Radio New Zealand - Te Reo Irirangi o Aotearoa

BSP Kainantu branch remains closed for fear of more PNG robberies

Posted at 03:44 on 05 August, 2008 UTC

A Bank South Pacific official say the branch in Kainantu in Papua New Guinea’s Eastern Highlands Province will stay shut until police have resolved criminal threats against it.

The branch shut last Friday amid fears that it was about to be robbed.

The closure follows robberies at BSP branches in Madang and Kerema in which 1.2 million US dollars was taken.

In both cases bank staff had been kidnapped, and their families threatened, before they were forced to open the branches to the robbers.

An official at BSP’s head office in Port Moresby says they want to ensure there is no repeat of the violence that had been directed at staff in the earlier heists.