A woman from the United States was attacked and raped repeatedly as her male partner was made to watch in agony on Monday along Papua New Guinea's Kokoda track.
Police say that the attack was a pack- rape that saw the tourists tortured by at least three armed men. The assailants robbed the couple, taking valuable items such as mobile phones, shoes, backpacks, and clothing alongside cash worth K15,000 before being released.
Silvester Kalaut NCD-central assistant police commissioner has asked local villagers to assist in the capture of the culprits who are responsible for the attacks.
A suspect was captured by the villagers last night and is believed to be from Efogi in Koiari in the central provice but Police said two more men are at large armed with bush knifes and spears.
The US tourists, both 31 years were heading towards templeton two(a campsite) when they were attacked and ambushed by armed men, said Kalaut.
The suspects dragged the tourists off track and into the bushes and tied the male tracker to a tree while they raped the female tourist. She lost three fingers which were being cut off.
The attack and torture lasted for an hour before the suspects let the trackers free.
Police are seeking assistance from villagers to provide information so that the suspects can be dealt with accordingly.
Kalaut said such behaviours and acts will affect tourism in our country.
The brutal attack has forced Tourism Minister, Justin Tkatchenko to say that he is all for the death penalty.
He condemned the rape of an American tourist on the famous Kokoda Trail on Monday morning.
At a Port Moresby news conference Wednesday, the Minister expressed his disgust at the actions of a few who tarnish the country.
"It’s not a nice job to address a terrible issue as new Minister, but I condemn the actions of the three men who evidently showed no remorse and no common sense in an attack that is heinous and disgusting."
Tkatchenko, who spoke not as a Minister but as a citizen, said that he was all for the death penalty being imposed for heinous crimes committed by fellow citizens.
"Death penalty is in place, those who commit a crime like the crime done to this woman, those people deserve to die, they deserve to get the death penalty. Those who kill other people who are completely innocent, deserve to die.
"We don’t need these people in our society; we don’t need these people wasting taxpayers money being fed in our jails, get rid of them we don’t need them if they don’t want to respect our laws, and respect their own kind, why do they need to be here in PNG or anywhere, as far as I am concerned, the death penalty should be imposed.
"This innocent woman was continually raped for over two hours, that is going to scare in her mind for the rest of her life. We have the death penalty we have to use it we have to start setting examples of these people, once one or two get killed because of what they have done, that will send a very clear message out to the rest.
"You do this you face the full consequences of death, we are being too soft in our penalties we need to up the ante and show everybody who we are and that we mean business we do not tolerate this sort of actions.
"That’s my personal opinion on the death penalty. Death penalty is the way to go, we need to teach these culprits enough is enough," Tkatchenko said