Australian Professor Kidnapped From A Remote Papua New Guinea Village By Armed Gang Demanding a $1.4M Ransom

Australian professor
Australian professor

 

A local group from a community in Papua New Guinea’s remote Southern Highlands kidnapped an Australian archaeology professor at gunpoint.

The Queensland professor and three local university grads were kidnapped on Sunday morning, February 19, by roughly 20 armed ‘thugs’ demanding 3.5 million Kina ($1.43 million AUD) in ransom.

The kidnapping occurred two weeks after armed separatists in West Papua kidnapped a New Zealand pilot, whom Papua authorities think they have discovered and have dispatched a rescue squad to find.

 

The professor had just recently returned to the little settlement of Fogoma’iu in the Mount Bosavi region after working on a project to research ancient remnants on the Great Papuan Plateau.

The professor, who is in his fifties, and his fellow hostages are reportedly’safe at the moment’ as the PNG Government negotiates their release, with the kidnappers being treated ‘properly’ if the prisoners were freed unharmed.

But, if this is not the case, police will ’employ lethal force,’ according to PNG Police Commissioner David Manning in a statement.

Mr. Manning described the gunmen as ‘opportunists’ and the situation as ‘delicate,’ adding that ‘our specialized security force personnel will use whatever means necessary against the criminals, up to and including the use of lethal force, in order to provide for the safety and security of the people being held’.

He stated that the abductors were being provided a “way out” and would face prosecution if they released the hostages, but “failure to comply and resist arrest might cost these criminals their lives.”

 

According to volunteer community development worker Sally Lloyd, who stated he was ‘eager to have the problem settled obviously,’ the Australian scientist is reportedly attempting to bargain down the ransom amount.

Local missionaries who had communicated with the professor through satellite phone reported to the PNG government that he and the other hostages were still alive.

 

Leave a Reply