Where guns and rape rule

A major block to PNG's development is its violence: armed hold-ups and daylight rapes are common. The Herald travelled in a bus fitted with bullet-proof glass and grilles. That level of security, says our man in PNG, Laurie Markes, is standard - if you are among the minority with the money.

Our van's driver and his sidekick had a gun sitting on the console between them, and bowling along behind us was a police jeep with four armed officers inside.

Markes has been carjacked at gunpoint - or rather, his driver had a gun pointed at his head, the pair thrown out and their vehicle stolen. Like all our PNG aid and diplomatic staff, Markes carries a radio-telephone and he summoned help before the pair were victimised a second time.

M-16s stolen from the Army are often used in hold-ups, as are AK-47s and World War II-era rifles. Two of PNG's biggest businesses appear to be barbed wire sales and security companies; a security guard can earn a good income - 120 kina ($63) a fortnight.

Police are overwhelmed by violent crime - and all too often are criminals themselves, with pack rapes and sexual assault commonly carried out by police, according to PNG's National Aids Council.

The mere possession of condoms often leads to police harassment, although the country's HIV Management and Prevention Act criminalises anyone who denies people access to safe sex-related items or harasses them for it.

In an infamous 2004 incident at Port Moresby's Three Mile Guesthouse, police ordered 20 girls and women to chew the condoms outreach workers had given them.