A woman who was part of a group kidnapped in Papua New Guinea in February has spoken out after the kidnapping and reported rape of 17 schoolgirls in the same area of Southern Highlands earlier this month.
A woman who was part of a group kidnapped in Papua New Guinea in February has spoken out after the kidnapping and reported rape of 17 schoolgirls in the same area of Southern Highlands earlier this month.
Cathy Alex, the New Zealand-born Australian academic Bryce Barker and two female researchers, were taken in the Bosavi region and held for ransom.
They were all released when the Papua New Guinea government paid the ransom of US$28,000 to the kidnappers to secure their release.
Alex, who heads the Advancing Women's Leaders' Network, said what the 17 abducted girls had gone through prompted her to speak out, after the country, she believed, had done nothing.
A local said family members of the girls negotiated with the captors and were eventually able to secure their release. The villagers reportedly paid an undisclosed amount of cash and a few pigs as the ransom.
Alex said she and the other women in her group had feared they would be raped when they were kidnapped...
The teenage girls from the most recent kidnapping are now safe and being cared for but they cannot return to their village because it is too dangerous.
Those poor girls. Did absolutely nothing wrong, now they're not even able to get comfort from their families and friends. Their lives destroyed for years to come. And I fear some may end up pregnant, to add to their trauma.
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