Bush Wara in Port Moresby is being cleared by the owner, Nambawan Super Ltd. Photo: RNZI / Koro Vaka'uta
The clearing of a squatter settlement in the Papua New Guinea capital is expected to take several more days.
The site at Bush Wara in Port Moresby is being cleared by the owner, Nambawan Super Ltd - the superannuation provider - which wants to develop the site.
Bush Wara has been home to about 5000 people who had built permanent structures on the site and have been pleading they had no where else to go.
RNZ Pacific correspondent in PNG, Scott Waide, said heavy demolition equipment rolled onto the site early on Thursday morning, after Nambawan Super had given the residents 120 days to move voluntarily.
"Yesterday, the heavy equipment was deployed at about four in the morning and work started just about six o'clock, seven o'clock in the morning, houses started being removed.
"There's been heavy police presence in the area. There's been a lot of protests as well from the residents. But generally it's progressing as expected."
He said these protests are mostly peaceful, though a flag was burnt and placards were raised, calling for the assistance of the government and the United Nations.
Waide said there have also been social media references to violence, but this has yet not eventuated.
There are few options for the displaced residents, who have beeen warned to stay away from neighbouring Central Province by its Governor Rufina Peter, while Waide said an appeal to Port Moresby's National Capital District Commission came back that they could not help at this time.
He said Nambawan Super has an office within the vicinity of the Bush Wara settlement "where it's almost like a liaison office where they communicate with them on a weekly, monthly basis".
"So, it's gone out of its way to actually make people aware that a possible eviction will happen."
Waide said the land issue is a complex, long standing issue for PNG and the counntry has lacked the political will for decades to deal with the problems of settlements, and the struggles people face when they migrate to the cities seeking land on which to live.
