Some soldiers have been locked up by the Defence Force after a school student was beaten into a coma at a weekend cultural event, Parliament was told today.
If found guilty, they will be drummed out of the Defence Force, Defence Minister Fabian Pok told members after being questioned by Chuave MP Wera Mori.
Jeremiah Yuni, a student who is a student and comes from Madang Province, was at a cultural festival at Coronation Primary School in Port Moresby when attacked by allegedly drunken soldiers.
Loop PNG reported yesterday that Jeremiah is in intensive care at the Port Moresby General Hospital, in a coma.
His father, Thomas, debunked rumours online that Jeremiah had died.
Today, MP Mori raised questions without notice, urging that the Defence Force structure be reviewed by an independent body to get at the lack of discipline and other issues. Alternatively, the Defence Force should be merged with the Police Force into a paramilitary force under the Police Commissioner’s control or even hand the force back to the Australian Government to rescue the standards of PNG troops.
Minister Pok dismissed the idea of the PNG Defence Force being “handed back’’ to the Australians, noting that PNG is an independent country.
Mr Pok said a lot of government money was being spent on the Defence Force in efforts to try to improve housing and other matters, but incidents like the one at the weekend kept happening.
He said the force’s commander had dealt with the people responsible for the attack, and they were in a military holding house.
“We will take action, to the extent of ensuring they are no longer members of the Defence Force,’’ he said.
Lastly,” on behalf of the Defence Force and the many good officers, I wish to pass my apologies to the family and we are praying this young man recovers and gets back to being a student’’.
