Cult members eat dead victim

PORT MORESBY - A woman was killed and parts of her body eaten by members of a Papua New Guinean cult, local media reports.

Police in Kerema, Gulf Province on PNG's southwestern coast, arrested four people believed to be members of a group of two women and four men who ate the dead woman.

Gulf provincial police commander Inspector Reuben Giusu told PNG's Post Courier that the four arrested had admitted they killed the woman. The group has been on the run for several weeks and relatives of the dead woman are now seeking compensation.

Giusu said the main suspect was a woman who hired the others by buying them five packets of rice, two packets of noodles, one tin of fish and five bunches of bananas.

Efforts to contact Kerema police and government administrators have been unsuccessful.

Meanwhile, squads of heavily armed police have been called in to protect Chinese-run businesses in PNG.

Looting and anti-Chinese violence started in Port Moresby last Wednesday and continued over the weekend in PNG's Highlands region and Madang Province, on the north west coast.

Two shops in Madang were damaged and robbed by a group of young men while in PNG's Eastern Highlands Province (EHP) trouble broke out in Goroka and Kinantu.

PNG's National newspaper estimated the weekend damage to EHP business at close to 250,000 kina ($157,360).

The trouble began after a protest in Port Moresby sparked violence that spread to PNG's second largest city Lae, on PNG's northwest coast, the following day.

Last week PNG workers were involved in violent clashes with management at the Chinese-run Ramu nickel mine in Madang Province after a tractor injured a worker.

On Friday police in Port Moresby had to use tear gas to quell a riot near a popular market.

Allegations of a rise in Chinese organised crime and corruption involving PNG officials has also added to community anger.

Many in PNG feel squeezed out of small scale businesses and complain about working for Chinese bosses who impose tough conditions. Police have played down the groundswell of resentment as "copycat attacks" by "opportunists".

But Port Moresby's Governor Powes Parkop blamed police for the outbreak of violence.

"They [police] probably tolerated a march that should not have taken place," he said.

Zhou Hanbo of the Chinese Embassy in Port Moresby told the Post Courier Beijing was "gravely concerned".

"It is our sincere hope that the PNG Government will take effective measures to prevent such incidents from recurring, so as to ensure a peaceful environment for all people in PNG to live harmoniously and work safely," he said.

- AAP