Landowners want activists expelled

Source: The National-Tuesday, 01st November 2011 THE Immigration and Citizenship Service has been urged to deport Greenpeace activists from PNG if they broke the country’s laws and regulations. In a signed petition, hundreds of people in Pomio want the department and the National Maritime Safety Authority to investigate whether the activists had clearance to land at Pomio last week. They believe that the Greenpeace vessel, mv Esperanza, entered the area illegally and had failed to follow proper protocol. The petitioners believe that the Greenpeace activists’ objective is to disrupt economic activity and to impede PNG’s development. They see Greenpeace as a foreign organisation which is not genuinely interested in the welfare of the landowners. They believe that Greenpeace is deliberately trying to stop commercial activity in the area and deprive landowners of employment and incomes for themselves and their families. They accused Greenpeace of deliberately inflaming inter-clan tensions for their own purposes. They believe Greenpeace has a history of encouraging potentially-violent confrontation in order to create “footage” that it can send to the global media.