HOUSE OF MOURNING: PROTEST AGAINST VIOLENCE IN PNG

YOU may have heard from other sources about the haus krai (house of mourning in Pidgin), the two-day event, organized by Women Arise Movement to hopefully catch the attention of the PNG government to urgently address the killings and rapes of women and children in certain parts of the country.

(This is a sad thing for me to talk about, but that is a reality in our beautiful country where some men act in ways that are indescribable. They use violence to hurt others.)

At 1.15pm today, when I arrived at the Sir John Guise Stadium in Port Moresby, just before coming to work, hundreds of women were there waiting for the Prime Minister Peter O’Neill to meet them.

A group was singing songs urging people to take a stand for right and stop the violence.

A speaker made a few announcements, including welcoming the Malaysian High Commissioner Datin Seri Blanche Olbery, the New Zealand High Commissioner Marion Crawshaw and others.      

As I was about to leave about twenty minutes later, the deputy opposition leader Sam Basil, Health and HIV/AIDS Minister Michael Malabag and Community Development, Youth and Religion Minister Loujaya Toni also arrived.

The opposition leader Belden Namah was with the group yesterday night.

 Photo: Part of the haus krai crowd at the Sir John Guise Stadium this afternoon.

Women in other parts of the country are staging their haus krais as well.

The National reports today: Women Arise Movement leader Esther Igo said (yesterday) her movement was approaching the haus krai in a very prayerful manner.

“We’re challenging the churches to do something now. Violence has reached unprecedented levels, so what are you (churches) preaching about?”

American missionary Rev Stephen Leach prayed for an end to all the violence in Papua New Guinea "so that its daughters may inherit a better nation".     

  Photo: A view to the other side of the stadium. The official podium is on the right.