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Police officer/security guard on the Kainuntu mine site. Credit: Damian Baker

By the NewsHooker:

Well I’m on the road again to an area called Kainantu.

The road is good, the sun is out, reggae music is being played on the bus stereo and the countryside passing my window is breathtaking.

A beautiful local girl shifts the weight of her small brother on her lap and smiles at me.

She comes from an area famous for it’s cannibalism-related diseases and more recently, tribal and gang warfare. Last month when gang members interrupted the village fair it resulted in eight deaths and culminated in the local villagers decapitating a gang member and displaying his head on a post.

PNG is like that – a country of contrasts; beautiful yet barbaric, untouched natural environments next to environmental disaster.

There is unimaginable wealth over the fence from grinding poverty; wild untamed wilderness sits beside desecrated environments pillaged by both major multinational companies and locals alike. There is also pain and unimaginable grief residing side by side with joy and laughter in every village.

I entered the valleys of Kainantu anticipating to experience most of the above, what I hadn’t expected was a game of tag involving helicopters, automatic weapons and Special Operations Police. Eventually I was apprehended and held in custody while argument switched to and fro from English and pidgin as we tried to decide who were the police, who were the security guards and whether or not we were being arrested, held, asked to stay or just too bloody lazy to leave the officers’ fine company?

We walked the long hill to the helicopter pad in expectation of spectacular photo opportunities only to be disappointed (it was no more than our overweight officer) and had to walk out to meet a waiting 4X4. Happy jumpy PNG pop music accompanied much betel nut chewing and laughter as we bounced out of the jungle to Kainantu.

However things turned serious when my camera gear was impounded and my passport confiscated by a testy Station Commander. The next morning his testiness was explained as he earnestly explained to me he had a boil on both his buttocks.

Luckily my gear was returned later in the day and your thankful Hooker looked over his shoulder and left Kainantu in a hurry, all the time wondering which puppet masters at what level had pulled what strings to enable my release.