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Police use teargas to clear PNG landowner protest

Updated 6 March 2012, 21:07 AEST

Liam Fox, Port Moresby

Police in Papua New Guinea's capital have used tear gas and fired shots in the air to clear a crowd of angry land owners.

There were rowdy scenes outside the building that houses the Prime Minister's department in Port Moresby.

Hundreds of land owners from PNG's Southern Highlands gathered there demanding the government pay them millions of dollars in outstanding grants.

Inside, the Prime Minister Peter O'Neil told the press conference he'd travel to the highlands next week to hand out cheques.

That didn't impress the land owners, they barred the gate and refused to leave.

But leave they did, when heavily armed police swarmed on the crowd firing shots in to the air and using tear gas and brute force to clear the area.

http://www.radioaustralia.net.au/pacific/2012-03-06/421066