by Edwin Fidelis – EM TV News, Kokopo
East New Britain province is synonymous with sexual related crimes, and more particularly, incest, with police revealing that incest cases continue to happen almost on a daily basis.
In an interview with EMTV, Sergeant Bimaru revealed why he believes that East New Britain has a higher number of reported incest cases than any other provinces.
“I’m sure incest cases are happening elsewhere in the country. But in East New Britain, we have a good communication network where people report these cases,” said Sergeant Bimaru.
This revelation only gives a snapshot of the cases that have been brought before the police.
The police are of the belief that there are many victims who haven’t spoken out yet because of oppressive threats raised by their perpetrators.
For others, handing over one of their own family members to the police may not be an easy decision to make.
Over the past 20 years the police and other community-based organisations have been fighting sex crimes, including incest all over the country through conducting community awareness or arresting and prosecuting the perpetrators.
While Papua New Guinea laws have deemed incest as a serious crime and culturally shameful, the laws seem to have no effect at all on possible perpetrators.
“Incest is happening everywhere in the country. But I don’t know why people are not reporting it to the police,” Sergeant Bimaru said.
Many believe the ongoing sex crimes; rape and sexual penetration of minors, represents a deeply rooted problem within most of PNG society.
It’s a problem that many people haven’t quite understood yet, along with where it starts, and why it happens.
