More than 500 emails have been sent to the Papua New Guinea Police Commissioner from the ACT NOW!  website demanding action over the case of Joy Wartovo, who has been the victim of numerous serious assaults by her policeman husband.

ACT NOW! set up the email action on its website last Friday after seeing the huge response when a group of concerned volunteers established the Papua New Guineans Against Domestic Violence group on the social networking site Facebook. The group has attracted over 5,000 followers in just a few days.

Commander of police in the National Capital District Metropolitan Superintendent Joseph Tondop has called upon suspect Simon Bernard to surrender to police, according to the Post Courier. 

Bernard is wanted by police in relation to the assault, torture, kidnapping, rape and unlawful wounding of Ms Joy Guere Wartovo on at least three different occassions.
 The kidnapping, rape and unlawful wounding were alleged to have been committed by Bernard after he was on the run from police.


Please help Joy live a normal life

I READ with disgust about the sufferings and anguish endured by Joy Wartovo at the hands of her her husband last December. Then came the satisfying story that he was terminated from employment and behind bars and I thought these sufferings had come to an end. But for poor Joy, this was far from over. It was yet another disgusting story of abduction and abuse. She has been stabbed and hospitalised.

The Hidden Valley gold and silver mine in Papua New Guinea has polluted the Watut river with acid forming rocks and soils. The increased sediment flows in the river have impacted the lives of thousands of people living downstream of the mine. Gardens have been flooded and destroyed, incomes from alluvial mining have plummeted, fish and other aquatic life, an important food source for local people, has been killed.

But there is no legal sanction for the mining company, jointly owned by Harmony Gold and Newcrest Mining.