Afro FM 105.3: Papua New Guinea PM says mutiny 'over'

Papua New Guinea PM says mutiny 'over'
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Henok  on 27/01/2012 08:13:00
 
A faction backing the former prime minister, Michael Somare, had raided army
headquarters earlier on Thursday, putting the army chief, Brigadier-General
Francis Agwi, under house arrest and installing a new military leader. Somare
and the present incumbent, Peter O'Neill, are locked in a power struggle, with
both of them laying claims to the top job in the South Pacific island nation. Al
Jazeera's Andrew Thomas, following the events from neighbouring Australia, said
O'Neill had announced that the mutiny was over and that the mutiny leader,
Colonel Yaurra Sasa, "had been dealt with". "But he wouldn't confirm whether
he'd been arrested, nor was he able to confirm the location of Sasa or the
released brigadier", our correspondent said. The government had earlier said the
mutiny amounted to treason, and that the death penalty would follow if the
soldiers did not give themselves up," The Australian foreign minister said in a
statement that Agwi had been released. Somare acknowledged that he had ordered
Agwi's arrest, and that his ousted cabinet had appointed Sasa, the mutiny
leader, to "take control of the army". After seizing the army headquarters, Sasa
said he was not mounting a coup, but demanded Somare be reinstated as prime
minister as ordered by the national supreme court last month. Papua New Guinea,
with a population of six million, has a history of political and military
unrest. An army mutiny in 1997 overthrew the government after it employed
mercenaries to try and end a long-running secessionist rebellion on the island
of Bougainville. (Aljazeera)