BRISBANE – An Australian police officer – who has detailed violence and other abuses within the Royal Papua New Guinea Constabulary – has dismissed criticism from that country’s police chief and is standing firm on his allegations. The Australian Federal Police (AFP) whistleblower told the ABC during his time working in Papua New Guinea he witnessed killings and other crimes committed by the local police – and he said the Australian government is “turning a blind eye” to the situation. Federal officer Brad Turner is currently on leave from the AFP in Brisbane with post traumatic stress disorder, after serving in PNG from late 2013 for a year. It hasn’t stopped him from speaking out about what he claims he saw corrupt PNG police doing, backed with Australian taxpayer funds. He said he saw local police commit horrific crimes but his reports were essentially ignored by his superiors. Turner – who had been stationed in the provincial city of Lae – alleged the PNG police force committed murder, rape and a host of other crimes. He told the ABC his reports of the crimes were ignored by the Australian government for fear of jeopardising the Manus Island asylum seeker deal. PNG police commander Gary Baki said Turner’s claims are “a pack of lies” while the AFP management said it has no concerns. But Turner said he has the photographic evidence to support what he is saying.

He said Police Commander Baki is a good police officer but he is undertaking a “face saving exercise”.

“There are some great officers up there, trying very, very hard to do a difficult job in a difficult environment but they are being horribly let down by small groups within the Royal Papua New Guinea Constabulary who are essentially criminal gangs,” Turner said.

Turner said he witnessed extra-judicial killings and the illegal destruction of a squatter settlement, among other crimes.

He told Radio New Zealand’s Dateline Pacific that he observed the destruction of a squatter settlement called Butibum in Lae in Morobe Province.

“There are some illegal settlements in PNG – a lot of Highlanders come down looking for work and , you know, there’s no social security, so they set up shanty-type towns.

“But this wasn’t one of those, this was actually quite a well established community. They purchased the land off the government some 30 years earlier.

“Unfortunately the corrupt government and power of the time had deemed those deeds of sale illegal and had decried that their settlement was illegal and they were going to evict these people.

“It was a good community, there weren’t any real problems. They were good citizens, most of them held jobs and then literally the next day when I came down to see it, I was standing on the bridge and I could see bulldozers pushing houses in the piles and directly into the river, and people scurrying trying to save what building materials and belongings they could.

PACIFIC BEAT: Who was doing that?

“The Morobe provincial government, their department of works were doing that, the actual destruction. And they were using heavy machinery that was being donated through aid packages over the years.

“They had a very, very large collection of heavy machinery that was donated through aid goods. Particularly in Morobe, the road network was horrendous.

Turner claims some of the villagers in Butibum were killed because they wouldn’t get out of the way. He said he was told about this and didn’t see it for himself.

“I have given them (the Australian Federal Police) all the evidence I took because at the time we had no IT infrastructure. When I realised that the reporting was being sanitised, I then took an evidential copy of it because I feared that the reality of what was occurring up there was going to be sanitised.

“It was more about reputation management and keeping PNG government happy by not painting them in a bad light than actually addressing the major issues that they had, to protect our interests up there, namely Manus Island.

PACIFIC BEAT: The Australian government wouldn’t want to upset PNG because it wants to maintain the Manus Island detention centre?

“Yeah, that was paramountly obvious to us.”

PACIFIC BEAT: The AFP, your employer, has said it has reviewed reports from you and hasn’t found any matters requiring further action.

“That’s just them covering their backside essentially. Every time I raised it at each level I was just shut down so I continued to raise it.

“At the end of the day I became a police officer because I wanted to make a difference and do the right thing. And to see our government acting in such an overtly political matter and the police doing the same that was just against my core values as a person and as a police officer.”

The PNG police chief Gary Baki has been strongly critical, calling Turner’s claims a pack of lies.

“This is gutter journalism. It is utterly irresponsible for the Australian media organisation to publish such a report without even verifying these allegations, either from myself or the Momase Divisional Police Command, the Morobe Provincial Police Command or the Lae Metropolitan Command.

“I have read these claims as reported by the Australian media very closely and I am deeply concerned by them. They are totally false. I am aware the Australian Federal Police Mission Commander in Papua New Guinea is also deeply concerned by these false claims.

“No such event occurred at Butibum village in the Morobe Province. There is no record of it ever happening and no-one has come forward with any complaint about this allegation.

“I am also aware that the Morobe Province has not received bulldozers from the Australian aid program so that aspect of the claims are also totally false.”

Transparency PNG said PNG police ofgten “moonlight” and it is on such occasions that, in the past, they have been involved in extreme violence, including extra-judicial killings.

Transparency spokesman Lawrence Stephens said while he doesn’t know about this specific case “it is believable that police officers could be engaged by companies with an interest in getting what we call squatters off valuable land, and that happens in many places.” - PNC