China's New Target in the Battle to Control the Pacific | 60 Minutes Australia

July 3, 2022 At its closest point the distance between Australia and the Solomon Islands is just under two thousand kilometres. Being so near is why Canberra is so worried about the deals the small Pacific nation is signing with China. It means the once inconceivable idea of a Chinese military base being built right on our doorstep has become a very real possibility. And now there’s another potential threat that must be considered - Beijing is also cosying up to Papua New Guinea, a country of immense strategic significance. As Tom Steinfort reports, at its closest point PNG is less than five kilometres from us.

Why Australia could face first military threat since World War II | 60 Minutes Australia

Woman Accused of Witchcraft Axed to Death in Papua New Guinea

Local tribes men from Enga, Papua New Guinea

THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Woman accused of being a sorceress has been hacked to death by a mob

Police in Papua New Guinea vowed to find the men who axed to death a woman accused of using witchcraft to spark a measles outbreak in the country's remote jungle highlands, a missionary said on Wednesday after meeting authorities.

The woman, Mifila, was one of four women accused with 13 of their family members of using sorcery to cause measles deaths last November in the village of Fiyawena, in Enga province, said Lutheran missionary Anton Lutz.

Women are often accused and killed in witch hunts even though laws passed in 2013 make revenge killings over black magic punishable by death. Human Rights Watch earlier this year named Papua New Guinea as one of the most dangerous places in the world to be a woman due to gender based violence. » | Agencies | Wednesday, May 27, 2015

Female Teacher Beheaded and Three Others Tortured by Papua New Guinea Villagers Who Believed Them to Be Witches
MAIL ONLINE: Helen Rumbali was dragged from her home tortured and beheaded in public / Villagers said fire flies led them to her house - a sign she was a witch / They accused her of killing another villager - who died from sickness - with her sorcery / Experts say disparity in wealth and jealousy are main reasons for increases in such attacks

A teacher has been tortured and beheaded by her neighbours in a Papua New Guinea village because they say she was a witch responsible for the death of a sick villager.

The angry mob brandishing guns, machetes and axes surrounded her house and pulled Helen Rumbali, her sister and two nieces away. They then burnt down the house.

They say a swarm of fire flies led them from the deceased person's grave to her house - sure evidence they say that she was a sorcerer and was practicing black magic.

Helen's older sister and younger nieces were slashed with knives, then released after negotiations with police. But the mob went on to torture the former teacher, in her 40s, and then publicly cut off her head.

The sickening and heinous act is one of many horrific similar stories coming out from the island, often considered a paradise in the Pacific. » | Helen Collis | Monday, June 10, 2013

Growing Numbers Convert to Islam in PNG [Papua New Guinea]
ABC News (Australia): In Papua New Guinea a growing number of people are now choosing to pray at a mosque rather than a church.

PNG is experiencing a sharp increase in the number of people turning their backs on Christianity and converting to Islam.

"A lot of Papua New Guineans are converting to Islam not because they don't like the other religion. It's just they've become, they feel comfortable in there," said Khalid, an Imam who received his training in Malaysia.

"The practice of Islam is much easier than the other religions. In the religion of Islam you are your own preacher. You learn how to pray.

"God is not only in the mosque, it's everywhere. So if I don't come into the mosque, the house of prayer, I can pray under the trees, in the house, anywhere."

Papua New Guineans began converting to Islam in the early 1980s, and there are now more than 4,000 followers with recent reports of entire villages converting at the same time.

Many are drawn to Islam because of the similarities the religion has with Melanesian customs, says Isa Teine, the general secretary for PNG's Islamic Society.

"When we greet people we hug them. This is Islam. We don't shake hands and leave them, so most of our cultures are Islamic," she said.

"Polygamy - this is Islam. Islam encourages four wives. Before Islam came in, people already had two, three, four wives. This is Islam.

"So when the religion came in and said, 'oh we have to do this, our Islamic culture, we have to do this and that', people fit in easily. So it's very easy for Papua New Guineans to embrace Islam.

"Once the religion itself spread I tell you, I'm just predicting in 20, 30 years' time, all Papua New Guinea will submit to Islam." >>> | November 17, 2008

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