The Papua New Guinea (PNG) University of Technology (UOT) has been locked down as students set a peaceful protest on Monday morning regarding the controversial Defence Cooperation.
The protest commenced as early as 6am this morning with the aim of convincing the Marape – Rosso government to delay the signing of Defence Cooperation deal between United States.
University of Technology Students Representative Senator (SRS) Kenzie Walipi said the aim of the protest was to get government’s attention to delay the signing of the deal between the two countries because the majority of citizens of this country were not aware of the content of the agreement and it’s main intentions, including the consequences it would have.
“The signing of the agreement between Papua New Guinea and US was not made known to the citizens of this country,”
“Prime Minister James Marape should have made it known through one of the parliament’s sitting and continuous awareness should have been done through government agencies and main stream media,” he said.
“People are confusing on what this agreement is all about and UOT students governing body in consultation with Papua New Guinea Universities Students Union, has collaborated and preplanned the peaceful protest two days earlier before actually staging it,”
He said that the protest is likely to go further if the students’ governing body doesn’t get the feedback it intended to receive through this protest.
“UoT is strongly calling on the prime minister to review his decision to refrain from signing the agreement and conduct a close consultation with other Parliamentarians and state agencies before signing the agreement,” Walipi said.
All UoT access to enter and exit the campus were strictly manned by the aggressive students. No students, staff or outsiders were allowed to go in or come out of the campus.
Place cards and banners were placed at the main entrance stating the UoT’s closure for 24 hours.
UoT administration is aware of the case and has issued directives to the SRS to ensure they observe the SRS laws to run the protest.