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Prime Minister of Papua New Guinea: Stop the speaker of the Parliament from destroying PNG's national cultural heritage.

Prime Minister of Papua New Guinea: Stop the speaker of the Parliament from destroying PNG's national cultural heritage.

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This petition has been created by David S. and may not represent the views of the Avaaz community.
David S.
started this petition to
The Prime Minister of Papua New Guiinea

Please sign now – the threat to PNG’s cultural heritage is even more serious than we thought!

As more information becomes available about this shocking vandalism and deliberate destruction of unique and important New Guinea cultural heritage art, we now know that an extremist group of Christian fundamentalists based in Israel are behind these attacks on public traditional art. These extremists have a few PNG parliamentarians in their pocket and are spearheading a move to destroy all traditional heritage carvings in PNG. A PNG spokesperson for these extremist has warned that their "prayer warriors" will descend on Port Moresby in March 2014 to complete the "cleansing" exercise which the speaker started when he destroyed the carved lintel over the doors of parliament house.

The Prime Minister of PNG is opposed to the vandalism and any further destruction of heritage objects – but will this be enough to protect them in the future? Stronger intervention is essential to protect PNG’s cultural heritage from wilful destruction by religious extremists.

We the signatories of this petition call upon the Prime Minister of PNG, the Hon Peter O'Niell to act immediately to:

1. Prevent the further destruction of national art treasures in Parliament or any other public space by the Speaker and his followers.

2. Request the Attorney General to investigate the legality of Mr Zurenuoc's actions, which appear to be in contravention of the PNG Cultural Property Preservation Act, and lay criminal charges against Mr Zurenuoc if applicable.

3. Consider the introduction of a specific Act of Parliament to protect PNG's national cultural heritage by making this type of vandalism motivated by religious intolerance a specific criminal offence.

Here is the back story:

The speaker of the PNG Parliament, an extreme Christian Fundamentalist, has started a "crusade" against "heathen" art which is part of the interior of the House of Parliament in Port Moresby.

Already an irreplaceable wooden carved lintel has been removed, chopped up and burned. The Speaker, Theo Zerunuoc, is determined to continue this crusade until all traces of traditional carving and culture are removed form parliament,destroyed and burned. Yet this "heathen" art is part fo PNG's national cultural heritage and is respected throughout the world for its artistic quality.

Mr Zurenuoc has no authority to seize and destroy these artworks, which are part of the structure of the Parliament building and the cultural heritage of every PNG citizen, the majority of whom would not share the Speaker's views. (To see how extreme the views of this fanatic are, see the full report in the PNG Post Courier News below).

HERE IS THE ORIGINAL NEWSPAPER REPORT
(From PNG Post Courier News 6 Dec 2013). SPEAKER CLEANS HOUSE --- )

Speaker Theo Zurenuoc has begun a cleansing exercise to remove all "ungodly images and idols" from the Papua New Guinea National Parliament.
First to go were traditionally carved lintels above the public entrance into the parliament’s public gallery which were taken down and chopped into pieces, an action which the National Museum and Art Gallery director Dr Andrew Moutu yesterday said amounted to "sacrilege" and could be illegal under PNG laws.
But the Speaker is determined to push ahead with his crusade, telling guests at a recent dinner hosted by the Tertiary Student Christian Fellowship Graduates Network Inc in Port Moresby that Parliament can only contribute to nation building if it was transformed.
While PNG professes to be a Christian nation, he said its people continued to embrace its traditional beliefs and cultures and cite it as “the source of their origin and strength”.
“The question is who really are we? Our identity is brought into question and that is the first hurdle we must overcome,” Zurenuoc said.
“We must invoke God to intervene in our nation building project. Parliament through its House Committee has decided we must make a statement to denounce the contradictory confession, because as believers or Christians we know that only God is our Lord. He only is our source of strength and our combined heritage.”

Posted (Updated )