appeared under heavy police guard late Monday to accept a student petition against the World Bank and other international bodies advising the government on reforms.

Opposition leader Bill Skate called Tuesday for Morauta to step down. Skate resigned as prime minister in 1999 amid allegations of corruption and links to street gangs.