01.000.00.00

V/O

Worth plays with rascals guns

I was born in Papua New Guinea.  It has always been a wild place to me, touched with an edge of violence.  That was part of its charm.  But over the past few years, the country has become crippled with waves of violence.  Common crime is tearing PNG apart, helping to turn it into the backwater of a booming region.

Face through barbed wire

FX: DOG BARKS

For many people the face of crime is the face on the other side of the barbed wire.   For the past few months I've lived with and filmed the people on the other side of the fence.

00.52

Music up hard.

Gun images, masked faces running, corrugated shields clashing in tribal war and interview extracts from Rascals.

"I've got a gun, I shoot everybody.  I get the money, I get the property."

01.12

Moresby and security shots

The nation's capital, Port Moresby, has developed a reputation as a "No Go Zone" amongst both tourists and business people.  The ever present threat of violence which hangs over the city has become more stifling than the tropical heat.

Barbed wire has become the symbol of the city - thin protection against the criminals, the Rascals, which besiege it.

01.33

Split map between Moresby and Highland's comments

But in Papua New Guinea crime is not just limited to the disenfranchised, urban poor.  To really understand crime, PNG style, you need to travel to the highlands where the village structure is still largely intact.  There the cultural roots of the nation's crime patterns can be more clearly seen.

01.54

Car down Highway, turning into guarded drive

In the highlands the Rascal gangs rule the highways and for locals wealthy enough to own a car, there are only three rules to be obeyed - drive fast, NEVER stop, and get someone else to open your gates.

FX: BIP BIP

Car up driveway, towards second gate

OVERLAY DICK HAGON INTERVIEW

"How would I count it... there have been numerous rapes, pack rapes, there have been a number of murders, there have been vehicles held up and burnt.   There have been scores of houses burnt, other people shot by police... I mean almost anything you can think of has been going on and we would only hear a fraction of what's really happening as well."

02.37

Dick Hagon runs a large coffee plantation and has lived in the highlands for 40 years.  The breakdown in law and order is now factored into the running of both his business and his life.

02.48

DICK HAGON

"There's three fences between me and the tribal lands.  I've got security guards, dogs.  Everyone needs a fence around here.   I guess you just adapt to it."

Security guard interview driving through Mt Hagen

"You could call this a mean street but there are lots of security firms here."

"You can see how people live here.... security guards, barbed wire fences, dogs.  You don't drive around here at night."

03.42

Hagen homes.  Securimax sign

Personal protection has become the only tangible response to crime.

The upholding of law and order has effectively become a privatised industry.

The more you pay, the safer you are... but there are no guarantees.

03.55

Michael Pierce's house.

Late last year Michael Pierce, an Australian Telecom technician, was killed in the driveway of his Mt Hagen home.  His life taken for a car.  His death seemed to be the beginning of a recent spate of similarly brutal, pointless and widely publicised murders.

04.13

Former Rascal DONNY

"I got no money, no way of getting money.  The only thing I did was block the roads.  If a car passed by I normally stopped them.  If they didn't want to stop I just shot them to kill.  I don't care whether they die or not.  I just shoot straight at them.  If I miss they live, if the bullet goes through the skin they die."

04.41

Donny with child at roadside junction (The Junction)

Donny lives on the other side of Dick Hagon's plantation gates.  For nine years he led a local Rascal gang.  As he approached 30, with two wives and two children, hold ups and robberies seemed an increasingly risky business.

DONNY continues

"I rape women, I steal many thousands of dollars but now I quit my criminal activity and everything."

He is now planning on a career in politics.  It is a sign of the tacit acceptance of Rascals in the village structure that he may well achieve his ambition.

05.21

Mark approaches Rascal gang.  Introductions.

In the rural areas Rascals aren't outsiders.  They are part of the village, part of the clan.  Their behaviour may not be approved of but they bring welcome booty, cash and strong protection against the clan's enemies.

05.33

JOHN WAYNE

SUPER: JOHN WAYNE

Q: Have you killed or shot at any police?

A: The police shot at me and I shot at them.  They got me in the trouser leg.  They shoot me, I shoot them.

05.46

JOHNNY WALKER

SUPER: MR. WALKER

"Chuck Norris, Rambo, Jackie Chan, those kind of guys, I see their style and action and I want to become like them."

06.01

JOHN WAYNE

"I'm just a Rascal bastard. I can't be bothered working for a fortnight's pay.  I want the cash in my hand quickly.  Working's the hard way."

Black magic sequence

HOLD UP MAN

SUPER: HOLDUP MAN

"The black magic comes from my grandfather.  Whenever I plan a bank robbery, that smoke makes me invisible, the police can't see me, nobody can."

Fade to black

07.43

Junction and road shots.  Darts, cards, market, cars

The Highway is central to the lifestyle of the highlanders.  It is also the lifeblood of the criminal economy.

07.56

Truck through grill

TRUCK DRIVER OVERLAY

"We put on the wire guard to protect us from the Rascals jumping onto the trucks, opening doors and coming into the cabin."

TRUCK DRIVER

"If you go full speed the Rascals can't get up onto the truck.  When you slow down going up a hill, they can get onto the truck and get into the container."

08.22

Abandoned container by the side of the road

There's a lot of wealth moving along the highway everyday.  People, produce and cash on the way to town, the market or the bank.  If you're a criminal you don't have to travel far in search of a target.  Sooner or later one will pass by your front door.  All you need is a bit of patience and a lot of nerve.  And if the nerve doesn't come easily, you can drink or smoke yourself into a suitable state of mind.

Smoking dope before hold up.  Instructions being issued by Rascal leader

"When we do the job and if the police come you can't run away.  If they try to shoot you or me don't run away. Don't be afraid or hesitate.  Use one mind to do this road block."

09.23

Travel to road and hold up bus

Some events made me question the impact of my presence.  But unless I had some warning that something extreme was about to happen I tried to merely observe.

10.54

Rascals sing Rascal song

SUB: If we shoot you and you bleed... keep it quiet or we'll shoot you again..

Violence and bravado has always been part of PNG culture.  But the advent of guns has made it a far more deadly affair.

11.16

Gun making

A gun is prized possession and a valuable commodity on the black market.

This man is a professional gun smith. His shotguns, made of water pipes, umbrella springs and nails for firing pins, are the most common style of fire arms in the Highlands.

If you want something more sophisticated, you'll need to be growing something far more profitable than coffee and bananas.

11.46

Marijuana plants. Interview with grower.

Q: How much for a kilo of coffee?

A:  2 kina a kilo.

Q: How much for the marijuana?

A: This one is much more!

Oh... about 10 or 20 kina a kilo.

12.15

"If my wife or my pig destroys someone's garden, there will be a fight.    We don't go to court - we just fight.  If we have a quarrel and you punch me then tomorrow there will be a fight.  We don't know what court is.  We only solve problems by fighting."

12.48

Men taking pig

In the traditional system which is still commonplace if a dispute can't be settled with compensation fighting readily errupts.

Traditional fighting

Traditional warfare, although at times devastating, has a strongly symbolic flavour.   It is infused within distinct limits and cut off points.  But as the population becomes more mobile the line between traditional and criminal is becoming increasingly blurred. 

For many men it has become a small line to cross.

13.37

For ordinary people the cost for lives and property is enormous.  Crops are destroyed houses burnt and lives taken with such regularity that a deep sense of futility has developed at both a national and village level.

13.59

People on streets

Right now PNG is effectively broke.   Investors are shaken and its tourism potential is in tatters. 

The Government hopes that overseas borrowings and foreign aid, mainly from Australia, will underpin its development ambitions.

17.18

Man behind fence

But with crime levels almost out of control the notion of effective development seems a distant hope.

Coffins leaning against wall

I fear that the short term prospects for PNG may be neither stone age or jet age. A dark age may lie ahead.